Got up at 5 AM, took a shower, packed my lunch bag and headed to Brussels to meet up with a group of 18 to 25 year olds and 2 responsible adults. I knew about 3 other people in the group so by the time I arrived, I started looking for familiar faces. We eventually got on the bus and drove to Charleroi (Brussels South Airport). Our RyanAir plane was already waiting on the tarmak and 1.5 hours later we arrived in one of the smaller Roman airports. We toured around Rome a bit on the bus that picked us up at the airport and eventually stopped at a hotel located conveniently right across the Palatino hill with Circus Maximus on the right and the Forum Romanum on the left. The belgian embassy only a few meters away. (Hotel: Casea Kolbe on Via San Teodoro). In the afternoon, after settling in in the hotel, we walked around town for a few hours, passing by the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church (with the Bocca della verita, see Roman Holiday with the late Gregory Peck), a temple of Vesta, the Forum Boarium, the Tiber river, the Piazza Campidoglio, the Teatro di Marcello, the Piazza Venezia, Il Gesu and Piazza Gessu, the Monument of Victor Emmanual II. In the evening we walked along the Via Corso towards the Trevi fountain for some pictures and ice cream.
