After a brief introduction of what is to come, and a dose of Prof. Blanchard’s energy waking some of the students up, we departed from the Palazzo Santacroce towards the many sites of Rome that we set out to visit on this introductory bus and walking tour of Rome.
With the morning sun already starting to hit, we made our way through the many sites that line up on the way to the Piazza del Campidoglio and then further to the Colosseum.
Finding our bus a couple site stops further, we eventually boarded the bus and departed for the beautiful hill where the Catacombs of San Callisto are located. The sun at this point was quite harsh, but prof. Blanchard’s enthusiasm and fascination kept many of us even more motivated to visit each site the further we went. We eventually arrived to the Fosse Ardeatine Monument, a visit that many have anticipated as it was mentioned multiple times during architecture classes back in Ithaca. Many of us thus familiar with the monument, were still amazed to find small details and adjacent spaces that may have triggered excitement over the new discovery of a certain aspect of the overall site. Having later had picnic near the Tomb of Cecilia Metella on Via Appia, we rejoined the bus and continued our visit onto the church of San Giovanni in Laterano. 
Our tour finished by being driven back into the center and making our way to the top of the Spanish steps, from which personally many of my flat mates including me, have headed home to cool off and recuperate from not only the physical exhaustion but also the number of sites visited. It definitely did show us that Rome is full of historical sites worth visiting and gave the students the taste of what Rome has to offer from not only an architectural and historical point of view, but also information about other beautiful sites to visit or re-visit such as the hill of the Catacombs of San Callisto which I personally found to be one of the most beautiful sites we have visited that day.
(all photos credit to Ihwa Choi)