American Overseas School of Rome

Secondary School Principal and Mrs. Heidi Hanssen as the Elementary School Principal.HistoryFor the first half of its existence, the school was called the Overseas School of Rome. There was an OSR located at the Foro Mussolini (now the Foro Italico), near Ponte Milvio before 1947, but not the same school that was incorporated in that year. When news came that the Allied Forces were being moved to Trieste, five American and five British mothers (some from the original Foro Mussolini school) got together and decided to form a school which should be nondenominational and international, combining the best of the British and American systems. This group is responsible for the organization of the official corporation that became known as the American Overseas School of Rome.The parents managed to get the British and American Ambassadors, as patrons of the school, to put pressure on the Torlonia family to rent the palazzetto of Villa Torlonia on Via Nomentana as AOSR's first campus. The school opened its doors to the public on October 16, 1947, with 60 students.