My time in Rome has come and gone, and it was truly an incredible experience that I will not soon forget. Coming to Rome, I had heard so much about the “Eternal City” in history classes in grammar school and high school and in urban planning courses at Pitt, but seeing and experiencing the sites was certainly irreplaceable. Being down at street-level or overlooking the city from its various vantage points brought the immense sense of scale of the urban built environment that cannot be fully understood and appreciated when reading or viewing images of the city. 

During our first week of classes, Dr. Morton led my classmates and I to the archaeological site of Largo Argentina. The site is open to the air and sits around 20 feet below street level. It is surrounded by busy streets, restaurants, and even partially covered by a tram line. Largo Argentina greatly set the tone for much of the future class visits and my own understanding of the city of Rome and its urban history. 

Something that Dr. Morton kept mentioning to us was the layers of Rome. We started our classes looking at Roman Republic era structures and finished with structures built in the 21st century. Nearly all of Rome is built on top of something previously, and so much of those layers and that history is missed by the people walking the streets. On the same day we visited Largo Argentina we walked the site of Pompey’s Complex. This structure is not open to the air like Largo Argentina and has not been unearthed, but its shape is still visible in the modern street layout of Rome. Streets and buildings standing today bend where the bend of the theater of Pompey stood. Some of the buildings even still incorporate the support columns of the ancient Roman structure. 

Throughout the entirety of my program, I saw and studied sites just like these, incredibly incorporated into the modern fabric of Rome. Sites such as the Baths of Trajan, Church of San Carlino, and Palazzo Farnese are all fit, molded, and incorporated into the modern streets of Rome in such beautiful, detailed, and thoughtful ways. These site visits challenged me to develop a greater understanding of the layers of urban and built history and the importance of creating architectural dialogue with the past in order to build a more understood present. This thinking came about from taking the time to observe and begin to understand spaces. I spent time seeing things change minute by minute and day by day but also in studying their past I saw these spaces change century by century. 

I believe that my time in Rome has greatly influenced my observational learning skills especially when it comes to understanding urban planning and built history. The program brought me so many great skills, wonderful memories, and newfound friends. I will never look at a street corner, sidewalk, or building the same way again. Instead, I will analyze and look out for small details that structures often do not often advertise showing the changes, replacements, and incorporations throughout time. 

Grazie Dr. Morton e Cinzia, Claudia, e miei compagni di classe. Grazie Roma!