This weekend my friends and I decided to stay in Rome and do some things around here. On Friday, we went to see the new Dune movie that recently came out in theaters. It hasn’t come out in the US yet so it almost feels like we had early access. The movie theater was pretty close to our apartment so we took a bus there. Before we went to the theater, we stopped by Trapizzino, a place that sells street food style bread triangles stuffed with different things. I got one that had chicken in it that tasted a lot like chicken noodle soup
The movie theater was only made up of 2 theaters which was quite a difference from the movie theaters in the US that can over 20 theaters in it. When we headed into the theater, they asked to see our vaccination cards. Vaccinated Italian citizens have a “green pass” that verifies that they were vaccinated but since we aren’t Italian citizens, we have to present our CDC vaccination cards in order to do things like watch a movie or eat indoors. The craziest part of this experience was that the tickets were only 6 euros each, about half the cost of what they are in the US.
On Saturday we left the house around 9 am and headed to the Pantheon. We have walked by the pantheon many times before but two of my roommates and I had never been inside. Tickets are free to enter but you need to reserve an entrance time and even then, we had to wait in a long line for about half an hour before we were able to go inside.
We spent about two hours inside. The ceiling was so cool. It is different than the other churches in Rome because it was built as a temple to the Roman gods. The Pantheon was given to the Catholic Church in 609 AD and turned into a Catholic church. The artist Raphael was buried in the Pantheon along with the first two kings of unified Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I, his son, who is buried next to his wife Queen Margherita (margherita pizza is named after her).
Later that day we went to a mall in Rome. It was pretty far from our apartment and wasn’t close to anything we had been to before. Overall it was very similar to malls in the US, with only a few key differences. All dogs are allowed in the mall, actually dogs are allowed indoors in most places I have seen here which is very different than in the US. There are grocery stores in the mall so there are carts that you can use when you’re shopping. To accommodate these carts, the escalators are more like moving ramps so you can bring your cart to the next floor. I think that the mall was actually even more busy than malls in the US, it felt like the holiday season with the amount of people that were in the mall. Some stores like Zara, H&M, Footlocker, and even Game Stop are also in the mall here in Italy but some stores like Pull & Bear and Bershka I had never seen before.
Escalator Ramp 
GameStop 
Fake cowboy boots which I found pretty funny 
NFL apparel that supports nearly every team? This would NEVER fly in the US 
A New Jersey T-shirt 
We stopped in the Lego store and there was a 2D replica of the Colosseum
A Message from the Office of Global Engagement:
The safety and security of Drexel students is a priority for the University. As part of the efforts to support Drexel students that are studying abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office of Global Engagement has conducted a rigorous review of programming and provided additional support to participating students with customized pre-departure orientations and regular check-ins during the required self-isolation period and the term.
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