A Day In the Life...

As we are now in the full swing of the 'study' part of 'study abroad,' we thought we would share with you a typical school day in the Saint Mary's College Rome Program. 

We usually wake up to the bustling of the street traffic as the city awakens. Leaving our hotel, we head over to Pascucci's, the local bar where we eat our breakfast and lunch during the week. 

On our walk to school from our hotel.

The street on which resides our classrooms, library, and bar Pascucci.

Pascucci's is a famliy-run bar and has been the breakfast/lunch place of the Saint Mary's Rome Program for over twenty years (in other words, they're used to us and our confusing Italian). While eating a cornetto (Italian version of a croissant) and sipping on a cappuccino, we attempt to chat in Italian with one of the members of the family: either Signor Bruno or Signor Antonio (the elder generation) or Signor Bruno's nephews, Stefano and Patrizio. They try to speak as much Italian with us as possible and are generous and helpful as we struggle through a conversation with them, though they occasionally give confused looks and laugh when we accidentally make up our own words and phrases!

The cappuccinos at Pascucci's are the best we've tried yet!

A typical breakfast: a cappuccino and a cornetto di cioccolatto. 

We're then off to class or to the library to spend some hours catching up on homework, but hopefully not too many! When we're back at Pascucci's for lunch, we eat one of their many delicious panini (our favorite is the simple tomato and mozzarella!) and sometimes order a frulatto too (a fruit milkshake/smoothie for which Pascucci's is famous). After lunch we either have more classes or are free to explore our neighborhood. Some of our favorite places to roam during the week are the areas around the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Campo di Fiori, or Trastevere, a neighborhood across the river. 

The very inconspicuous door leading to our classrooms.

One of the classrooms (Megan has her Italian class here)

Another big classroom where most of our classes are held. In the classroom building there are also some more classrooms as well as some study rooms.  

We usually try to get a little bit of homework done before dinner; Mondays-Wednesdays we eat with our entire group, but Thursdays-Sundays we're on our own. When we're with the group our meal consists of three to four courses: an antipasto, a pasta and/or primo piatto, a dessert, and, of course, lots of bread! Our favorite dinner place with the group so far is il Grotto del Teatro Pompeo, which is conveniently right next to our hotel. The waiters and owner are very nice and accommodating, but you have to make sure to eat all of your food or else they will give you funny looks! When we don't eat with the group we usually explore and find a delicious but cheaper option than the previous nights. Some of our favorite places are right off of Campo di Fiori where one dish of pasta is more than enough for two people!

This door opens to a complex with our library. 

Katie is hard at work!

After dinner we usually take a little walk around one of the same places as mentioned above (though one of our favorite places to go at night is the Vatican) and sometimes stop for gelato (we try to save this treat for only the weekends!). Once we have completed our "passeggiata"around some of the most beautiful sights of Rome we head back to our room to finish up some homework or relax with friends on one of our hotels many terraces... Just another day in the wonderful city of Rome!

One of the beautiful terraces at our hotel.