another day...

Today we went on tours of the main area of the city and learned some practical information about ordering food, what stores sell what, and getting around on public transportation. It was really helpful, but I'm a little wiped out from the walking. The buses and subways help but no matter how you slice it, i'll be doing a lot of walking! We walked all around the major areas. That piazza I went to on Tuesday turns out to be "the" piazza in Rome- the Piazza del Popolo and it's near my school. We walked through there down the Via del Curso which is pretty famous and took a bus down to the Colosseum and Roman Forum. After that, we went to the Campo de Fiori and ate pizza for lunch. They have restaurants here that sell only baked food by the pound, quite a concept. It is an experience getting pizza, because they just have random chunks, there aren't set slices, and people don't really form lines, you just push right through and try to point out what you want. We ate in the Piazza Navono, which used to be an ancient horse-racing track built in the year 17 AD. Then we figured out a way to get back by bus and subway, which was good. It makes me feel better to know some basic info about getting around and I'm glad I got the monthly bus pass.

I still haven't had a chance to do any good shopping, so I went out to eat tonight. We ate at a Trattoria near the Spanish Steps. I had lasagna and it was quite tasty, not too expensive either.