Day 1

Today was quite a long day, as one expects when first visiting a new place.  It began with a visit to the post office to buy insurance and then to the Angelicum to set up a meeting to get registered for classes next week.  Technically, classes will already have started before we register, but apparently this is the way things work over here.  A little exploration was done of the Angelicum and more copies were made of documents that we need to get legalized over here.

One annoyance has been the amount of money required to actually get everything squared up over here.  The insurance was roughly 40 Euros, the stamps required for our paperwork another 30 Euros, and the actual process itself will cost another 40 to 60 Euros.  Add in the $30 required to get the student visa, and it's close to $200 just for the paperwork on the Italian side of the pond.

The rest of the day involved a little exploration and goofing off, and also a little education on scam artists, as two of us were hit at the same time by an enterprising troupe of pushy guys who make quite a ridiculous profit margin.  Needless to say, you not only have to keep your hands in your pockets to protect your wallet, you also need to do it to protect you from the stealth picks.

We paid a visit to the area around the Vatican, and probably at least a half dozen churches in between, including the Pantheon and the Chiesa Nuova, which would be a favorite of mine due to my like of St. Philip Neri, founder of the Congregation of the Oratory, which still runs that church.  They also offer English confessions, which is a nice luxury not too far away.

Rome's prices in general are high at the restaurants - it was not unusual to expect to pay upwards of 15 to 20 Euro per person most places - but there is a ridiculously cheap market not far from home, in which 2 pounds of pasta, a jar of sauce, and a 1.5 liter bottle of water cost probably somewhere around $1.30.  It's not the greatest of food, but it's edible and cheap, which will do.

Dinner was followed up by an hours long chat, which was nice, given that I now know that considerable amounts of time can and will be taken up by conversation.