Ciao from Italia!!! Today (yesterday?) our class convened at the airport  in Boston and embarked on the 10+ hour journey to Rome. We were all smiles at the airport as we visited with friends and caught up on our winter breaks. Our first flight went well, and we refreshed ourselves with free cappuccinos at the airport in Frankfurt during our layover. I tried a drink called Weiner Melange. Anything for a pun.

After our much shorter flight from Frankfurt to Rome, we were greeted by Professoressa Laviosa at the airport and headed to our hotel.

Hotel Dorica is a very nice place to be living for the next couple of weeks, as long as you like your roommate (Shoutout to my roommate Marianna for already almost sleeping through Orientation with me). But really, it is essential that you are friends because otherwise this could get awkward.

The view from our room is beautiful and a very kind man named Marco has been politely listening to my broken Italian all day and answering my questions. 

He has been much more willing to comply with my attempts at language immersion than the waiter at the restaurant where we ate lunch. I ordered a sandwich in Italian to which he responded, "Toasted?". Subway autentica! 

After lunch and a much needed nap, Professoressa held our Orientation and passed out  dolci (see left). Hearing about all the places we will be able to go and the things we will see is so exciting!