Author: Sarah Myane | Major: Architecture | Semester: Fall 2024

Bar and restaurant in Rome in the basement of a bookstore

Arrivederci Roma!

December is usually the time of year when I’m in the studio 10 hours a day to finish my project. However, December in Rome was spent out in the city studying and taking in the city for the last time. A large portion of this month was spent defining our presentations for studio and architecture of the city, the drawing class that accompanies our studio course. The architecture of the city portfolio was a refinement of the drawings and on site sketches into a booklet format to be presented digitally. Each class focused on building diagrammatic drawing skills and identification of architectural principles through Italian and Roman architecture. The booklet walks through my visual development of these architectural principles by grouping similar site visits and sketches together that fell under the same topic. This was useful to distill the information we learned this semester in a creative way that pushed us to develop a curated explorative look at our own work. I greatly appreciated the Rome centers focus on hand drawing and physical drafting work for our architecture work, it brings back basic principles from freshman year that we learned, grounding us now as 5th year students back to the core principles of our major.

December was also a month of reflection, looking back on the program as a whole and its unique experience, particularly for me bringing my bike with me to Europe provided a new angle to experience Rome and beyond. While travel in Rome was often limited by uneven bus schedules, my bike gave me the freedom to explore the city on my own. One trip I would not have taken without my bike was riding southeast of Rome to the Parco degli Acquedotti. Running over 10 miles out of the city, the park follows the roman road Via Latina. The road to lago Albano, which has 6 mile loop around the lake along the edge. I stopped in the city at the bottom of the mountain for lunch afterwards and took the train station home. While only a small day trip, the ride took me out somewhere I would never have gone if I had not brought the bike with me. Even small rides across the center of Rome were a great way to see more of the city and see some lesser known architectural sites.

This trip as a whole was imperative to the development of my architectural education, specific and tailored to my degree, the Rome program provided a learning experience I could not get anywhere else. Now back home in the United States for Christmas, it is odd to now to walk into a superstore and have anything I could ever need in one building. Some of the charm of Rome was the adventure of finding that last ingredient at 3 different grocery stores or taking my bike to the bike repair store and wildly gesturing to describe what I needed help with. It is a humbling experience being unable to communicate but also an opportunity to develop my Italian or problem solving skills. I will miss the uncertainty and chaos of Rome; it made every day unique and my experience unforgettable.