Having Visitors...

So I wrote a post about this same topic last night, but I came back from dinner to find the internet not working at all in the Hotel. Tonight I've totally re-written the post, so you can consider this the Thursday and Friday post.

Also, there may be some special guest bloggers this week, so hopefully you'll get some good stuff from them. More on that later.

So lets start with Thursday. I got to meet up with a good friend who was visiting Rome. This wasn't just any friend though, and it goes to show that being abroad actually makes it easier in some cases to see people. This friend I'm talking about is Steve Schaller. From 4th to 7th grade our dads coached in-town basketball together, and over those years Steve and I became really close friends. In seventh grade he moved away to Albany, NY, but we tried to stay in touch as much as we could. Back then he would come visit once or twice every year for a weekend, and we'd get together with old friends and talk about what was the same and what has changed. When it came time for College, Steve chose to go to his childhood favorite, Syracuse. And as it turns out Becky went there as well, and they became good friends at school. Whenever I go up to visit Becky I make sure to see Steve, and we reminisce about the good old days, particularly our dominance of recreation basketball (Steve was always a great basketball player, playing all through High School, while my basketball career along with my height, peaked at about 5th grade).

So when it turned out that Steve was coming to Rome to visit some Syracuse friends, I of course got together with him. It's an interesting thing, meeting up with a childhood friend in a completely different country. Our lives have taken us in two different directions, two different places, but when they intersect it is always a great time. Dinner with him and his friends was great, and I wish I had known he was in Rome earlier.

Now today, Friday, brings along another visitor. My Cousin Jamie, and her friend Jaime are on their spring break and decided to come to Rome. Good choice. They arrived early this morning and after getting a ride from the airport we met up to spend the day together.

I really enjoy "showing off" the city to people who come to visit. After being here for two months I am proud to know it pretty well, but am proud to be able to show them the cool places to see, and even better, the places to eat.

I'm excited for their week here, I think they are already having a great time, if even for the food alone. Just today we got some of the best gelato (San Crispinos) my favorite pizza (Forno) and went to one of my now top three favorite restaurants (Navonna Notte) which was also my first time. We walked around a lot, and by the end of the night I think I had tired them out enough for a good nights sleep, and hopefully they'll be ready for another full day tomorrow.

Over the next few weeks I will be having lots of visitors, and I'm extremely excited by it. My passion for being a "tour guide" of Rome feels similar to that of showing off Villanova to anyone who comes to visit the campus. I'm eager to show them all the wonderful food and sites I've experienced so far, so they can get some idea of my experience here. It's the reason I write the blog to begin with, to share some part of my experience with you.

Even though my time left is winding down, I know I'll be busy with everything going on, and I'm glad I have so many people who are interested in coming to experience a little bit of Rome with me. For those of you who were looking for a blog post last night and didn't see one, I apologize, and thanks for wanting so much to be a part of my experience.