I am so sorry, but I have been falling behind on my posts. I think I left off about a week ago. Much has happened since then. Will try and fill in the gaps. Tuesday, one week ago was our first student led tour of the session. The students were assigned piazza del Popolo and piazza de Spagna. Their walking tour started as many of mine do, without one of the students. The student thought we were getting off at another stop and left the subway unbeknownst to any of us. So when we arrived at the designated subway stop we discovered the missing student. After a few anxious moments we contacted the student by phone and explained to him how to find us. He did find us and we proceeded with the walking tour.

I only took a couple of pictures because I have many from my last trip to Italy. One only needs so many pictures of the Spanish steps. But I did take a picture at the fountain in the center of piazza del Popolo.

Some of the students had their picture taken while seated on one of the lions. I decided standing next to the lion was just as good. I really wanted a picture of the "twin" churches at the piazza, but one was being repaired and they hung a billboard advertising on the scaffolding. I didn't want a picture of the billboard.

We proceeded to the Spanish steps and a stop to refill our water bottles at the fountain of the old boat at the foot of the stairs. I sat down for a few minutes and now I am in at least a  million tourist photos! We broke for lunch and I went to Cafe Greco for an espresso. Cafe Greco opened for business in 1760. And had been in continuous operation for 250 years when I first visited in 2010. Of course it was closed for renovations then for the first time ever! So I was excited about finally visiting the cafe and drinking an espresso at the bar. Some of the students played tourist and visited Babington's tea room. An expensive proposition, but they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

While on the tour I was able to snap a picture of the emperor Augustus's tomb in the middle of its own remodeling. How does one remodel a 2000 year tomb"?

I was having difficulty taking the picture through the construction fence, when I noticed one of the students holding the camera above the fence and snapping the picture. I am so old, I still think you need a view finder to take a decent picture!

At the end of the tour we held class on the steps of the Ara Pacis. We had to leave campus early in the morning so we postponed class till the afternoon and had class in Rome. It was a lot of fun.