Learning by Living

This week has held some of the coolest academic experiences I've ever had, and it's not even over yet.

Monday, for instance, was our first history class with Dr. Higgins. And by class, I mean walking around the city and learning the stories behind places and ruins as we passed them. We've come so far from being lectured to in Koubek Auditorium. Now we can actually experience the spaces we're learning about, rather than just listen to professors rattle on about them. We can choose to turn our heads and take a place in in its entirety, rather than be limited to the constricted views of a few select images, taken at the whim of the photographer. When Dr. Higgins described the materials used in ancient Roman architecture, we could actually reach out and touch them. We could feel the porosity of local travertine versus the smoothness of imported marble. And we could feel that awesome sense of wonder and enlightenment as we realized we were in the midst of something so great, with so rich a history. We were experiencing the history.

Then, on Tuesday, we were given a rather simple assignment for class: get lost. Divided into groups of three, we were assigned a starting point and a destination, but we were specifically instructed not to take a direct path between the two. We were to wander, get distracted, and otherwise lose our way with the intention of discovering new and special places along the way. My group started at Barbieri Metro station and found our way to the Spanish Steps (none of us had been there yet!), came across some beautiful churches that had opened their doors to visitors, and even happened to rediscover a fantastic gelateria (Giolitti) that our professors had taken us to the first week of class (and which none of us had remembered its location). We sketched and took pictures and otherwise enjoyed aimlessly wandering the streets of the Eternal City.

This is what architecture is about: Experience. This is why I'm in Rome.