Rome, Italy
Rome exhibits layers of history going back over two millennia—Etruscan tombs, Republican meeting rooms, imperial temples, early Christian churches, medieval bell towers, Renaissance palaces, and baroque basilicas—but it is also a very modern, vibrant, multicultural city.
In this one locale, a phenomenal concentration of history, legend and monuments coexists with an equally phenomenal concentration of people busily going about their everyday lives.
While tourists visit the Vatican, the Forum Romanum and the Trevi Fountain, many visitors often miss the many other sights that make the whole of Rome a museum—a living museum with a population of three million, with rich art, literary, music, theatre, and food traditions.
About the Program
The HWS program in Rome, Italy utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to explore different aspects of Italian culture and society. While the program is designed to immerse students fully in the experience of being in Rome, excursions will provide a wider perspective on the history, culture, and daily life of Italy as a whole. Students will live in furnished flats, providing opportunities to develop their Italian language skills and to experience Roman daily life.
Courses and program-related activities are arranged through our affiliation with the Borromini Institute.
Students participating in the program will take the following courses:
ITAL XXX: Filming Rome. An Italian Cinema Journey (1 credit)
The course provides a distinctive pedagogical framework for the scholarly exploration of Italian cinema within its intrinsic cultural and historical context. Situated in Rome, the curriculum facilitates an immersive engagement with the multifaceted history, diverse stylistic and thematic genres, and profound cultural significance of Italian cinematic production. Transcending conventional filmic analysis, students will experience the urban environment as a tangible cinematic landscape, involving site visits to significant film locations and direct interaction with the local film community. Furthermore, the course offers potential experiential learning opportunities through engagement with industry professionals, including film directors and producers, as well as academic scholars in the field, such as potential visits to Cinecittà and the possibility of attending lectures at La Sapienza University. The overarching pedagogical objective is to cultivate a nuanced comprehension of Italian cinematic aesthetics, narrative conventions, and its enduring impact on global film history and theory.
This course will be cross-listed to Media and Society.
ITAL 102: Beginning Italian II (1 credit)
Offered through our partner institution, the Scuola Leonardo da Vinci, this course will build upon the foundation of Italian language study completed at HWS prior to the program. A variety of visits to local sites will complement in-class instruction and a series of “labs” will introduce students to various aspects of Italian culture and society. Students with more advanced Italian skills will be placed in an upper level class.
Italian Food and Culture (1 credit)
This course will examine food (as a complex system) from historical, political, economic, (inter)cultural, and culinary perspectives. Students will start with a general introduction to Italy and Italian food and wine with an emphasis on regional traditions and more specifically the interconnected micro-cuisines that exist throughout Italy, examining even further the local food culture of the city of Rome and its historical and cultural significance. They will also examine contemporary issues, such as the Mediterranean diet success and food production, distribution, and consumption. Wine and specific food products, both artisanal and mass-produced, will be tasted and discussed, and their cultural significance evaluated. Students will explore the ways in which local food cultures and traditions can contribute to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Together we will study how Italian food today is also a product of historical foreign influences, globalization, as well as modernization. Field studies, food visits and cooking practicums are included.
This course will be cross-listed to Anthropology.
Internship (1 credit)
Students will complete an internship related to their area(s) of academic interest arranged in collaboration with the Borromini Institute. In addition to weekly meetings in which students will share insights and reflections on their internship experiences and work, students will produce a research paper to contextualize their experience within their field.
ACADEMIC FOCUS
This program will be of particular interest to students in Media and Society, Entrepreneurial Studies, Environmental Studies, Business Management and Entrepreneurship, International Relations, and Italian Studies.
This program is open to all sophomores, juniors, and seniors in good social and academic standing with a minimum GPA of 2.5. Students will be required to have successfully completed (with a C- or better) ITAL 101 prior to departure. Due to the challenging nature of study abroad, student academic and disciplinary records will be carefully screened.
Students reside in independent apartments arranged by the program while in Rome and will stay in hotels or hostels during excursions.
Program-related excursions vary from year to year depending on the courses offered and the interests of the faculty director(s). The program typically includes a combination of overnight excursions outside Rome, designed to provide students insight into other areas of the country, and day trips to important sites in and around Rome. A visit to Turin is tentatively planned for Fall 2026.
Students will be charged standard HWS tuition and fees, room fees, and a $600 administrative fee. This will cover tuition for a four-course semester, health insurance, housing, and program-related activities and excursions. Note that no HWS board fee will be charged. Students should plan to bring their board fee to cover meal expenses throughout the program. While meal expenses will vary according to individual tastes, we estimate $2200-$2400 should be sufficient for students who prepare their own meals.
Additional expenses not covered include airfare, visa, books, and personal expenses (laundry, entertainment, ground transportation, and independent travel). We estimate airfare for this program at $1000-$1200 from the East Coast, visa at $50, and books at $250. It is difficult to give an accurate estimate of personal expenses because student spending habits differ considerably. We would suggest a minimum of $1500 above and beyond meal expenses. However, students on a tight budget should be able to manage with less. If you are concerned about finances we strongly encourage you to talk to the CGE staff who can offer information and advice based on your specific situation.
Additional grant funding is available to students with financial need to defray these costs. Some grants come directly from HWS, and others are external, national competitions. You can find more information here. If you are concerned about finances, we strongly encourage you to talk to the CGE staff who can offer information and advice based on your specific situation.
HWS students must complete all components of the Global Education application in order to be considered for admission to this program.
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The Rome program is offered every semester. In the Fall semester the academic focus will vary depending upon the expertise of the faculty director(s) while Art and Architecture is the focus in the Spring semester.
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All components of the application must be submitted online by the published deadline. Specific deadline dates are set each semester and will be in late September/early October (for Fall programs) and late February/early March (for Spring programs).
Program Handbook
IMPORTANT: The handbook(s) below is/are the most recent handbook(s) published for this program. A new version, with updated information, will be made available each semester. Program participants will receive their updated handbook approximately 2-3 months prior to their program’s start date.
FALL HANDBOOK
Please DO NOT MAKE TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS until you have received final confirmation of the program start/finish dates for the specific semester you are attending. Dates included in versions of the program handbook intended for previous semesters do not necessarily apply to future programs.
NOTE: The information above is subject to change. Please see the CGE for more information.
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