Hello for one final time everyone! I am writing this as I am in seat 35H on the flight home from Rome to Tulsa. I have about 7 hours left on this flight, but I’m hanging in there! I have around a 3 hour layover in Chicago before heading home to Tulsa to be picked up by my family!! J I am extremely excited to see everyone and almost in disbelief that my time in the eternal city has come to an end. Of course, the end to this chapter also means and end to my blog. With that said, it would be nice to sort of tell everyone about my trip to help encourage others to study abroad, specifically at the Rome Center. For that, I have a few topics I’d like to cover and the easiest way for me to do that is in a sort of question and answer format. Of course, if you have any more questions you can contact me personally or leave a comment on this post for everyone to see! So without further ado, here is my best attempt as summarizing this 5 week program in Rome, Italy:
Q: What is your class and major?
A: I am a Marketing and Information System major currently, but that may change. So the short answer here is business. I’ll be a sophomore in the fall.
Q: How were your classes and instructors?
A: This is going to be a long one. While in Rome, I took Art History (ARHS 1003) and Honors Microeconomics (ECON 2023H). The econ fulfilled a pre-business requirement and the art history fulfilled a humanities credit.
ARHS 1003 was taught by a spectacular Italian woman named Consuelo Lollobrigida. She has a PHD in Art History and is absolutely marvelous. Our class was not like a typical Art History class that you might take at Arkansas. We met in our classroom (which was in Palazzo Taverna) every morning. Even though the class was scheduled to start at 8:30 AM, it was usually delayed to start at 9. Some days she would lecture for an hour before site visits and some days she would just tell us to head downstairs right after arriving. The only day where we were in the classroom for the entirety of the 3 hour and 20 minute class was the first day. After that, we visited churches, museums, monuments, etc. every day to learn about the art while it was sitting in front of us versus viewing it on a projector screen. I have never been one to seek out museums or want to learn about art, but I found this class fascinating. In fact, on our last day of class when we visited the Borghese Museum, we found Dr. Lollobrigida’s book about female artists in the gift shop. Of course I bought it and had her sign it, but after this program, I am actually looking forward to reading it. If you know me, you would know that before the program, I would not be caught dead reading a book about art in my free time. Now, I have a greater appreciation for art, especially Italian Renaissance pieces and artists since that was our main focus.
In ECON 2023H, we spent more time in the classroom, but not all of it. Dr. Gay taught us economics and he is a professor from the U of A. Like in Art History, we would always meet in the classroom first and then he would either lecture for the entire class or for around an hour before taking us to visit sites with economic aspects. After our site visits, we would have to write a “discovery” (his word for a 2+ page essay) on the economic aspects of what we had just visited. While this worked for most sites, like our visit to the Ferragamo Museum in Florence, it was challenging to write about places like the Uffizi Gallery or Borghese. In all we wrote 14 graded “discoveries” and my writing skills definitely improved.
The final for econ was the only other grade in the class and was 11 short answer questions over the textbook (which thankfully was cheap and light) and his lectures. I still do not have my grades back but I am confident that both of my grades will reflect my efforts in my classes. As for Art History, she would send us on “scavenger hunts” each week to find a real life example of something that she had lectured about. For example, one hunt was for a Corinthian column after we had learned about the orders of columns in the preceding class period. These hunts were required but not graded and the class was extremely informal, which I liked. The final was 3 images and we had to describe them and our personal experiences in viewing them in 5-6 lines. The class structure helped me learn better than a typical class setting and I am grateful for that.
Q: What was the food like?
A: I am going to preface this with the fact that I am an extremely
picky eater. The good news is that Italian food happens to be one of my
favorites, or at least it used to be since I’m kind of worn out on it
now. The country’s food selection definitely played a part in my
decision making process on where to study abroad and although some
people might find that silly, I thought that it was necessary because if
I wasn’t eating, I might not be having a good time. Anyways, the first
thing I ate after landing was a margherita pizza.For the first week that I was there, this is pretty much all I ate. I am a hardcore cheese pizza lover and the margherita pizza is basically a cheese pizza with basil. I was afraid to branch out to other foods, but that stopped when I traveled outside of Italy. From my past experiences in Europe (Ireland and France) and this one, I have now formulated a theory that all of the restaurants must be connected in some way. Seriously. If you go to one restaurant and look at their menu, you will see the exact same options with maybe a 50 cent price cut at the next one!! I found myself really missing American food at around the halfway point and as soon as I get back, my family has promised me that we can stop for Whataburger.
