Six years after we first visited Italy with an International Media class, we are back! Blessed with smooth flights and no issues with luggage or other travel snafus, 35 students and three professors arrived in Rome and shook off the weariness that comes with a nine-hour flight to start our journey. A big difference this year is nine students joining us from the Education Department. We welcome them!
Jan Getz, retired broadcaster in residence, who continues to plan these trips with expertise and her love of travel and media, met us at the airport with the wonderful Matteo Troiani and Andrea, his tour business partner, and we drove into Rome ready for adventure.
We stopped to walk through the Piazza Navona and the Pantheon after getting a quick history on Rome from Matteo. The gorgeous Pantheon was a must-see for me. When we were here in 2012, a special event precluded any visit there. We found a sweet restaurant and had some of the delicious Rome-style cracker thin crust pizza to share and tide us over until dinner.
The 26 students mark the highest number of students we’ve ever taken abroad for this course I am delighted that Dr. Darlene Marnich, chair of Education, and her students have joined us. Darlene came along with us last year to Iceland-Ireland to try this out. We love traveling with her.
Our hotel is a hostel in the Trasteverde neighborhood, and don’t let the hostel label fool you. The rooms are comfortable and clean. Just some careful rules – towels replaced after three days, group breakfasts, and more – that keeps the costs down. Great location and daily breakfasts to get us started each day.
We ended the night with a great dinner of vodka sauce pasta, beef pounded to incredible thinness and topped with prosciutto and pecorino cheese. I was so hungry from all the walking and travel apprehension with so many students. You just don’t rest until you arrive! Light and creamy tiramisu in at just the right amount topped off the meal. We walked back to the hotel happy and tired, ready to start our real work tomorrow with media and education visits.