I feel like I'm on vacation...

Hey y'all!

Last night, I started working on the two 5 page papers that we have due on Tuesday. I've gotten a lot done so far, and that's good since we're going to Florence this weekend. I also took a walk to see the hotel that Mom, Kimberly, Chris, and I will be staying at when they arrive after my program. It's quite nice, and really convenient to a lot of the amazing sites around Roma. Last night was a beautiful night to walk around, and it's cool to be able to navigate through the city by myself.

This morning, we woke up really early to ride a bus to Turquinia, a city that has a lot of well-preserved Etruscan tombs. (Most of us got in about an hour of napping on the bus.) It was really cool to see because we studied them in Art History classes. They are much cooler in person than in a book... :)

It was a beautiful day (it hasn't gotten hot at all yet...), and the views from the hills were AMAZING! After visiting the tombs for a few hours, we went to a museum that had more tombs and pottery and artifacts displayed.

Then, we got some delicious pasta lunch and really strong espresso. Yum! Plus, the AIRC paid for our lunch, which is always a plus. Free lunch > not free lunch. Also, Alex and I got REALLY hyper after drinking espresso. It's really strong here, and we couldn't stop laughing about silly, stupid things for about an hour.

We got back on the bus and headed to another museum. It was pretty interesting because it was in a castle! During the bus ride to the second museum, we passed by the beautiful ocean for a few minutes! The water was glorious, and I'm really excited about going to the beach for a day this weekend. After the museum, we got some gelato, and then boarded the bus for home.

On the way home, I talked to Dr. Galinsky, and we decided on a topic for my presentation here in Roma. I'm going to study Isis (and her cult) and research how many of her characteristics were absorbed by Mary in the Catholic Church. It's in a few weeks, and it's a really interesting topic. So very cool.

When we got home, we all separated to work on our papers for a bit, and now we're at the AIRC "doing research." I need to get some work done with access to the internet, and hopefully I'll get a lot of writing done tonight.

We leave for Florence tomorrow afternoon, and we'll be there until Monday morning. There's so much to see, but some other people in my group (thanks, Vicky!) are helping plan a lot of stuff for us to do! We're also going to be at the beach for a day this weekend (I think Sunday).

I love and miss you all!

Ciao,
Ashley

PS - Have I missed anything exciting in America?