We started off our day by meeting Paulo (he is from AIFS helping us with our trip) and he took us to the study center where we will be having class while in Rome. After conversing with everyone, it seems that the amount of sleep we got last night helped cure our jet lag, and we were ready to take Rome by storm! Once we got to the study center, we were able to meet up with Dr. Besser and have a pretty productive first day of class. Although class only took about an hour (us students were happy about that) we were lucky enough to get a lot of information in as well as a great presentation on the Pantheon by Kate Achenbach, Alex Thordson, and Max Meves. After class we went our first adventure of the trip. After stopping at a local market (most of us bought some fresh fruit) we visited the Plazza Navona, Chiesa Di Sant’igazio Di Loyola, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. All the sites were great and we made sure to take plenty of pictures! We were able to split into smaller groups later in the day and I went with Dr. Besser, Kate Achenbach, Emma Sullivan, Bjorn Eggen, and Morgan Fritz. We got to see a few extra sites including the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and some other cool looking buildings on the way! My group was able to finish the day with a whopping 10.7 miles of walking. Although we might be a little tired, we are all still ready for all Italy has to offer!!

-Kyle Bratvold