From the Emerald city to the Eternal city

Ciao! Greetings from Roma. I had a slight (HUGE!) panic attack when I realized my flight out of Seattle was actually scheduled to takeoff at 12:55pm instead of 9:30pm. Coming to the rescue, Mom/Lindsay and I woke up with the sun (4am) and cruised over to Seattle. Without checking ANY bags (I was really proud of myself) Nick Kramer, my travel buddy, and I jumped on a plane to Amsterdam.
On the plane I sat by this lovely British man who was headed back to England for his 17-year old daughter's Prom! Enjoying some complimentary wine, I watched the film Taken. I'm pretty sure I elbowed the nice British guy a couple times-- that's an INTENSE movie. ha. Thankfully, I was awake only to eat for the remainder of the flight.
Finally arriving in Roma, Nick and I found a 'real' cab (not to be confused with the Gypsy cab drivers or the ones without meters) and we received a brief tour of Roma on our way to the Campo de Fiori/UW Rome Center. Dropped off at the edge of a bustling market, we really had no idea where to go. We drug our bags across the uneven cobblestone, asked a nice (and perfectly plump) Italian woman where the 'Hotel Campo de Fiori' (a major landmark 'adjacent' to the UWRC) was located. After finding the hotel, we stumbled around a while with our directions in hand-- puzzled by which of the doors was 'adjacent' to the hotel. Finally, we discovered the mammoth green doors covered in graffiti belonged to the UWRC. Never would've guessed that! At the UWRC we dropped off our big bags, got a map of Roma and some recommendations of good places to eat. First stop-- the cell phone store (TIM)! At TIM, we bumped into a group of UW students here for the CHID program. So, there were LOTS of familiar faces. Next we jumped on a bus and headed for Hostel Yellow. Arriving at the hostel, Nick and I were in separate rooms-- but staying in my room there were two sweet sisters from Oklahoma and two boys from New York. Our hostel is packed with Americans. ha. After freshening up, we connected with another boy from our program, Peter, and headed back to the Campo. We wandered around, taking in the picturesque back-alleys and hole-in-the-wall restaurants. We walked to Piazza Navona, where there was no shortage of artists, hand-holding, fountains, cobblestones and photo-opts. Adhering to our stomaches' obnoxious growls, we decided it was time for some pizza and wine! I enjoyed a delicious four-cheese zuccini flower pizza and some white wine. Then, Nick and I decided to go on a Rick Steves evening stroll from Campo de Fiori to the Spanish Stairs. We enjoyed walking through Rome in the twilight-- awe-struck by the Pantheon, bumped into Trajan's Column/Market, witnessed a proposal at Trevi fountain and climbed EVERYONE of the Spanish stairs. Jumping onto a Metro/underground-- we finally headed home... and that was only Day 1, many more to come!