F.A.Q's

Alright let's get some basics covered so I don't have to keep telling people all this information.

Address to mail me at: Michael Cianfichi, c/o The American University of Rome, Via Pietro Roselli 4, Rome, Italy, 00153

Apartment Address: [Do not mail me here] C.ne Gianicolense 168, apt# 14, Rome, Italy, 00152

Apartment Landline Phone Number: 06-972-747-28 [ Incoming calls are free for me to receive, make sure you dial the proper country code and use a calling card because you will have to pay :) ]

Cell Phone Number: 333-437-1700 [ Again, you'll need a country code, I have unlimited minutes for receiving calls from anywhere so it's free for me, but you'll have to foot this bill to if you're the one doing the dialing ]

The Apartment: 2 Doubles, 1 single, 2 full bathrooms, kitchen, living room and huge patio deck.

The Location: Pizzerias, Bars and Coffee/Pastry shops everywhere in radius, supermarket right around the corner, tram line right outside that goes downtown. Couldn't be any better. However, being six stories up the steps is a hike (elevator is smaller than a closet and so sketchy/scary).

The Roommates: Dave (Boston College), Juan (UMD!), Ryan (U. North Florida) and Gavin (Boston College)

WiFi: Awful, FB chatters/skypers, bear with me through the interruptions

SEND ME YOUR ADDRESS! I bought 40 postcards that I want to send out to people!

The End of Winter Break

It's weird calling this the last day of winter break considering it's been mid 50's all week. It's also weird thinking I'm going in college in Rome, weird getting used to that this will be my home for the next 4 months and really weird that I haven't even attended a class in around 7 weeks. Actually, while I'm on the topic, the fact that most things are closed on Sundays, almost everything closes daily between 1pm-4pm, dinner is eaten hours later than I'm used to are also other things to add to that list. Weird isn't a bad thing though, it's just different. People associate weird/different with a negative connotation too much.

Again, for my fellow sparknote lovers out there, here's the quick version that will catch you up:

1. Piazza Navona
2. Pantheon
3. Spanish Steps
4. Bike ride in Villa Borghese
5. Belzebuth

A lot of these differences here have actually been pretty nice. For the tram, which goes downtown and is nicely right outside our door, there is no timetable schedule of stops. It comes when it comes, no rush, no hurry, no worries; complete opposite of America where even DOTS (worst organization in the world) at UMD tells you up the the second when your bus is coming. No Wal-Marts here means about 50 tiny specialized shops on the side of our street scattered throughout. That personal local appeal is really nice and something you just can't find back home (sorry Wal-Mart greeter, but your stickers and smile still don't make my experience there personal or memorable.)

Anyways, those are just some of the few changes I've been adjusting to the past few days, the cultural difference here in indescribable but I'll touch on stuff here and there. I can't wait to adjust to all them and live their way, so far it seems like they've got it right here.

I wasn't even planning on talking about that stuff but o well, here's what I actually did today. We kind of got a late start today but we ended up making the best of it and getting a lot of great stuff in. We started out at Piazza Navona and The Pantheon. Added in July: There's the first picture of me on the Fountain of Four Rivers. It was constructed by Bernini, obbviamente, and it became one of my favorite spots in all of Rome. One great reason was because at the top of the obelisk is a dove, the angel of peace, which was featured in Angels & Demons. There was something about this piazza that just made me fall in love with it. There was the great market held there everyday until the sunset, but there was also the annoying salesmen with light up toys at night. As much as these guys annoyed me, we had so much making fun of them that they were necessary throughout my trip. It was also just a great meet up spot or place to sit down, relax with friends, eat gelato, drink and just people watch. Favorite piazza in Rome winner for sure.

Being in the Pantheon was an incredible experience. I never realized how gigantic that structure was and for it to be in such great condition after two thousand years really makes those builders of the Vikings Metrodome look like idiots. It was cloudy so we couldn't see the sun through the oculus but it was raining a bit so we got to see its 20 centuty old drainage system in action and how the floors still aren't ruined is beyond me.

After that we thought about going back the the Roman Forum or Sistine Chapel but both close at 4 and it was 3:30 at the time. We ended up just wandering around and stumbled upon the Church of St. Ignatius (Booo Jesuits, Go LaSallians!) ha, but inside it was better looking than St Peters to us. Turns out it's one of the best churches in Roma (yeah I'm a local now, I can call it that) according the guidebooks. After that we went up Via Del Corso (big shopping street) towards The Spanish Steps. Weren't much more than a lot of steps but apparently they're the cool area for the youth to hang out at at nighttime.



