The First Week of Classes

It’s officially the weekend! I just completed my first week of classes in Rome and it was great. Our school is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment, we just go across a bridge and through a few blocks to reach the “Palazzo delle Cinque Scole”. The school itself is in a historic building with a large marble staircase, beautiful frescoes on the walls, and cute windows with shutters! (I haven’t taken pictures yet, but I will post them once I do!)

As far as classes go, I think that the semester will be pretty time consuming but really fun. We are starting the semester with an Italian language class, a drawing class, a class about modern art and architecture in Rome, and a Roman history class. We don’t start studio until almost spring break! My two favorite classes are going to be my drawing class and the Roman history class. For drawing, we just did basic learning things this week, but next week we are going to start walking around to different sites in the city to draw the four elements (fire, water, earth, and air). Basically, we get to draw for four hours every day, it doesn’t get much better than that! :)

I had my history class today and it was amazing. We walked around to different sites in Rome (The Roman Forum, the Palatine hill, and the Colosseum) with our professor. It’s like having our own private tour guide with us!


A view from the outside of the Colosseum


On top of the Palantine Hill in the Roman Forum


The Roman Forum


The inside of the Colosseum


The "Belly Button of Rome" this is where everything is measured from in Rome

Other than that, this week is full of getting acclimated to the city. We figured out how to make the pasta taste good (the pasta sauce over here is just tomato paste I think, so you have to add a bunch of spices to make it taste decent!). We also went out with some of our classmates last night and met other architecture students who are studying abroad here from Northeastern University. We talked about taking the train up to Florence this weekend, but I think we might just end up staying here and going to see Vatican City and some of the other sites that are still on our list.

I will try to keep updating my blog and let you know about my adventures! I should correct my last entry though, my Grandpa pointed out to me that the height of the Pantheon is not the same as the circumference; it is the same as the diameter! Oops!