While Martin had visited the historic city of Rome twice before his Erasmus exchange, it was only as a tourist. “I wanted to experience what it’s like to really live in a place like that,” says the second-year student at the Faculty of Arts – and despite his previous visits, he found that actually living in a city of millions brings many surprises.
Global Humanities instead of Italian
Art history lectures at La Sapienza University – one of Italy’s largest universities – are taught exclusively in Italian. Although Martin is learning the language, he did not think it was a good idea to rely on his Italian for exams in specialist subjects. Eventually, he discovered an alternative: the English-taught Global Humanities programme, offering a mix of art history, history, sociology and related disciplines. “I could have put together a combination of art history courses, but I decided to pick classes that are hard to come by in the Czech Republic,” he explains. He chose Islamic Archaeology and Art, Medieval and Byzantine Art, and a course on Iran and the Middle East – which became more topical overnight than he could ever have expected. “Right after I enrolled, war broke out in Iran. Suddenly, we were discussing things in class that were in the news.”
Some things about his classes in Italy were a bit different from what he was used to in Brno. “The main difference is definitely that both the students and the lecturers strictly observe the academic quarter,” says Martin. Another difference was the compulsory reading, which forms the basis for the exams. “Fifty per cent of the questions are from the lectures, fifty per cent from the reading list. So, you really do read,” says Martin.
Accommodation can be a nightmare
Finding a place to live in Rome can be an unpleasant surprise for students. “The situation here is terrible. A private room in a shared flat typically costs between six hundred and nine hundred and fifty euros a month. You have to reckon with the fact that your entire grant might go on accommodation alone,” warns Martin.
He himself moved house three times during the semester. “The first place was only confirmed two days before I left,” he recalls. He now lives in the suburbs for a more reasonable four hundred and seventy euros, but his bus commute takes over an hour and the schedule is more of a guideline rather than an actual plan. “The bus can turn up at any point within a half-hour window. Or it doesn’t turn up at all,” he explains. The total monthly cost of living for a student amounts to around a thousand euros spent on accommodation, food, transport and the occasional coffee.
The real Rome
The student from Brno, who until recently lived with his parents, has stood on his own two feet for the first time in Rome. “It’s really the first time I’ve had to manage my life from A to Z on my own,” he admits. A semester in Rome has also taught him to appreciate life in the Czech Republic more than ever before. “You realise how good we have it back home. I knew that before, but when you see it with your own eyes here – the dysfunctional transport, traffic jams everywhere, high rents, higher crime rates – it really shows you we have a lot to be grateful for,” says Martin, reflecting on his experiences in the tourist city.
Nevertheless, he would not trade his time in the Eternal City for anything. He now knows how to get around Rome like a local: he knows the shortcuts, knows where to turn off the main street and end up in a quiet neighbourhood where local chefs smoke outside restaurants and Italian grandmothers serve coffee for a euro. “Tourist Rome and the real Rome are two different places. And the latter is far more interesting,” he says.