Rome: An experience of a lifetime. Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The workload was pretty light, which was nice. Most of the applicable classes were taught on site, such as history and art history classes. It was a lot less homework than I am used to, and students did have to attend class due to an attendance policy.

On-site administration of your program

They very knowledgeable about pretty much everything. I thought everything was ran very smoothly, and the students were always informed of everything. They had a ton of knowledge of Rome, and always had fun cultural activities for us. They pretty good knowledge of American higher education.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I lived in a wonderful newly renovated apartment with 2 other American students from my program. We lived right next to St. Peter's, so the neighborhood was very safe. Only problem with that is that most of the food around the area was expensive, and there were always a lot of tourists around. I didn't have to buy any items to help settle in.

Food was amazing all around. There's places to go for every budget. I did get a little sick of pizza and pasta, but there's a lot of other options there too.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

There were a ton of cool cultural events, and also a lot of cocktail parties and mixers. The included travel provided by AIFS was awesome.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Overall it was not too bad, but like any big city you just have to be careful and smart about your actions. There were people who got pick-pocketed and had things stolen. Just be aware of your surroundings, don't go places alone and always have you personal items very close to you. I did have to go to a doctor there. My program was very helpful with that. My program had us get medical insurance which helped with the cost. I would recommend trying to get prescriptions from your doctor at home before you go because medication there isn't as strong was we're used to. And bring as much over the counter medication as you can.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

My program had us spend two weeks in Florence where we studied just Italian, which really helped. Then when we got to Rome we were required to take an Italian language class, and unfortunately I didn't have a very good professor there. I spoke some Italian everyday. I definitely needed to know some basic Italian to live in Rome, but a lot of people did speak at least some English.

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• Apartment
• Hotel

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• Americans