Submitted by Sydney Ballenger the 2024 Spring program in Rome, Italy…
This week officially marks the beginning of the second half of the semester. The courses I have been taking are unlike any I have taken at UD thus far, making this an untraditional semester of coursework. Although art is far from my passion or a strength of mine, my favorite class here is an art history class focused on Roman history. The class meets “on site” once a week for three
hours, meaning each Wednesday at 8:30am I find my way to a different monument, building, museum, or temple to meet my class. The professor is excellent and the class visits many of the places I had only previously read about in order to discuss the political and social contexts of the buildings or pieces of art. So far, we have visited the Roman Forum, Capitoline Museums, Colosseum, Palatine Hill, the Pantheon, Pompey’s theater, and the Ara Pacis.
This week, my art history class took an onsite trip to Pompeii for the day. We spent the entire day exploring the city with the guidance of our professor. It was an incredible experience and I feel very lucky to be able to count an informational trip to Pompeii as a part of my educational experience thus far. We all learned quite a bit about the way people lived their lives before Mt. Vesuvius erupted, looking at political slogans on the walls, beautiful frescoes depicting Greek myths, and the perfectly preserved “fast food” restaurants, or thermopoliums. This experience has been one of the most informative and impressive ones since arriving in Rome and I am grateful I took the class! (Submitted on March 9, 2024)