On Saturday morning my dad and I woke up at 3 am to get to the Pittsburgh airport in time for our first flight from Pittsburgh to JFK. The flight was very short, and we arrived at JFK around 12. We had a 7 hour layover, and finally boarded the plane around 7. I tried my best to sleep during the flight.
We touched down in Italy early this morning. Once we went through customs we went on a short bus tour of Rome, where we were able to see the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, and many other structures that are dated back to B.C. Our tour guide, Matteo, gave us warnings of what to do and not to do, and warned us to watch for pickpockets.
Our bus dropped us off at the Pantheon, an ancient Roman temple. The surrounding streets had many different restaurants and gelato shops. We went to a currency exchange, and our large group overwhelmed the little building. After, we walked around and sat and people watched at a fountain. We then walked over to the Piazza Navona, a formidable looking building with elaborate fountains, which featured the gods.
From there we checked into our hostel, which was about a twenty minute bus ride away. We then got ready for our dinner at Da Massi. All of us barely fit into the restaurant, and Matteo explained the dishes that we would be getting. The first dish was homemade pasta. The second dish was a salty dish of pork covered with a layer of prosciutto and a gravy sauce. For dessert we had homemade tiramisu. I left every dish unfinished so I could have room to try something new, and Matteo gave me a lot of grief about it.