Q: Did you travel outside of Rome?
A: I did! I went to Spain on my second weekend abroad, Florence on the third weekend, and Sperlonga on my fourth and final weekend. Our first weekend in Rome was filled with site visits to all of the famous places in Rome that you can think of. After that, we had the weekends free.
On the weekend of June 10-12, my 2 friends that I met on this trip and I traveled to Barcelona, Spain. As mentioned above, THIS is where I became adventurous with my food. I tried paella and I think that it is my new favorite food. I’ll include some pictures below, but it comes in a hot pan with a bed of rice topped with anything your heart desires. I tried the meat one, the vegetable one, the seafood one (my personal favorite), and the mixed one in my short stay in Spain. Then, I found a place that served paella in Rome on my birthday and had it there too. In Spain, we went to the beach, took a bike tour of the city, went to Park Güell, and generally just walked around the city. I had a wonderful time but was happy to be back in Rome after a busy weekend.
The final weekend was short as we had final exams the following week so one of my roommates and I went to the beach in Sperlonga, Italy. That town is so tiny yet so beautiful. I’m from a small town in Oklahoma, so it was refreshing and welcoming to visit another small town after a long time in Rome. I wish I had the chance to travel more but I am grateful for the traveling that I did.
Q: What were your living conditions like?
A: I lived in an apartment with 3 other girls. We had 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. We lived the closest to the school with only a 10 minute walk to and from class versus the 30 minute walk my classmates faced. I lived on Piazza Adriana right behind Castel San’Angelo and felt very safe in my location. To get into the apartment, we had to open a gate with one key, then open a door to the complex with a different key, and finally open our apartment with our own key. This may seem like a hassle but I am grateful for the safety and piece of mind it provided.
As per typical Italian apartments, we did not have AC, a dishwasher, or a dryer. The one thing I was surprised we didn’t have however were fans. Even a tiny fan would have made a difference and I wish that they had provided one in the apartment. Luckily, a sheet of paper did the trick along with my trusty icepack: a bag of frozen peas.
Q: Would you recommend this program to other students and what is one thing you had wished you known beforehand?
A: I would highly recommend this program, as it is a blend between the usual Faculty Led program and an exchange program. While it is classified as Faculty Led, it was more laid back with more free time than other programs. We did have some structure, but for the most part we had our afternoons and weekends free.
The one thing I wish I knew before choosing a program is the nature of the program. What I mean by that is that this program is heavy on the art history. I realize that I took an art history course, but I did not realize that even outside of class I would be doing things that were solely focused on art history. I would recommend that if you are thinking about this program, you are at least slightly interested in art or know that you can handle 14 hour days of walking 30,000 steps at museums and churches 5 days a week.
Q: What is the first thing that you will do when you get back?A: Like I said, I will be heading straight for Whataburger and then into my bed. I have a queen sized bed at home with fitted sheets (my apartment did not have any) and I could not be more excited to go to sleep tonight. I start work at my church on Tuesday, so I am also going to try to hang out with my family as much as possible this weekend and prepare for the other two classes that I will be taking to start on Tuesday.
I really enjoyed my time here in Rome and although I am sad that it is over, I feel like it was the perfect amount of time for a study abroad program. I cannot wait for 9:12 PM tonight when I land and am finally able to see my family after 5 weeks apart. Thank you for reading about my adventure, and I hope that my journey has inspired you to take one yourself, even if it is just to the local museum in your city. You never know what you might like until you try it.
Ciao!
Taylor
--
Read more from Taylor at https://taylorsitalianavventura.wordpress.com/
Check out http://studyabroad.uark.edu/romecampus for more information on the U of A Rome Center: Summer Campus.
