It's day five of our 35-day Italian adventure. I will briefly hit some highlights.

Day one: departure day - May 7. Kim and I drove to Nicole's in Indy. It gave us the chance to see Riley before leaving, and it also provided us a way of getting to the airport without having to leave the car, thanks to Nicole. Of course she got the use of our car, which I think was a good trade for both of us. As per my usual we arrived at the airport earlier than needed. Still, we were not the first. Not having all 17 students on the same flight was a little bit stressful, as I didn't know whether everyone made their flight. Whoever does this next year may have to decide for a group flight. The biggest disadvantage will be the inconvenience to whoever wants to leave from a more convenient airport. This year, three students had a direct flight from Chicago. Had we had a group flight, they have been forced to drive to Indy, and to add a flight. Not sure what is best.

Day two: Italy arrival - May 8. As it happened, the Chicago flight was delayed, so rather than getting here before us, they arrived a little later. That was not a big deal, except that the map we provided of the airport confused them. They were waiting inside the baggage claim area rather than proceeding through customs and exiting. We were all waiting for them outside the secured area. Thank goodness for Facebook and free wifi in the airport. One of the students posted that they were waiting in the baggage area, and one of the others saw it and was able to message them to come out. It didn't matter as we still had to wait for our charter bus to arrive. Filiberto and Angelica met us at the airport and rode with us to our hotel. After quickly settling in, we took off to see some sights.

After some orientation to the Rome transit system, we went first to the Colosseum. People who have never done this before can never appreciate the value of having a skilled leader like Filiberto. He had already purchased the Roma Passes before we arrived, so we did not have to deal with anything at the Metro station. Despite large crowds at the Colosseum we were able to skip most of the lines and proceed in. Of course he was also a masterful professor, providing students with the context necessary to understand what they were seeing. It's difficult. I know. Understandably, first time visitors are probably most focused on getting pictures rather than understanding context, but to make the experience as educational as it should be requires it. Filiberto knows not to overload them, and it was only our first day. So we walked up through the Forum where he was able to explain some important points while the students were able to take dozens (hundreds?) of pictures of antiquity. Tour time for the first day totaled "only" about 5 hours. We did have one student who opted to stay behind. When we arrived at the hotel she told me she felt a migraine coming on due to lack of sleep. I certainly didn't want her to suffer the whole day walking around, so I told her that as long as she was comfortable knowing what she was missing, it was OK with me if she stayed behind to rest. She was able to rejoin the group for our first dinner together in Rome. 

By coincidence, Ball State Honors College also has a group of students in Rome at this time, so after dinner Kim, Filiberto, Angelica and I were able to meet up with Jim and Connie Ruebel for a little while. It was a pleasant ending to a very long day.