After that was when the day got great. We rented bikes in a park we came across that turned out to be the size of the whole downtown area. This park, Villa Borghese, was full with trees, paths, ancient ruins, fountains and made you feel like you were biking around in a time where the modern part of the city didn't even exist. A bunch of statues were missing heads among other things so we took it upon ourselves to use our own to complete the ancient statues and then used that as a photo opportunity. Added in July: Villa Borghese became one of my favorite spots in Rome, along with Piazza Navona (it was a good day for me discovering things). I ended up going there to rent bikes or just walk around so many times after that first Sunday in Rome, whether it was with friends again, Maria, my parents, Nonny, Jessica or any other excuse I had. So many great times were had there. I ended my time in Rome there just where I started by going with Jen, Ethan, Eran, Adam and Jared my last Sunday of the semester than following that up with a visit with Adam the next week just days before I left making sure to picnic with a good old panini and beer each time.

Also, as we were exiting the park, from the top of its hill there was an amazing view of Rome across the whole city at St. Peter's Basilica towering over the whole city.

Next, we got dinner and I enjoyed a beer called Belzebuth "The strongest beer in the world", they lived up to their label, whew. Now it's time to catch up on the little sleep we've gotten all week and prepare to start cooking for ourselves next week for the first time here.

Alright, I've written a lot, I made some promises to people that I'd keep my blogs short and concise so my apologies to you for being a liar. Let's see how my first day of school in Italy goes tomorrow (one class at 5:15pm), shouldn't be too bad.

Ciao-Ciao

David the Tour Guide

Talk about being a tourist. Today we saw almost all the main tourist places acting as the stereotypical American college students, but it was a great time and I'm glad to get those places out of the way so we don't feel guilty about leaving Rome and traveling next weekend.

Again, for the lazy ones, here's the highlights from today:

1. Coliseum
2. Roman Forum/Palentine Hill
3. Our tour guide David
4. Vittorio Emanuele Monument
5. Trevi Fountain at night

After a BBQ at our school, we headed over to the Coliseum. Immediately we were approached by and english speaking tourguide company because apparently we stick out as Americans very well still. My goal is to stop getting stopped on the street by fellow Americans because I blend in so well with Italian culture; I'm not there. Yet. I did buy a very cool Italian looking jacket, turns out its actually just from United Colors of Bennetton, but o well, it looks cool and turns out all the jackets I brought say something about UMD on them..oops. Can't believe I forgot my leather jacket at home. I managed to already break a button on the new jacket but thanks to my mom packing me and mini sewing kit I fixed it. #ThanksMom.

New jacket from United Colors of Benetton

The Coliseum is what it looks like. Big. Rocks. Circular. That's about it. Oh and I was there too.


The tour guide didn't add much to it either, somehow he made talking about gladiators seem boring. It's all okay, because what came next made us forget all about how boring that was. Across the street was the Palentine Hill and Roman Forum but more importantly, David the tour guide was also there.

Coupled with how bad our Coliseum tour guide was, David shined alone atop the pyramid of amazing tour guides. Incredible hair, captivating voice and enthusiastic passion were just some of his incredible guide traits that made him so great. Yes, we were fans of him. By the way, his mix of Australian and British accent left us amazed the whole time trying to figure his actual accent out, which only made his delivery style of constantly focusing us even better. He foreshadowed that we were about to walk up four flights of stairs, and made it sound exciting.

Roman Forum Ruins from Palentine Hill

The history of the Forum area was really neat, and there was so much to see. We'll definitely go back considering we got kicked out because they were closing around 4-5 when our tour with David had finally ended. He told us all the great spots to further check out though, what a great guy. We also want to sign up for his 3 hour tour of St Peters/Sistine Chapel/Vatican Museum. We can't wait.


We actually got to stand where Rumulus and Remus grew up and where Augustus lived (actually the same exact spot), hence Augustus claiming to be the second founder of Rome. It's a shame the Vatican stole all the beautiful marble that was at the Palentine Palace and Coliseum which makes those places look dumpy now, at least they made good use of it (St Peters Basilica), depending who you ask.

After that, we just wandered around Rome and saw the Vittorio Emmanuel II Monument (Wedding Cake), talk about an epic piece of architecture. Then stumbled upon Trevi Fountain at night accidentally. Only here can you accidentally stumble upon something that cool by accident. Get lost in Baltimore and you'll be lucky to stumble upon something that won't shoot you.


Anyways, it's about dinner time. Arreverderci

So. Much. Walking

Buonasera,

Taking some time to relax before going out for dinner so I decided I'd update everyone on the past few days. It's been tough since my laptop is broken again already so I'm having to use an old PC desktop in our apartment that's sooo slow.

