Borromini Institute Rome Study & Intern Abroad

At TBI we are fully committed to talking about the elephant in the room: climate. Everything we do is impacted by it and much of what we do impacts it, with potentially disastrous results. Yet as our students learn in Italy, we can live well and have a positive impact on our communities and our planet, no sacrifice required.

The Auburn Rome program is off to a great start. Here are some moments of their first week, ending with a beautiful day in the countryside at the Gardens of Ninfa and the Villa d’Este in Tivoli.

Borromini Institute Director Tom Rankin attended the awards ceremony for the Foundation Roma ReGeneration ideas competition, A Vision for Rome, as part of the team led by Professor Paola Viganò of EPFL Lausanne. Their project, A Splendid Preparation for the Future, was awarded Third Prize and received an Honourable Mention in the category The Tiber as a Catalyst for Change. As always, it is a privilege to participate in changemaking projects for this great city.

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.

Each week students in Prof. Rankin’s Sustainable Rome course produced a short photographic essay reflecting on one observation about better living in harmony with the city and the planet. Here are just a few selected posts from students of the Hobart and William Smith Rome Program.

Over three days, we traveled through the Calabria region in southern Italy, from Rosarno to Reggio Calabria.
We visited towns such as Polistena, Roccella Ionica, Camini, and Riace, where students explored migration and the region’s long-standing Mediterranean history of cultural exchange and hybridity.
Through meetings with local officials, NGOs, and reception centers at key arrival ports—where migrants along the Balkan route receive first assistance—we gained first-hand insight into the role of social cooperatives in migrant integration. We experienced, in a very concrete way, the deep spirit of universal hospitality that characterizes these communities.
In Roccella Ionica, we observed frontline humanitarian response at a key arrival point. In Riace and Camini, we encountered inspiring community-based models that connect migration with local revitalization and social innovation.
At the end of our journey in Reggio Calabria, we visited the National Archaeological Museum, home to the famous Riace Bronzes.

Special thanks to Mayor , Mayor , the Coast Guard of Roccella Ionica , and Rosario Zurzolo for their generous invitation and hospitality.

More than a field trip, this experience offered valuable critical insight into human rights, labor dynamics, and global migration. .illinois