All Roads Lead to Rome

We left pretty early this morning. Sent all our bags ahead of us on a van and we got on a bus. Not much happened on the way. Everyone sleeps, as usual, on the trips anywhere. I watched “The American” and it was pretty good. It was a bit of a thinker and needs another look at before I can appreciate it, though. I really don’t think many people would like it very much because it doesn’t have very much dialogue. He just does things and is a very quiet person in general. It was in Italy, though, so it made me a little excited to maybe see something from the movie around here. We also made a  relatively short stop in Sienna. Sienna is a small walled city that sits on top of a tall hill. It overlooks the whole surrounding area. Going around was a lot of walking up and down hills and stairs but it was all worth it. I saw a famous area where there is an annual horse race that the jockeys can hit each other off of the horses. It is in a round square (more like an oval) in front of a large church. Since it was lunch time, we wandered away from all the touristy areas to find some chow. After a few more old buildings and scenic overlooks, I ate two slices of pizza and a gelato for 6 euros. Later we caught up with our teacher who told us of a place with huge cheese wheels. He wasn’t kidding! They had 80 pound, 5 year old cheese in that store. They also had cheap wine. My favorite place was right outside the gate where our bus was parked. There was a small park area that had shade trees and looked out across the landscape. Both the breeze and the view were welcome. We got to Rome and hit the ground running. We walked with our teacher around the hotel area to see some of the monuments. Did you know there are more obelisks in Rome than Egypt? We concluded with the Trevi Fountain which seems to be crowded ALL the time. Our hotel room is very nice here, not borderline haunted like in Florence. I got a big room on the corner. Harry Potter is already out here in Italy. I really want to go watch it even if it is in Italian. Then all my friends who actually read the books would be so jealous that I saw the end before they did. Then I would spoil the ending on Facebook...Muahahaha..haha.