Cooking fried artichokes with instructions from Roman chefs for my class To Rome, With Love.

Author: Emily Snyder | Majors: History & Latino and Latin American Studies

When I entered into my Hogs Abroad portal earlier this year, I was greeted by two previous applications to the U of A Rome Center for the summer of 2020 and 2021, both rejected due to the circumstances of the pandemic. I had given up on the idea that I would be able to travel to Rome, Italy during my time as an undergraduate at the University of Arkansas, until one of my friends mentioned she was delaying her graduation to take the final opportunity to study abroad. So, there I was again, applying to the U of A Rome Center for the summer of 2022.

Rome, Italy had always drawn me in with its promise of immense art, architectural, and historical significance. Having spent my undergraduate career studying history, art history, and anthropology, I felt enthralled by the opportunity to live and study in a city whose art and history could be seen at every corner. Arriving there, I was fascinated by the way the layers of Rome’s history mixed with its modern-day existence and the reality of the people who continued to call it home. Major museums were housed in the largest public baths of the Roman Empire, linking modern topics to the locations of the past. The metro lines weaved throughout important archeological sites, impacting the interconnectedness of the city, and making the nearest metro stop from our apartment a twenty-minute walk. Catholic churches were littered on every street, so that the 7:30 AM church bells announcing mass became my second alarm clock each morning. But most of all, I was struck by how Italians, especially those who specifically identified as Roman, which was an important and exclusive label, each personally clung to this history and the narrative it laid out for them as a city and nation. There was great pride in this long, diverse, and winding identity of the city, which I learned equally as much about from a specific special topics course on Rome and Roman culture called To Rome, With Love as from my interactions with my Italian professors and Italians I encountered in my daily life throughout my five weeks there. In and outside of the classroom, Italians made it clear that they held their history, language, food, and other forms of culture in high esteem. After seeing the great works of the Renaissance and learning how to cook two quintessential Roman dishes, fried artichokes and cacio e pepe, with Roman chefs, I understood why they valued this culture, with its rich past and strong continuing tradition.

I also saw Rome as a great primer for my master’s degree that I will be pursuing over the next two years in Museum Studies. The city provided an intriguing case quite unique from others in the world because of the vast amount of art and history that resides there, which much of the world claims as universal heritage. I was interested in seeing how they approached this in museums, monuments, and cultural centers, and how they handled the layers of history that had accumulated in this single geographical area. However, Rome also provided a primer for my master’s degree in that it was the first time I had ever lived in a big city, especially a city that also served as the nation’s capital, which was great preparation for my confidence entering into my move to Washington, D.C. to attend George Washington University.

Living in Rome for five weeks was very different from my previous study abroad experience traveling in Greece on a faculty-led program, despite the fact that they lasted for similar amounts of time. There is so much more to contend with when you are expected to fully integrate into the environment in which you are studying, on top of being a student and a prolonged tourist in one of the most abundant destinations for tourist experiences. Within the first week, my roommates and I experienced the different norms of an Italian grocery store, making by with the aid of a disgruntled, but ultimately helpful cashier who realized how lost we were and helped us to understand the intricacies of the produce section. We found a phone store and decided on an Italian phone plan that was right for us, switching out our sim cards and swapping our phone numbers for Italian ones to be able to access the services our program required of us. We figured out the metro and bus system, finally buying month-long passes that allowed us to greatly increase our energy once we did not have to walk an hour to go to and from classes each day. The Rome Center was there to offer advice to us when we had questions, but ultimately their hands-off approach meant that we were navigating a distinct experience than I expected from my previous time studying abroad. This gave me a crash course on living in a new place, being self-sufficient, and all with a language barrier to boot! I have come away from this program having seen some of the most awe-inspiring art, having eaten some of the most delicious food, and having gained confidence in my own ability to move on to the next chapter of my life living in D.C.