I’ve truly been enjoying my experience studying abroad in Rome. The professors that I have at my university are wonderful and truly care about their students’ comprehension of the material. It’s been a wonderful experience to not only learn the material of the class, but to also hear the stories of my professors and guest speakers we’ve all had the pleasure of listening to. I’m much of a homebody or hermit myself and prefer to be alone, but I decided to do something different while I was abroad by exploring as much as I can. Outside of classes, I had a bit of free time (excluding having to do homework) to travel around the city during the week and on the weekends. I would recommend that if you want decent free time and for it to still be daylight when you travel to register for your classes as early in the day as possible. The sights of Rome are truly unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Of course, you have the typical tourist attractions of the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Fontana de Trevi, etc. which are beautiful, but I’ve also traveled to the Rome Zoo and the Botanical Gardens of Rome (highly recommend) which were breathtaking. The beaches were enjoyable despite the high salt content that WILL burn your eyes haha. I also took the opportunity to travel outside of Italy for a weekend trip to Croatia with my roommates. Traveling was just a wonderful experience all around!
Now for the bad news haha. Rome is, unironically, the place that will require a lot of walking so bring proper shoes and try to wear long shorts to avoid chaffing for those like me that have that problem. I didn’t taking public transportation much while I was here, but if I have to offer any advice about it I will say, JUST PURCHASE THE TICKETS I BEG YOU! Those fines are no joke! The tickets can be as cheap as 1,50 euro, but the fine can be 50,00 euro and more. Next, Italians are kind people but to OTHER ITALIANS. If you’re American and, in my case, a person of color they can be very rude and short with you. Unfortunately, Italians are behind on the “woke” culture and have a lot of apprehension to people that are not like them, which can make life here difficult. I’ve spoken to citizens of Rome, Italy that are not of Italian origin and they have confirmed this statement to be true. Another thing is that, as expected, Italians live different lives and have different social norms than us, so please be sure to do decent research into their culture so that you don’t make an irreversible mistake.
Outside of both the pros and cons of studying abroad in Italy, I have truly enjoyed taking this time to enjoy being in a different country for the first time. While I have been incredibly homesick, I feel that being in Rome has changed my perspective on a lot of aspects in my life and even caused me to grow as a person.
