Buongiorno and welcome to my GeoBlog! My name is Evan Murphy, and I am fourth-year architecture student from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I am studying at Penn State’s architecture program with the Pantheon Institute in Rome during the Spring 2011 semester. I look forward to sharing my experiences of Italian history and culture in the upcoming months through my photography, field sketches, video, and written entries. I will also be blogging from various other European locales as my class schedule permits. As you might have guessed, I’m very interested in architecture, art, and history. However, I’m also very excited to blog about topics such as food, festivals, and daily Italian/European life.

above: Roma (and myself) from atop Janiculum Hill – a balmy 55 degrees in January!

I arrived in Rome a little over a week ago, and have been working through some technical roadblocks with the internet connection. I’m living in an 11th Century former monastery in Trastevere, across the Tiber from center-city Rome (hence the bad wifi).  Trastevere is a middle-class neighborhood, with a good mix of permanent residents and international exchange students living here. It is much quieter and less “touristy” than many other parts of Rome, as it pretty far from most of the well-known sites in Rome. Trastevere is full of narrow cobblestone streets lined with centuries-old apartment buildings and too many old churches, family grocers, and fantastic restaurants to count. Anything you could need while living here for a semester is within walking distance. I’m feeling very much at home already!

Before posting on my first week in Rome, I’ll be catching up with some posts on a trip I made with two friends through Norway, Finland, and Switzerland on our way to Italy. Until my post on the Pantheon, Roman markets, and Hadrian’s Villa, here’s a pic of our courtyard, from the terrace outside our apartments – the largest private garden in Rome (below). Ciao!

Location: Trastevere, Rome, Italy