Day 7 (3/28/11)

Today we woke up (late) to go grab some last minute free breakfast (much less good than London…) and repacked our lives. We then checked out of the amazing hostel and took our taxi ride to the meeting point on top of Geniculum Hill where our bus would arrive to take us to Ascoli Piceno. When we got there we walked around and looked at the stunning views out to the city from the hill, as well as the pretty awesome stuff on top. After a while the whole group had assembled and we were on our way!!
The ride was pretty awesome, bus drivers in crowded cities like Rome are boss (but scary at the same time), there was tons of amazing landscape to be seen; from countless olive tree farms to giant cliffs and precariously placed cities to the greenest, most beautiful water I have ever seen, the trip had it all. I also got a good bit of reading and napping done, so it was a fantastic trip! Once we got there, we dropped our stuff off in our rooms, which are unbelievable! There are two of us per room with our own bathroom and a TV!
From there we took a walk down the hill and into the city where we got to see some of the sights and get oriented with the place where we will be spending the next few weeks. We got to see three different piazzas, a few churched, and a bunch of restaurants. There is also a supermarket so that we can buy food to cook at the hotel!
After a few hours of walking we came back to the hotel and went to dinner at a great restaurant called Mr. OK, which is right next door. Dinner was fantastic, we had fried green olives (the size of cad berry eggs almost!) stuffed with cheese and some kind of meat, fried mozzarella, and fried zucchini for appetizers, all were absolutely amazing (I know, even the olives!!!!) For dinner we had pasta, which I believe, was carbonara, and this time Italy beat London haha. For dessert we had a sampler of 3 types of gelato, none of which I could identify but all of which were fantastic!!!
After a great dinner we came back and settled in to our apartments before heading to bed, class tomorrow!!!!