Outside The Colosseum.

Author: Anna Grace | Major: Interior Architecture and Design | Semester: Summer 2025
Riding the bus from Rome airport was an amazing transition from an 8-hour flight to absorbing the scenery of my new home for five weeks. I was mesmerized by how the plant life looked pulled from Renaissance painting, and how the buildings looked like a Pinterest board. How can jetlag matter when your apartment is now across the street from the
Vatican? I had underestimated just how much this program was going to change my perception. In the Interior program at the Rome Center, there were two classes to take: Design Walking Tours and History of Italian Design. Both classes revolved around site visits and small
lectures to analyze the buildings. A typical day in my walking tours class consisted of taking the metro or buses to meet my professor at our site location for the day. My professor would start off by giving background information on the building/site we were seeing today, then we would have a quick tour and walk around, and finally, we would be guided to a spot to sketch and analyze while learning in the moment. For my history class, we alternated between having a lecture at the Rome Center campus that focused on a lecture and group
activity, and site visits to places that were an example of the historical design period we
had just learned about.
One of my favorite class periods was the history class trip to Villa Torlonia. This villa is most
famous for housing Mussolini after World War II, having a guest house, and a surrounding
garden. This was an eye-opening visit as there were many design types to examine, with my
history teacher providing background information and highlighting important features. The
main villa was in a Neoclassical style, the guest house in the Liberty style, and the grounds
have been converted to a public park area. This was one of my favorite days in class as I
was able to see all the design styles together in person.
During the weekend, this program had two weekend trips that we did, as well as a couple of
group tours. The two weekend trips were to Orvieto, Florence, and Milan. Each of these
trips was scheduled out with tours, time to walk around and shop, and then evenings free
to explore. My favorite part of each of these trips was experiencing the difference in
weather, people, and transportation systems like trains, bullet trains, buses, and metro
stations. During our last free weekend, my friend and I signed up for a pasta and tiramisu
cooking class, which was a fun way to end our time in Rome!
Ciao, Rome. I hope to see you again!