Grazie, Roma

Our visit to the Greek colony at Paestum, Italy

Author: Isai Castaneda | Major: Architecture

Ciao!

My name is Isai Castaneda, and I am a fifth-year student studying architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. I just recently returned from an absolutely magical and eye-opening semester abroad in Rome, Italy. A visit to Rome for an architecture student is like participating in the Grand Tour—it is a coming-of-age intellectually and experientially. Architecture as a career requires some actual, experienced interaction with how people occupy and use spaces, so the program at Fay Jones requires students to elect between its study abroad programs, either a summer in Mexico, or a semester in Rome. Despite the pandemic’s effects on cancelling many opportunities, I was one of the fortunate to spend my Fall 2021 semester in that ancient city.

The Palazzo Taverna occupies a block of the historic city center, and hosts the UARC, or University of Arkansas Rome Campus. My daily walk to the school would take me next to the Vatican and St. Peter’s, by the Castel Sant’Angelo, and across the Ponte Sant’Angelo. These monuments and structures have an ancient history that goes back to Emperor Constantine and even further back to Emperor Hadrian. The faculty and staff that work there are so excited to have students spend their time in Rome. The classes there are just as challenging as they are on our Fayetteville campus, but the hope is that you also spend time experiencing Rome—to explore a new neighborhood you’ve never been to, to walk into that church you ran into around the corner, to find a new favorite restaurant where the owner knows your name and regular order, to find a unique shop that sells only teacups or rubber duckies or Christmas ornaments, to drink from the nasone, to watch the sunset while listening to the guitarist playing for change on the Tiber Island bridge—simply to experience the distinct layers of Rome. I was lucky enough to be able to experience these parts of Rome and more for myself, and being surrounded by other UARK friends made it an even more significant experience.

Biking in northern Italy was incredibly surreal

The desire to explore and experience doesn’t stop at the limits of Rome, but goes further—school trips allow the opportunity to hike in the Dolemite mountain range of the Swiss-Italian Alps, swim in the waters of the Amalfi coast, among many experiences. I was able to visit so many places in Italy that completely lived up to and even surpassed my expectations, including the beautifully enchanting city of Venice and the historically densely packed streets of Florence. Traveling in Europe is made so easy once you’re there—I was lucky enough (even through the uncertainty of COVID) to be able to organize my own trips to Barcelona (the magical Cathedral of the Sagrada Familia is one of my favorite places in the world) and London, which resulted in some of the highlights of my entire time abroad.

If you decide to take the step to spend a semester in Rome, my main piece of advice would be to be willing to step out of your comfort zone. You may already be taking one of the biggest steps of your life by leaving the United States for the first time (as was my situation), so why not be willing to say yes to more opportunities? Make travel plans of your own (pro tip: the faculty are willing to help and give advice, especially in those first few weeks), find yourself a new group of people (I got to know so many of the architecture classmates I had been going to school with for the past four years!), eat or drink something new each time you find yourself curious (you might never get to eat a carbonara in Rome, pigeon meat in Orvieto, or taste a red wine in Tuscany again!), get out of the school and meet people (people love people, and so many of the Italians I met were incredibly welcoming), visit a monument you’ve already seen but in the rain (the line is probably smaller, or even nonexistent!). I wish I’d done more research on cities and places to visit in Italy, because the transportation infrastructure makes it the absolute easiest within the country and its cities. Italy itself has so much to offer, and I wish I’d just had more time to experience even more of the incredibly diverse experience Italy has to offer. Despite the amazing time I had, it was wonderful to be able to come home and hug my family and spend the end-of-year holidays with them.

All that to say…I can’t wait to be back in the city I have so much to thank for. Grazie, Roma.