Borromini Institute Rome Study & Intern Abroad

The other week, our students ventured north of Rome for the weekend to the scenic region of Tuscia. Alongside Prof. Jessie Mancini and Tuscia Lab's Alessandro De Filippo, they explored Tuscia's rich gastronomic culture through a narrated lunch, guided farm visits, and a group dinner complete with regional delicacies and local folk music! Of course, they couldn't visit Tuscia without exploring Lake Bolsena and taking a dip in the crystal waters.

Grazie mille to Prof. Mancini and Tuscia Lab for sharing one of Lazio's hidden gems with our students!

As a field-based component of the course, this study trip to Abruzzo, in eastern Italy, extended classroom inquiry into lived environments and regional contexts.

Departing from Rome and crossing the Apennine range, students arrived in L’Aquila, a historic city shaped by ongoing post-earthquake reconstruction. Through site observation and guided walking sessions, the urban fabric became a lens through which to examine architectural traditions, water systems, and urban resilience. In the afternoon, the course moved to Castelvecchio Calvisio—a medieval hill town with fewer than one hundred residents. Here, discussions on rural depopulation, spatial organization, and territorial renewal were grounded in direct engagement with the site.

Moving between city and village, from regional scale to micro-urban conditions, the day unfolded across multiple registers of observation and analysis, contributing to an understanding of the relationships between environment, society, and spatial form. Fieldwork operates here not only as a component of the curriculum, but as a mode of inquiry itself.