Kayla photographing the city of Venice

Author: Kayla Ho | Major: Architecture

Honors College Fellow Kayla Ho spent a semester studying abroad in Rome, Italy at the University of Arkansas Rome Center. During the fall 2021 semester, she had the opportunity to live in and learn about the city, with its unique mixture of ancient and contemporary spaces. Kayla is a student in the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design, majoring in architecture with a minor in sustainability.

My name is Kayla and I’m a student in the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design. This study abroad experience gave me the opportunity to experience living in and designing for an urban setting. Rome is much larger than the cities I’m used to back home, and the city has some of the oldest and loveliest buildings in the world! During the semester, I took classes in architecture and Italian language, which helped a lot in my daily life (especially for ordering at restaurants). In my studio, we worked on urban analyses, master planning, and renovation projects. These types of projects, which are more common for urban settings, were all new to me! I loved being able to live in the city I designed for in my classes.

For one of my classes, I took a walking tour to a different neighborhood of Rome every week after first learning about the neighborhood in a lecture. These walking tours helped me better understand individual neighborhoods as well as the city as whole. Before the semester started, I had known Rome was a big city with over three million residents but going on walking tours helped me truly understand how big of a city Rome is. There are so many different neighborhoods in Rome, distinct in their demographics, building styles, planning strategies, history, and culture!

Every day I had a 30-minute walk from my apartment to the Rome Center in Old Rome, the historic medieval and renaissance center. In this part of town, there are smaller cobblestone streets and lots of shops. On my walk, I would pass by street vendors, bakeries, and lots of churches. To get around the city, my classmates and I all had to learn to navigate the city’s public transit systems. Rome has several bus and train systems for traveling within the city and from city to city across the country! It took some time to feel comfortable using the buses and trains, but I really enjoyed walking more and using public transportation! It’s such a different experience from driving everywhere with my car back home.

Piazza della Rotonda in the afternoon

My favorite experiences during my four months abroad were seeing all of the public life on the streets! In Rome, there are artists and musicians on the street and every day I saw people paused to watch them. There were many piazzas which are always full of people! People would sit around fountains, visit nearby monuments, or eat at tables outside. On a school-hosted trip to Cinque Terre, I visited a small town with a public square right next to the beach. Even at night, there were still people out and kids playing in the square. It was wonderful to not only see but be a part of these moments!

For anyone interested in architecture and city life, I would recommend studying abroad in Rome. The city has not only ancient ruins and beautiful buildings to visit, but there are also so many opportunities to see people living life and working in public spaces today. It’s a modern city with an ancient history. I would also recommend visiting other cities in Italy to see different types of architecture and cities! In Venice, I experienced a walking city planned around canals with beautiful Venetian Gothic buildings. In Puglia, I saw an entire town with traditional trulli, stone huts with conical roofs. All of these cities offered unique experiences, and I loved being able to compare them back to Rome and even the towns I know back in the United States!