New partnership with institution benefits study abroad program
Notre Dame Rome signed a three year agreement with the Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali (The Capitoline Superintendence for Cultural Heritage) in September, allowing Notre Dame students greater access to Rome’s cultural and historical heritage.
The Sovrintendenza is an institutional body that “manages, maintains, enhances the archaeological, historical-artistic and monumental assets owned by Roma Capital.” These include many of the museums throughout the city, such as the Capitoline Museums and Ara Pacis Museum. Additionally, it is responsible for the management of the Aurelian Walls which surround the city center.
The agreement will give Notre Dame students and researchers access to the Parco Archeologico del Celio and the Museo della Forma Urbis. Located a few blocks from the Notre Dame Rome academic building and the Villa, Notre Dame’s undergraduate residence in the city, the Caelian hill overlooks the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.
As part of this new agreement, students enrolled in “All Roads Lead to Rome,” a required history course for non-architecture majors who study at Notre Dame Rome, will be able to visit the Museo della Forma Urbis. This will expand and enhance a class that is already critical to the students’ encounter with Rome.
Timothy Welch, a senior studying aerospace engineering who studied in Rome in the fall of 2023, told the Rover, “‘All Roads’ gave us a chance to see the city through the eyes of an expert and, on top of that, see it through a historical lens that would’ve otherwise been lost entirely. … [I] would’ve loved … if Notre Dame provided more access to the historical sites around the city.”
Notre Dame’s School of Architecture has hosted a workshop as part of this new agreement that allowed students to study the fragments of the Forma Urbis using advanced digital tools. Professor Lorenzo Fei, who organized the event with Professor Paolo Viiti, told Notre Dame News, “The workshop received highly positive feedback from students. We are already considering … and exploring new topics to propose to the Parco and hopefully opening up new research opportunities.”
The impact of greater access to the city of Rome and collaborative projects is immense for students. Nate McLeod, a fourth year architecture student, described his experience studying the Mausoleum of Hadrian and Hadrian’s Villa in a similar research project under Professor Vitti as “the most enriching part of my Rome experience.”
This new partnership adds to pre-existing arrangements made by the university to give students access to the city’s public museums for free or reduced prices with the MIC (Musei in Comune) Card. As McLeod described it, the card is “a free pass into many fantastic museums and monuments.”
Giulio Gentile, another senior aerospace engineer, commented to the Rover, “Inserting myself into the physical space that other generations had built and lived in made the experience, in the full sense of the word, awesome.”
As part of their work together, the Sovrintendenza and Notre Dame Rome hope to host an international conference in 2026. Both parties would like to continue working together to strengthen their ties and increase the number of collaborative initiatives. Dr. Silvia Dall’Olio, director of Notre Dame Rome, told Notre Dame News, “This partnership with such a premier cultural institution in the city is already making possible synergies that were unimaginable before.”
William White is a senior studying aerospace engineering. As an engineer, his only qualification for this piece is constantly wishing he could return to Rome for another semester. Complaints (his writing skills, the website, other members of masthead, etc.) can be filed at wwhite7@nd.edu.
Photo Credit: Diliff via Wikimedia Commons
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