Author: Shawn Cafferty-Lueck | Major: Biology |Semester: Summer 2025

Mazzini Monument

When I applied for this summer program in Rome it was primarily incidental, as a backup option to a program in Greece. This program took place over a similar period of time, and involved touring around Greece looking at sites of interest to the classical and Hellenistic period. Initially I preferred it to the more “boring” option of the typical Rome stay for a month. However, I very much wanted to go on a study abroad tour, and so therefore in case I was not accepted into the Greece program, I signed up for the Rome program, which was at the same time. While I for whatever reason did not believe the Rome program was as interesting as the Greece program, Rome is a city I always had interest in, the extremely historically layered great city of Europe. Of all the major European cities, it is both one of the oldest and has the most of its ancient structure intact, while being layered over by many succeeding layers of development. Of course, I was honestly not considering this when applying for a study abroad program, I just wanted to get a study abroad experience before the end of my undergraduate. Rome was a reliable program, as I knew there was a dedicated university center in Rome that would make the program much easier and more stable. Therefore, I applied. When the due date for when I would know whether I would be accepted into both programs, I was only notified that I had been accepted into the Rome program at the end of the day. I thought that this meant that I had not been accepted into the Greece program, and so in concern that if I waited too long I would not be able to be accepted into the Rome program, so I accepted the application for that one. It was a few days later before I found out that I had also been accepted into the Greece program, but by then I was fixed into going into the Rome program, so I obtained the honors college grant, using the remaining contents of my account to fund the trip. I then mostly waited before going on the trip, I did not come up with any real plans. I had at least made the subject of the program line up with my area of study, it being centered around Renaissance Humanism through the lens of “self-fashioning”. Being a history and biology major this was the best fit as there were not any especially Biologically focused programs.

My experiences on the program itself were for me at least quite extraordinary. My class workload was relatively light, mostly being weekly journal entries and keeping up with the weekly readings, which were heavy on interesting period sources, including the inquisition investigatory records on the miller and heretic Menocchio, and the humanistic curriculum of Guarino. Despite having a term paper to complete at the end with relatively little time I did not feel nearly as pressured when it came to time and deadlines as I had been in regular university sessions. Therefore I had a lot of time to go on touring around Rome, which in addition to the sites went to as part of the programs itinerary meant that I got to see much of the artistic sights of Rome. In terms of intellectual revelations from the classes, I learned just how single mindedly focused the humanistic curriculum was on the study of classical Latin diction, and how at least some of the narrative around the rise of the individual is true, if exaggerated. My experience living in the city of Rome was much more satisfactory than I had feared. I had never lived with a roommate before, but my nervousness was unfounded as I had a decent enough relationship with the 6 other students sharing my apartment, even if I did not see them nearly as often as I had thought. Obtaining food and other resources was also very easy and even enjoyable, as there was fortunately a supermarket right across the street from my apartment. Getting around Rome was also easy, as most of the city can be accessed by walking despite the intense traffic, and the Bus network at least is punctual and has good coverage, although it took me a while to figure it out until I found that google maps has charts of both the network and schedule. I did not use the metro but from what I have heard it is also effective. It was demoralizing not being able to talk to people in their own language but food was cheap and abundant, with there being restaurants and gelaterias everywhere. The weather in the city was hot but not nearly as hot or oppressive as Arkansas. I mostly saw the more “everyday” aspects of the city indirectly, as I was focused on seeing as many attractions as possible and for the most part did not use the restaurants. Of the many attractions I visited some of those that were most memorable were the Palazzo Altempts, a small but consummate museum, which contains some of the most impressive and artistic elements of the Villa Ludovisi collection of art, including the museum centerpiece of the Ludovisi gaul, one of the most emotionally intense and dynamic sculptures in the entire city, as well as a vastly undervisited chapel with some similarly intense frescoes. The Palazzo Altempts is on the same ticket as the Palazzo Massemo museum, which contains splendid rooms of Roman wall paintings and some extremely vibrant inlaid marble works from the later part of the empire, as well as two excellent rare intact roman bronzes. The most memorable churches were Saint Peters in Vatican for grandeur, San Carlino Alle Quattro Fontane for simple aesthetics, and Round Saint Lawrence for unity of theme and architecture. Trastevere and Aventino were my most memorable areas of Rome, the former for its vibrancy and the latter for its parks and panoramic views over the city. One problem that repeatedly came up was the danger of being scammed. Rome is full of street merchants charging for overpriced tourist trapping items such as charger blocks that barely work, although I did get a nice umbrella off one of them. There are also panhandlers handing out necklaces but they are easy to brush off even if you do get marked by one. In our programs outing to Florence however I was completely marked by a three cup gameplayer. So if anything be more aware of scammers in Florence than in Rome.