The 21 hour day

That's right, I was up for 21 straight hours yesterday: from 7:30 AM to 4:30 AM. Yet, for whatever reason, I only slept 4 1/2 hours last night. Non comprendo.

Long days like that are usually pretty good, and yesterday was great. I went on my first day trip to Orvieto with Dan and Michelle. We went to catch a 9:15 train, and got to Termini a little early because we had no idea exactly what is going on at the station. Well, it was completely painless. The trip was 7 euro each way, which was a steal. After about 80 minutes, we were at the Orvieto station, and took the funicular up the side of the rock, which made the trip worth it on its own. The rest was a whole lot of icing on top of the cake. The Duomo was beautiful, and the town was very, very cute. Plenty of excellent views of the hilly countryside, lots of little streets to explore. My kind of day. There were also some interesting Etruscan caves and pottery there. Fun fun fun. Plus, I got my first panino since I got here, if you can believe that. It was at a butcher shop, and he had this great machine that made the finest possible cuts of any kind of meat you wanted, which meant the food was really, really good. I need to find a place like that here.

We took the 5:30 train home, and on one stop about 100 kids got on. Why? La Notte Bianca, the huge, all-night Rome party where all the city museums and a ton of civic services are open and free. It was absolutely insane out there. So many people, especially on Via del Corso and in the Piazza del Popolo, where people were shoulder to shoulder. The coolest thing that was free to me was Castel Sant'Angelo, so I took about 8 girls over there. Excellent, excellent decision if I may say so myself. Went to the top, and we could see the whole town all lit up for the big night. Fantastic. Next, Michelle and I went to Piazza del Popolo, which took about 3 to 4 times as long as it should have because of the crowds. We then climbed up and walked over to the top of the Spanish Steps area, which was also packed. At this point, I wanted to watch some ND football, and my dad sent me a text saying that ND had scored a touchdown. Excitement! So we hurried to the bar where I thought everyone would be (Abbey Theater), and it turned out that there were only 2 girls there from ND. Oh well, I wasn't going to miss the game, so I watched the first half there. ND was keeping it close with Penn State (17-10 at half), and so I ran over to the other Irish pub, Scholar's Lounge. Nearly all my fellow students, along with the new Architecture students just in from South Bend, were there and having a good time. Until, oh, somewhere in the third quarter when Notre Dame's defense and offensive line decided to stop playing. Penn State ended up killing Notre Dame (31-10, I think), and I was sad. And it was late, like 3:30 late. Though not feeling tired, I knew it would have been a terrible mistake to not go and crash. So I did, and after a 45 minute walk I was home.

So that's my long day, and here's my photo documentation of it (or at least some of it). I need to go get my laundry.