In-Field Presentations

Overview

While studying in Rome, and later the Tuscan hill towns of Pienza, Cortona, and Siena, followed by Florence, and Milan, the focus of the group was to gain a more meaningful understanding of Italy and the contextual layers that lay beneath the surface, in order to go far beyond the average tourist experience.

While in Rome, the group participated in contextual tours of the city with Tom Rankin and Scott Schlimgen of the American Institute for Roman Culture. Within these tours, the ideas of urban palimpsest and complex layers were introduced to the group as being essential to the under-the-surface workings of Rome. Further, the group discussed the effect of previous urban conditions upon the present day situation. This created a focus that remained throughout the remainder of the field study, allowing a new outlook for analyzing situations and systems that remain unnoticed by most tourists and Italians themselves, a state of mind that stayed with us throughout Tuscany and Milan.