Our first day! (my daily diary post, also found on the main course blog)

Day One, January 4, 2007:

We kicked off our first day of classes with a tour of the Campo de Fiori, or “Field of Flowers,” the central location of our program and a bustling, incredible marketplace.

Vendors selling goods such as spices and fruits fill this cobblestoned piazza, while the perimeter is lined with restaurants, groceries, and Forno, a delicious bakery where Lisa treated us all to pizza bianca, a tasty piece of bread with a salt and olive oil topping.

Next came a stop on the Ponte Sisto, a pedestrian bridge across the Tiber River (Fiume Tevere) which displays a beautiful view of St. Peter’s Basilica to the north.

We then headed down Via del Giubbonari, a major shopping avenue which, like many other streets in Rome, is strung with festive holiday lights, emanating a cozy, intimate feeling. This street led to the most peculiar aspect of the day, and possibly the strangest thing I’ve seen in my whole life – the cat sanctuary, an enclosed square with grassy hills and rustic ruins where hundreds of stray Roman cats are kept and cared for by the city. In this feline playpen, the 250 or so cats roam freely and appear to be quite happy and well-fed.

A couple blocks further into our mini-tour, we rounded a corner and there stood the Pantheon in a strangely unassuming fashion. The casual manner in which this majestic monument is displayed and treated by many passersby astounded me. No prominent signs advertise its presence, and though its entrance was busy with visitors coming and going, the general attitude of the crowd in the area was one of indifference. However, I think I can safely say I was not the only one in our group moved by this impressive piece of Roman history. As our morning was winding down, we stopped into Tazza d’Oro (Cup of Gold), one of the city’s most prominent cafés. Again Lisa treated us to a delicious Italian refreshment, this time one of the best cups of coffee any of us had ever tasted. Our circular route led us back to our origin, where we wrapped up our walk with a presentation on the Palazzo Pio, the building in which the UW Rome Center is located, before breaking for lunch and siesta.