This is my account of my very first night in Rome for my study abroad trip. I was definitely jet lagged, but we managed to get settled in our hotel pretty smoothly. It was nice, not too overwhelming. Overall, I really liked our hotel and the location of it. It felt so amazing to lay down in a bed after traveling for over 24 hours. The jet lag would persist for a couple of days, but then subsided.
After getting settled, we had our welcome dinner which was our very first meal in Italy. They brought us all the typical courses of an Italian meal and it really got us into the Italian spirit. We were laughing about how we didn’t know how many courses there were, cause they just kept bringing more food. It was all really good.
As another example of how crazy it is be on the other side of the world from home, while at dinner I sent my dad a picture. I guess the restaurant lighting looked like sunlight because he said “Looks like a beautiful day!”, when in fact it was nighttime for me. He forgot that it was dark where I was, and my body didn’t really know either!
The mission for my friends and I after dinner was to find a store where we could buy water and some other basic stuff for the hotel room. This was a good easy task that let us explore the immediate area around our hotel, but we didn’t have to think very hard. Upon finding a store, we discovered what kinds of things can be found in an Italian convenience store that are different than the U.S., and how prices can differ as well. One bottle of water can cost anywhere from 1 euro to only 50 cents! And speaking of water, something that worked well for my roommate and I was buying large (I think they were 1 liter?) bottles of water, which can be found in pretty much any Italian convenience or grocery store. We kept those big bottles in our hotel room and used them to refill our smaller bottles each day. Our hotel also had mini fridge, so we were able to store the bottles in there so they would be cold in the morning. You should only do this if you’ll be somewhere for several days, though, so you’ll have enough time to actually use all the water. The tap water in Italy isn’t unsafe to drink, and there are actually public fountains all over Rome that people drink from a lot, but if you have a sensitive stomach it might make you feel a little weird. For my roommate and I, a bottled water system worked better for us.
Overall, I’d say my first 24 hours in Italy went pretty smoothly!
Pictured here is my first Italian caprese and prosciutto and cheese platter! (It was amazing)