For those who don't feel like reading all of this (it's a long blog, I have some time to kill) here's the highlights of the day.

1. Castel San Angelo
2. John Paul II Bobblehead
3. St Peters Square/Basilica
4. Club Mood

Anyways, with the exception of the laptop everything else is going great and smooth. So to catch you up, Thursday was mostly spent at AUR doing orientation things and then at a neat pizzeria at night, wasn't too eventful/I can't exactly remember what I did because these days are all blurring together. I feel like I've been here weeks but its really only been a few days, wow.

Yesterday (Friday) was real fun. Went to Castel San Angelo which was really cool and sturdy for a building 2000 years old. Got a good view of the city from up there and of course made sure to spot out 'il passetto' from Angels and Demons ha.



After San Angelo, we (my roommates and some friends) got pizza at an amazing pizzeria right across the bridge and then I professionally negotiated with a street vendor to get a Pope John Paul II Bobblehead (sweet, right?) for only 7 Euros (the price tag was for 25, I'm good). He now stands guard and stares over us in our main hallway here at the apartment. Oh and I bought 40 postcards so send me your address if you want me to send you one!

After lunch, we did the Vatican, what a sight. As if walking into Saint Peters Square wasn't incredible enough, we climbed all 550 steps to the top of the Basilica Dome for a view that left me speechless (you guys know its hard to shut me up).



Down inside the Basilica, the atmosphere was just as memorable. Despite being in the biggest church I've ever been in, full with tourists, you could have heard a pin drop there because of how quiet and reverent everyone was. They had the body of Pope John 23rd (I think?) by the front alter eerily perfectly preserved despite him being dead for over 50 years. Being in there just gave an indescribable feeling. Next we went down into the tombs and I got to touch my St Michael Medallion necklace on the tomb of John Paul II (soon to be beatified while I'm here). That was pretty neat. People were trembling on their knees at the sight of his tomb. Got a decent picture of that that I'll put up, but started getting yelled at for having a camera out where I wasn't supposed to (wasn't the first time that happened Friday, won't be the last time, oops, I'm over it.)



Got to experience the night scene here American style for the first time. We went out to Campo dei Fiori which is the American area of the city. It was nice to walk by people and here English being spoken for a change. The area we live in here is all Italian, it's not even pictured on most maps of Rome, that's how untouristy it is.

Overall was a fun day, so much walking though. Oh and our last roommate finally arrived, shout out to you Ryan.

Travel Day

Wow, what a day (actually two). So it started out Monday morning waking up around 10:00am. Spent the next 3 hours dealing with Office Depot (props to them for doing so much for me, they can fix anything) trying to fix my laptop that just crashed, finally we ran out of time and wiped out the hard drive and I had to reinstall everything since (but its gone well). Then, around 1pm got Chick-Fil-A for one last time before heading up to Philly.

Twitter: "Peace out America, its been real. Now im stuck in seat 25H for 9 hours..."

The flight was pretty boring, watched 4 movies (cool personal touch screens killed my sleeping plan) and before I knew it, I had watched Mark Zuckerburg become a billionare air, Demi Moore and Jennifer Aniston go through emotionally funny relationships (what's new) and the return of Gordon Gecko; and boom, we landed here in Rome at 9:00am local time (3am for ya'll back home).

After waiting three hours+ at the terminal, my van finally picked me up and zoomed me to my apartment by 1(by zoomed I mean drove with complete disregard for everything else in existence). I'm lucky to have gotten here.

Rest of the day I spent exploring around with my new roommate mostly getting lost while trying to find lunch, then getting lost trying to find a place that sold toilet paper and soap (ended up in a gyno office, orthodontist office and some even weird places that gave us even weirder looks when I attempted to describe toilet paper). Finally we found food and got things we needed.

I spent some time after that getting my computer up to speed until we left to meet our fellow students at the school for a tour of the neighborhood at 6. We never got there. Despite leaving at 5:30 for a 20 minute walk, it took us until 6:45 to find the school (blame my poor Italian skills, poorly drawn maps and the general publics unawareness that AUR exists somewhere in this city). Anyways, after that failure we decided to find a pizzeria, get some good food and now I'm back here, not having slept in about 36 hours, blogging!

By the way, this apartment is sweeeet! Check out my patio view and our huge living room! More pics on Fb.

Let's hope tomorrows adventures go better.

Six days and counting

Only six days until I fly over to Rome. So how am I spending these last precious days in America? Well I got lunch at Chick-Fil-A and created a Twitter! Once I get there keep checking up on here, Twitter and Facebook to see what adventures I'm up to.

Mike-Out