FORZA ROMA!

Me in front of the Vatican

The Vatican

Alyssa Kristen and I at the soccer game

The top of the Castle

Buongiorno!

Last night we attended the Rome vs Florence soccer game. It was so much fun! Definitely a highlight so far. As you probably know, Italian soccer fans are CRAAZY. In the past years, there's been games where people have died because of riots, etc. Knowing this before the game, I was a little nervous. Especially when we were walking to the game and saw the squads of policemen all around! They were wearing helmets and had metal shields that said "POLIZIA". It was kinda scary..but other than that seeing the olympic stadium was so cool! It was an outdoor stadium and it was a perfect night for a soccer game. They had a lot of statues outside of it from when they hosted the olympic summer games in Rome. There was olympic rings everywhere! It was very cool to see. When we got there, we couldn't read our tickets so we really didn't know where our seats were. We couldn't enter at first because you have to scan your tickets and each time we scanned our tickets it gave us a red X and wouldnt let us through. We looked like idiots basically...and finally I asked someone who was walking in and he spoke english and told us where to go. We were at the opposite side of the stadium--so we got in and walked up the stairs and into our section. Perfect timing because the game started like 5 minutes later. We had awesome seats!! The fans were so fun though...everyone gets into the game and the energy in the stadium was insane! Roma beat Florence (Florence was ranked above Rome) 3 to 0. It was fun to watch the fans do all their rituals even though we really had NO idea what they were saying except when the guy next to Alyssa kept yelling "Pass-eh La Ball-o!" We could figure that one out. The one part I didn't like was when smoke bombs/fireworks went off during the game (in the middle of the bleachers) because I thought someone had a gun and was shooting up the stadium!! ha, other than that though it was such a great experience, I'm planning on making it to another game soon.

This past week of school we went Monday-Friday (friday was a makeup day for when we don't have school on thanksgiving) so the week seemed like it took FOREVER (we usually go Mon-Thurs) it was nice though because everyone from my school stayed here for the weekend and we did a lot of walking around Rome and relaxing in our apartments. I walked with a friend to Vatican City and we toured the Vatican and the tombs of the popes (underneath the Vatican) on Saturday. Bad idea to go on Saturday....SO MANY TOURISTS!!!!! lines were sooo long and there were tour groups everywhere!! We managed to sneak our way through though since there was only 2 of us. We also did the castle of St. Angelo which is right down the street from the Vatican. It was cool...we payed 6.50 euros to get in but we didn't know what we were looking at. It was awesome to go on the Terrace and view Rome from the top of the castle though! We wanted to go into the Sistine Chapel as well but it was 14 euros to get in and I'm waiting for Brad to come to Rome before I do all the museums since I'm sure he will want to see it as well.

Other than that I am looking forward to this week being over...too many tests and papers due this week, very stressful! I will finally be meeting with my friend from home who is also here studying abroad, but she lives in Vatican City and goes to a different school. Otherwise, I am taking another cooking class this Friday, will be staying in Rome this weekend and going to Rossana's jewelry shop, the area where mom grew up and also mom's beauty shop. My next planned trip I have is the middle of October-I will be going to Tuscany for the underground vineyards and 4 course home cooked traditional meal in the gorgeous setting of Tuscany's hill tops!

Thats all I have for my update.

Happy 30th birthday to TAY!!!!!

miss you guys back home...and chipotle (would kill for some), my job and I guess even Eagan?

:)

Love, Sonja