The view in Amalfi after climbing up many stairs

Author: Luke Simmons | Majors: Computer Science, Computer Engineering | Semester: Summer 2023

This summer going into my junior year, I got the opportunity to go to Rome, Italy to study at the University of Arkansas campus there. There I took the Italian I class and economics. I decided to take this program because I haven’t ever been outside of North America and I wanted to experience an entirely new culture. I took Italian since I figured it would help me out while I was there (and it did!) and economics since I’d like to be an entrepreneur in the near future. In Italian, I got to learn the basics of it and also relevant things to my time there. My professor taught us how to do tasks that we needed to do there such as introduce ourselves, order food, and give and get directions – which came in handy many times. Not only did we learn Italian in that class, we also got to do a few different activities – my favorite being the cooking class that we did; we made two different kinds of pasta as a class! In economics, we learned the basics of micro and macro-economics, but we also learned valuable business skills and how to put them into practice. We learned a few different business modeling techniques and got to use them in a group project where we worked with a local startup in Rome that makes internet connectivity addons for cars. In that project, we created a plan for them to enter the US market and used the models to show where they stand. We also visited three very different museums in economics to compare them through the business models. The classes themselves were also very different than what they would be in Arkansas. The professors were all Italian and the classes were much smaller than a typical class. My economics class had just three other students! I got to know all of my classmates and professors well and every day each student would participate and there would be many group activities.

I lived in an apartment that was about a 25 minute walk from the Rome Center. Every day, I would get to walk past the Vatican and across the River Tiber. My apartment was bigger than what I was expecting –  it even had a full kitchen! However, there were some new things that I had to learn while living there, such as how to light the stove manually and having to use a drying rack. One thing that I noticed was that many things were a lot smaller than in the United States: the cars, showers, even breakfast. Walking to school, just about every day, I would get a pastry from one restaurant on the way over. I got food there so much that the owner would know what I wanted the second he saw me walk in! Overall, the food experience in Italy is regarded much higher than what it is in America. All the meals took much longer than they do in the US and each plate was artfully crafted. There were many lunches and dinners that were two hours or more! There weren’t many fast food places or chain restaurants, they mostly seemed to be independent, sit-down restaurants. Over there, I also took the public transport mostly everywhere. The buses, subways, and trains over in Italy are very robust. I can count on one hand the number of times that I took a taxi. All the buildings in Rome were also not skyscraper level tall, since they are all so ancient. I also had the chance to travel all around Italy during the weekends: Florence, Pisa, Amalfi, and Milan were the places I had a chance to visit.

I would say that this program is good for anyone looking for a good summer experience that’s not too short, but not too long, and doesn’t have a specific study abroad experience or class in mind. I got to see most of everything that I wanted to see in Italy, and take a couple of basic classes while at it. There were plenty of tours and excursions that the University set up while still having plenty of time to go do things on your own. There were a couple things that I wish I did know, though. One being that there are trains that just run locally through all the different neighborhoods and two being that any small purchase is expected to be in cash. There is also a great app called Moovit that gives you directions with all the public transport options available. My last piece of advice is that you should definitely buy a local SIM card when you get there, they’re all very cheap. When it was time to go back home and I arrived back, it was already very late at night. The first thing that I did when I got home was turn on the air conditioner (the AC isn’t very strong in Italy) and go to sleep. After that, I woke up, and ate a big breakfast.