Epic Tours of Palentine Hill with Bobo.

Our Lovely Tour Guide

   It has been raining the past couple of days and many of our visits have been canceled due to the rain. We were to walk the main two miles along the Roman Aqueducts but that was canceled as well. Yesterday, we had a tour of Palentine Hill. This is the great hill and home of the ancient rulers of Rome. I have to say that this was the first time that a tour was disappointing. Our poor tour guide barely spoke English. Plus, she barely knew anything about the site. She showed pictures from a book that any tourist could buy based on Palentine Hill. One of the main reasons why we were touring Palentine Hill was to see the home of Augustus Caesar. We have seemed to be receiving disappointment after disappointment this week. The home was closed. We were just able to peak over some guard rails to glance at the proposed home of the founders of Rome: Romulus and Remus.
   We were introduced to Bobo the wooden monkey during our visit to Palentine Hill. While waiting in line to enter the site, Matt start bartering with the Africans selling all the cheap crap . He managed to work his Italian barter skills to get this wooden monkey that was originally 20 euros down to 7 euros. This wooden monkey became our mascot. It sort of became a "where's Bobo" game and who could take pictures of him in the oddest place. We are an optimistic group. We turned a horrible tour into an exciting photo opt.

      It was a grande place to walk around in. I remember glancing up at the hill while we were walking around in the Roman Forum. I was so intrigued by the grande arches of the Palace. In the ancient days, these arches held the windows that the inhabitants of the hill could glance through down onto the main street of ancient Rome. I am impressed with the fact that this site is probably the most intact site in all of ancient Rome. Well, at least the most intact of all the places I have seen so far.

Matt with Bobo on his shoulder

   



.........Okay, Italian class is so stressful. Well, for me it is. I find it so difficult because I have studied Spanish for 10 years and I am a fluent speaker/ translator. Spanish is so close to Italian. I have such a hard time turning off the Spanish switch in my head and leaving on the Italian switch. The other problem is that I translate my Italian into Spanish. I translate my Spanish into English. Danilo is our Italian professor. He always makes the comment "Emma, this isn't Spanish class. This is Italian class." Danilo, I am trying so hard. You know I am because I am the first one to speak up while out in public. On this day, we had a two hour lesson of Italian while on campus. Then, we went out into Rome. When we came back we had an additional two hour lesson for Italian up in Castel Gandolfo at Cafe Baruffa, Andrea's Bar. Ugh, I just had enough time to digest the Italian from this morning and the practice while in the city. Give me a moment to breath.
      Actually, the two additional hours at the cafe were un-expectantly pleasant. Sitting beside us was a group of ladies chatting away. Danilo decided to have us talk with them. One of the ladies, Assunta, whom owns the restaurant that we will have our farewell dinner at ( http://www.sorcapanna.it/) became so interested in us. These ladies reminded me of my Grandmother Frances and her sisters talking with each other at the table. This was my high for the day. It is my high for the day because these ladies were so nice to us and really wanted to help us with our Italian. This moment took some of the stress off of me. Language is suppose to be enjoyable not stressful. At the end of our lesson we had to tell them a little paragraph about each of us. They listened so tentatively. The ladies then got up to say good bye to us. One of the ladies stopped to finish her chocolate. The rest of the ladies turned around to this friend and told her in Italian that if she continued to eat so much chocolate it would go to her ass. I laughed and they turned to me and asked if I understood it. I admitted yes. This was the first time that I felt like I was truly understanding Italian.
      We headed back down the crazy steep hill to campus. We were going to watch the movie The Gladiator. We were about 3/4 the way through the movie when the fire alarm went off. Oh, no. I don't want to loose my things. We were all rushed out of the building. Danilo and Brother Mario were running around to see what tripped the alarm. While we were standing outside a storm started to blow up. It was so windy. We were looking for the smoke to start billowing out of the building. We stood there for 40 minutes when we decided to come back inside because it was cold outside. Many of us were in our casual lounge clothes and didn't have a jacket on. Finally, Danilo and Brother Mario found that someone blew a switch in their room. The power conversion isn't working out too well for us here. All of our electronics keep blowing the breakers and alarms.
        Okay, this is becoming ridiculous. I seem to be tripping over any and every cobblestone possible. Today, while heading up the hill to town to have our additional Italian class, a cobble stone jumped out of no where. I happened to trip over it and fly clean into the street with my Italian book in hand. I was almost ran over by a few of the crazy drivers coming around the corner. They were so mad that I didn't get up fast enough. Danilo was driving the car up to town. He came out of the driveway and saw that I was limping up the hill. Ali stopped the car and asked if I could get in. Everyone started to laugh because by now, my tripping everywhere seems to be funny.