Living in Rome was like living in a museum. The eternal city is ripe with culture and history at every corner and ingrained in every brick or piece of travertine. While abroad, I took a class called “Roman Art and Civilization: From Antiquity to the Present.” I learned all about Roman history from before the monarchy to present times with a particular focus on Rome’s material, cultural, artistic, and architectural evidence. We analyzed the Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque, as well as the modern and contemporary features of Roman art and civilization through frequent visits to churches, museums, and other places of interest. We spent more time learning outside than we did in the classroom, and although it was often a lot to bear in the Italian heat and my feet grew sore from walking miles on cobblestone at the end of the day, the only thing I could complain about was not having had more opportunities to learn directly from the world instead of always through black and white words on pages.
Every day my classmates and I were tested, not in the conventional sense, but when we went out for field lectures, our teacher quizzed us on the architecture that lined the streets and asked us to date it and name the materials, which helped strengthen my observation skills. I walked through the Roman Forum and the Pantheon, constructed during imperial times, basked in the Colosseum’s grandness and complicated history. I stared in awe at the design of Saint Peter’s Basilica and the figures’ poses in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. My teacher was funny, respectful, and compassionate; his passion for the subject shone through whenever he taught a lesson or saw our interest when we asked a question. Due to my class choice, I think I was more immersed and embraced by Italy than I would’ve been if I had explored it on my own. There is such a significant advantage in knowing the historical background of how things came to be because it gave me a greater appreciation for their stories and culture. Then when I got to connect it to a physical landmark, it was a surreal moment. My education this summer extended outside of Rome when I had the opportunity to visit other cities of Italy: Venice, Florence, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, and Venice. In Florence, I reached my goal of enriching myself as a visual artist by seeing great art pieces in person, like Michelangelo’s David statue and Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus.”
