After a grueling day waiting and waiting and waiting I finally left for the airport and my 4pm flight. I would’ve rather left at six am then sit around all day dreaming about being in Rome! On the flight from JFK to Rome I sat next a charming old man named Pellegrino. He is a professor of cinema and italian studies at Columbia. So he and I talked all about working in the movies. He was very impressed with my “success” at such a young age. I told him it was a lot of hard work, luck and networking. But that I was still young and working towards better positions. He gave me lots of suggestions for Italian movies to watch and also places to visit. After a long conversation we settled in and I slept for the remainder of the flight. I woke up and was greeted by the sun and the Swiss Mountains!

I had made plans to meet some of my tour mates at the hotel a noon because my flight was supposed to get in at 10AM. However we were very delayed and then it took forever for the Contiki Shuttle to pick me up. So ended up missing the meeting and not getting to the hotel until 2PM. I was pretty bummed because I basically lost a whole day in Rome. I also wanted to meet some of my tour mates early so that it wouldn’t be so awkward at our first group dinner. But that’s life!

I checked into my hotel, showered and took a short nap before meeting my room mates around 3PM.

Where did I stay? Hotel Santa Costanza

I’m in a triple share room which is the cheapest option for Contiki. My roommates are Mollie and Stephanie. I think we hit it off very well. We all have a good dry sense of humor. We were laughing the whole night at dinner.