Rome: Day Three - and the Journey to London

The itinerary for day three in our adventure in Rome was completely up to us.  Students were given the whole day to do whatever they pleased - which may seem scaring but really gave us the opportunity to have some amazing experiences.

Although we could all do whatever we wanted, every student chose to use this day as a time to visit the Vatican City.

To get to the Vatican, students hopped aboard the Metro (the underground subway) and traveled to the middle of Rome.  The Metro was quite the experience - and it was extremely packed.

Upon arriving at the Vatican, students broke off into smaller groups.  All of the groups eventually had to go through security (including metal detectors) to enter into the Vatican.  During this security check, one of the groups got a brief glimpse of the Pope driving through the city.

In the city, students were able to tour the St. Peter's square, the museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica.  A couple of students (including myself), along with Dr. Davis, even had the rare opportunity to tour underneath St. Peter's Basilica, where Constantine's original Basilica was built.  We even went lower, to the ancient necropolis, which was a catacomb of ancient tombs.

To discuss this experience, I'm going to let another student, Joey Fazio, continue the blog.

The Scavi Tour

Going underneath St. Peter's was one of the coolest and most humbling experiences ever.  This was part of the Scavi Tour, which we signed up for in early January due its extremely high demand.  On the day of our visit, we followed our Italian tour guide into the depths of the necropolis as we viewed many tombs, ruins, and Christian art pieces.  On our way down, though, it was interesting to take note that we passed through a series of thick glass doors.  These doors operated in an efficient manner, opening and closing immediately before and after the first and last persons.  This was a modernized attempt at preservation for a historic site.  Shutting the doors quickly and having checkpoints of doors between burial sections kept the humidity at 99%.  While the site was kept in pristine condition, we were not, as most of us were sweating and taking deep gulps of air as we were amazed by the history revealed to us.

For me, the highlight of the tour was near the end.  This was when we saw the bones of St. Peter.  This was the humbling part because we realized that we were in the presence of the actual remains from someone who spent his every waking moment with Jesus Christ.  We were invited to stay and pray or be silent for a couple minutes by his bones.  This was definitely a tour that I will never forget and an experience that I recommend to anyone that plans to visit the Vatican.  This is a layer beneath a layer beneath another layer that many people never even get the chance to see.  We are very fortunate to have witnessed these rare sites and to have caught a glimpse of the Pope!  What an incredible Vatican experience we had!

                                                                                                                         - Joey Fazio

Some more locations were visited (or revisited), and our final dinners were eaten (some us returned to our favorite restaurants from earlier.  I had the exact same meal at the exact same place from the night before).

The next morning, we all woke up bright and early to check out of the hotel and head to the airport.  This time, we traveled for about two and half hours aboard EasyJet to arrive in London.  We landed about one hour and 30 minutes outside of London, which required us to bus our way through small towns to get to our hotel in central London.  We arrived at our first hotel (which we only stay in for one night), and spent the rest of the day relaxing and catching up on sleep.  Some students also took advantage of the laundry facilities in the hotel during the free time.

London looks like it will be just as promising as Rome!  I'll keep you up to speed with all the adventures happening in our second city.

Rome: Day Two

Again, as I'm sure you've been made aware of by now, we've been experiencing major internet problems throughout our trip.  Things should hopefully be back to normal now.  We are currently in London; however, I will still be posting on our trip to Rome for the next few posts.

After getting much needed sleep, we all awoke to a terrific breakfast prepared for us by the hotel.  The weather in Rome was absolutely perfect for what we had in store for the day.

The second day of our trip consisted of two different parts: company visits and touring the city.  The day began with our first two company visits.

U.S. Embassy

Our first stop (via bus) would be to the U.S. Embassy.  After waiting an extremely long time to get through security, we entered the palace (shown above) in which the Embassy is located.  For the visit, we met with representatives from the U.S. State and Commerce Departments and discussed a wide range of topics, including global partnerships, climate change and the work being done to combat it, the relationship between the private and public sector, and the global initiatives currently being worked on by America and Italy.

Enlabs

After our time at the Embassy, we returned to the bus and made our way over to Enlabs.  Enlabs is a business incubator (a company that serves as a tool for start-up businesses) that focuses on helping innovative ideas become realities in Italy.  At Enlabs, we met with the founder of the company, who discussed the importance of entrepreneurship in a society, small business in Italy, and how Enlabs works with a client to help create a business.  In short, Enlabs gives its clients the money, legal aid, and office space they need to see their dreams become real.

We also had the opportunity to meet the clients in which Enlabs was assisting (their office spaces were conveniently located within Enlabs' office), most of whom were our age.  They shared their ideas with us, ranging from bathroom advertising to mobile app generation.

After the "official" company visit was over, we made our way out to the outdoor patio of Enlabs, where we had lunch with the clients and founder of the company.  This gave us an excellent opportunity to get to know these people on a more in-depth level (we learned that one of the Enlab clients lived in Muncie when he was younger - small world).

After the company visits, we were given the remainder of the day to tour the city.  During this time, many students broke off into smaller groups and made their way throughout Rome, hitting up locations like the Trevi fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Parthenon, and the Coliseum.

Vlog taken while touring the city of Rome.

Students were on their own for dinner, so many of the groups stopped into small, quaint restaurants to sample some Italian cuisine.

 One group of students stopped at a small restaurant in a pedestrian alley by the Parthenon.

What a typical meal in an Italian restaurant looks like.  This is also the greatest pizza ever made.

Overall, day two of Rome was an excellent opportunity for students to learn about global partnerships and entrepreneurship in Italy, discover an ancient culture through historic landmarks and locations, and grow in and develop relationships within the honors program.

Day three promises to be just as exciting as the first two!

Rome: Day One

The trip has begun!

After departing from Indianapolis, we arrived at JFK airport around 7:30.  From there, we flew another eight hours through the night and landed in Rome around 11:00 a.m. (4:00 a.m. American Eastern Time).

We met Dr. Davis and our tour guide at the airport before boarding our bus and beginning our first tour of Rome.

On the tour, we drove into the main area of the city, where we were able to see historic landmarks such as St. Peter's Basilica, the Jewish Quarter, and the Colosseum.  In the heart of the city, the bus stopped briefly to let us walk around the Colosseum and get pictures as well as some video footage.  During our first few hours in Rome, we discovered how the landmarks and architecture of the city related to the unification of Italy, the reign of Mussolini, and the relationship between the city of Rome and the Catholic Church.

After the bus tour, we finally checked into our hotel.  Some students used this time to unpack and get cleaned up, while others explored more of the city - hitting up landmarks like the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

This is a vlog shot during our free time this afternoon.  It was posted on Twitter - which is where the most up to date information on the trip is located.  To see all of the trips tweets, check out the Twitter gadget on this blog's sidebar or click on the Twitter icon in the upper right hand corner of the sidebar to go to the trip's Twitter homepage.

At 5:30 p.m., all students returned to the hotel to meet Gayle and Dr. Davis for our first group dinner at Le Cappellette.  Our menu for the evening included Rigatoni amatriciana, Meat escalopes with lemon baked potatoes, and a fruit salad.

The food was amazing! Sitting at one long table, the group used this opportunity to discuss the day's happenings as well as events from the flight over.

Pictures of the Day. Courtesy of Chris Wilkey

Because we have essentially gone 48 hours without sleeping, tonight will be an early night.  We will start the day off tomorrow visiting our first companies: the American Embassy and Enlabs.

So far the trip has been an absolute blast!  We can't wait to see what the rest of Rome has in store for us (and the rest of the trip for that matter).