It is a rainy morning in Rome, and some flights have been delayed. As they arrive at the Sede di Roma, students pick up their apartment keys and head for their new homes. Shane St. Esprit and Jared Penn flew into Rome yesterday and were able to get to the stadium for the AS Roma soccer match. They came by the Sede this morning to pick up the keys to their apartment.

The USAIR flight from Philadelphia, due at 8:45, appears to have arrived about three hours late. I’m sure we’ll hear lots of air travel stories in the next few days as we sort things out.

4:00 P.M. update — all of the CAS students and faculty have checked in safely. Many stories of taxi rip-offs; this is something that happens even to seasoned travelers to Rome. The best way to avoid that problem is to travel light and take the train from the airport. But packing light is not easy if you are an undergraduate coming to Rome for the first time, scheduled to study for 7 weeks, and carrying a laptop computer, camera, and a stack of books.

We’ll all meet at 8:30 tomorrow for a program orientation and our first class walkabout.