During the spring of 2018, I took an Honors class centered around Art, Architecture and Engineering in Rome which included a 9 day study abroad element in it. The class met once a week on Wednesday night and consisting off students of all years and a variety of majors. Admittedly, my initial thoughts on the class were to learn a little about Italian culture and life in European countries. By the end of my experience, I had a newfound love and appreciation for the art and history that surrounds us in our day to day lives.
The trip commenced with spending our first two days in Naples, exploring the historic city and the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum before travelling to Rome for the remainder of the trip. Naples in itself was a breath of fresh air I had never experienced before. The people, the culture, the buildings and who could forget the art? This was my first introduction to the importance of ancient art infused with modern architecture. We would walk past 20 feet past a fancy restaurant to end up in a church that was over 500 years old. To put it in better context, directly across from our hotel on the beaches of Naples rested one of the oldest castles in the cities, the Castel dell'Ovo. It amazed me how these cities grew around these monuments as opposed to burying the importance of such structures with generations of historical significance. This was, of course, unlike the city of Pompeii, buried and preserved in time; serving as a snapshot of Ancient Roman times and everyday life. The city lost in time was an incredible statement of how simple and different humanity had once existed and how much of an effect, negative and positive, technology and human advancement had made on us. My first European experience was overwhelming in spotting out key differences in life in America versus life in Italy. Ranging from diets, transportation, social interactions and daily mannerisms, people in Italy lived an almost alien life in comparison to the USA. And I naturally loved every bit of it.
Just when I had thought I had seen it all in Naples, Rome blew all of my expectations through the roof. The city was adorned with culture, art and history in every corner. Monuments as historic and iconic as the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Capitoline Hill were no more than a 15 minute walk from where we stayed, further stressing the incredible mix of ancient and modern Roman buildings and how the city built around its history as opposed to over it. Naturally, the urban lover in me couldn't help but appreciate the convenient public transit options which made exploring the city so much more convenient and painless. However, the thing I was most surprised by was how much I grew to appreciate the importance of art and its impact. Life as a mechanical engineering student is considerable devoid of any cultural immersion. Students get lost in a life of calculus and lab reports, not stopping to realize the other important things in life. This was the biggest reason I took this class, to "escape" the monotonous engineering life and explore the worlds mysteries one step at a time. Visiting countless churches and museums, I learned of various influential works of art and architecture that changed and moved numerous people. I grew to see past just the artwork in front of me and appreciate the history and contextual circumstances of artists creating these pieces. Outside of household names such as Michelangelo and Raphael, I learned about artists like Bernini and Caravaggio who were just as influential in shaping the artistic renaissance of Rome. Instead of trinkets and t-shirts, I chose to buy souvenirs in the form of books and albums to promise to myself to keep true to the personal renaissance I had in Italy. This class taught me how to appreciate culture in a global scale and how, despite being someone of two very different cultures, there was so much more I could learn about the world and its rich history, From the stunning views on top of the St Peters cupola to late night gelato runs, from tossing coins in the Trevi Fountain to experiencing the atmosphere of a European soccer game, this trip showed me the duality of ancient and modern European life and can be summed up to being one of the most unforgettable weeks of my life.
As a form of reflection, I wrote and maintained daily blog posts detailing our experiences in Italy which I've linked below. In addition, as a final project for the class, I collected some videos I took in Italy into a video compilation, which I've also linked below!
The trip commenced with spending our first two days in Naples, exploring the historic city and the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum before travelling to Rome for the remainder of the trip. Naples in itself was a breath of fresh air I had never experienced before. The people, the culture, the buildings and who could forget the art? This was my first introduction to the importance of ancient art infused with modern architecture. We would walk past 20 feet past a fancy restaurant to end up in a church that was over 500 years old. To put it in better context, directly across from our hotel on the beaches of Naples rested one of the oldest castles in the cities, the Castel dell'Ovo. It amazed me how these cities grew around these monuments as opposed to burying the importance of such structures with generations of historical significance. This was, of course, unlike the city of Pompeii, buried and preserved in time; serving as a snapshot of Ancient Roman times and everyday life. The city lost in time was an incredible statement of how simple and different humanity had once existed and how much of an effect, negative and positive, technology and human advancement had made on us. My first European experience was overwhelming in spotting out key differences in life in America versus life in Italy. Ranging from diets, transportation, social interactions and daily mannerisms, people in Italy lived an almost alien life in comparison to the USA. And I naturally loved every bit of it.
Just when I had thought I had seen it all in Naples, Rome blew all of my expectations through the roof. The city was adorned with culture, art and history in every corner. Monuments as historic and iconic as the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Capitoline Hill were no more than a 15 minute walk from where we stayed, further stressing the incredible mix of ancient and modern Roman buildings and how the city built around its history as opposed to over it. Naturally, the urban lover in me couldn't help but appreciate the convenient public transit options which made exploring the city so much more convenient and painless. However, the thing I was most surprised by was how much I grew to appreciate the importance of art and its impact. Life as a mechanical engineering student is considerable devoid of any cultural immersion. Students get lost in a life of calculus and lab reports, not stopping to realize the other important things in life. This was the biggest reason I took this class, to "escape" the monotonous engineering life and explore the worlds mysteries one step at a time. Visiting countless churches and museums, I learned of various influential works of art and architecture that changed and moved numerous people. I grew to see past just the artwork in front of me and appreciate the history and contextual circumstances of artists creating these pieces. Outside of household names such as Michelangelo and Raphael, I learned about artists like Bernini and Caravaggio who were just as influential in shaping the artistic renaissance of Rome. Instead of trinkets and t-shirts, I chose to buy souvenirs in the form of books and albums to promise to myself to keep true to the personal renaissance I had in Italy. This class taught me how to appreciate culture in a global scale and how, despite being someone of two very different cultures, there was so much more I could learn about the world and its rich history, From the stunning views on top of the St Peters cupola to late night gelato runs, from tossing coins in the Trevi Fountain to experiencing the atmosphere of a European soccer game, this trip showed me the duality of ancient and modern European life and can be summed up to being one of the most unforgettable weeks of my life.
As a form of reflection, I wrote and maintained daily blog posts detailing our experiences in Italy which I've linked below. In addition, as a final project for the class, I collected some videos I took in Italy into a video compilation, which I've also linked below!