John Felice Rome Center – Page 3

Cinque Terre, Salty Beards, and Jellyfish

By Matthew Walcutt | October 8, 2018

Despite its amazing potential to be the name of a low-budget Kung Fu movie, turns out Cinque Terre is just 5 gorgeous towns along the coast of the clear, blue Tyrrhenian sea with delicious and copious amounts of seafood. Total. Bummer.

Nevertheless, Cinque Terre this past weekend was utterly stunning. In an unofficial poll I took of my friends who went with me, we all gave it a thumbs-up which is as official a promotion seven college students can give a place. The weather was perfect with a ton of sun when we went out on the boat and enough clouds on the other days to give the appearance of a stormy day at sea without it actually being a stormy day at sea. In true sea fashion, our Air BNB was a boat in the La Spezia harbor where we watched sunrises over coffee, waved to many tourists going on boat tours, and watched a man in yellow pants non-stop dance in front of his boat. In short, it was all I could ask for.

To elaborate, we spent the first day out on our boat going around the coast of Cinque Terre and the second day wandering through the five lands. During our boat ride, our captain Piedro told us about the history of the place while taking us to hidden waterfalls and offering us fresh pesto pizza and rice cakes. Mixed with a little bit of cheap prosecco and I felt like I was living the high life. I even was lucky enough to get a ton of salt in my beard from swimming. Each one of us on the trip agreed that we had not done something so relaxing in a long time.

The next day was my personal favorite and most anticipated: a journey through Cinque Terre. We started by heading out to the furthest town, Monterosso, where we climbed rocks and faraglioni, chowed on some streetza (my term for “street pizza”), and walked along the beach. From there, we continued to Vernazza where we had some gelato, found a cave of rock towers, and met some French people who very kindly let us pet their dog. We then found ourselves in the high and hidden town of Corniglia whose tall alleys and views hidden under leaves gave us an entirely different experience. Next, we arrived at Manarola in the late afternoon as the sky was beginning to turn golden and the buildings colors began to shine. Finally, we ended in Riomaggiore to watch the sunset on the rocks and eat some delicious seafood.

The real highlight of the trip, however, was when we returned to Manarola the next day to swim and relax before returning to Rome. The morning began warm and sunny, but by the time we reached Manarola, the sky had turned gray and a slight drizzle was falling. We were not about to let a little bit of rain ruin our plans, however. To the surprise of a fair number of other tourists, we jumped off the rocks into the cold water as the rain fell from above. Shortly thereafter, the clouds began to part and the midday sun shone again on the colorful buildings of Manarola. Although our swim was unfortunately interrupted by a few rude jellyfish who decided to sting one of my friends, the day made up for it with some fried calamari and tons of laughter on the rocky port of Manarola.

When I woke up this morning after the trip, I began to realize how surreal all of it now seems. It was literally yesterday, but Cinque Terre was so beautiful and so relaxing that it feels worlds away from the return to schoolwork. And yet, I can’t get the way the sun hit the buildings at sunset or the jokes made with my friends or the way the lemony calamari tasted on my salt-covered lips. I wish I could return to the oasis, but I had some great moments to remember years from now and that’s pretty much the same thing.

Le Montagne Chiamano…

By Matthew Walcutt | October 1, 2018

This weekend I went with a group of other students from the JFRC to Vincenza for a hike up the Strada Delle 52 Gallerie – a path carved into the Alps during World War 1 by Italian soldiers to serve as the front against the Austrians. The entire trip was so much fun and it felt great to get outside of Rome and see more of Italy.

Our trip started early (maybe a bit too early) on Friday morning where we took a train from Termini to Verona. Once we arrived in Verona, however, the early morning turned into a perfect afternoon. The weather was beautiful, and Verona was an adorable little city to explore. My friends and I went around to some little shops, got some gelato, and eventually stumbled onto the ~supposed~ balcony of Juliet. At the balcony, people leave locks and letters to their loved ones. The balcony was fine, but I loved the doors covered in notes (below) and the alley covered in graffiti (above).

After Verona, we made our way further north to the city of Vicenza where we would be staying in between our hike up the Alps. Vicenza itself is full of buildings designed by Andrea Palladio. Palladio’s work is exemplary of Renaissance architecture, with tons of classical references and proportions. Merely walking through the city, one stumbles into countless pieces of his work including the Teatro Olympico.

The real beauty of the trip, however, was the hike along Strada Delle 52 Gallerie itself. As we approached the start of the hike in our bus, I mentioned offhandedly how I wished we could reach the peaks of the mountains while along the hike. Little did I realize, but that’s exactly how high up the hike goes! La Strada can get steep and difficult, and it is amazing (and horrifying) how ingenious humans can be during war. The tunnels were dug by pickax and dynamite and placed strategically along the mountains to counter attacks by the Austrians. I could try to describe the beauty of the Alps themselves but instead I’ll just share some photos:

(To show how high up we were, I took a photo of the restaurant where we ate lunch once we returned to the base of the mountains. If you look in the center of the red circle, you’ll see a big yellow building that has become a tiny yellow dot — that was the restaurant on the return down from the Strada).

The hike was beautiful, the Alps were amazing, and my time with friends made it all that much better. I’m still a little sore, but I could not be more amazed and elated by the mountains we climbed. The adventurer in me could not have been happier, but now – back in Rome – I’m all the more excited for the next one!

(The photos of Verona and Vicenza were contributed by my amazing friend, Mikaela, shown in the middle of this one)

A Clear Day

By Matthew Walcutt | September 23, 2018

These past two weeks in Rome, I really feel like I’ve begun to take my own advice to heart and have found a way to start making Rome my city. The little map that I downloaded at the start of the semester is already filling up with a ton of gelato places, bars, museums, parks, and other spots around Rome that I’ve visited and want to remember. One of my favorites so far has been Villa Borghese; the giant grassy park reminds me both of the Metroparks back home in Cleveland and Millenium Park back home in Chicago. I can easily take some work there, just relax, and find myself lost in a new city.

These past weeks have also started to get really immersing. I started my internship at the American Academy in Rome where I’m working with the Fototeca Unione project building up a Digital Humanities database for researchers and fellows at the American Academy. The work is interesting, and I enjoy finding out more about Roman monuments and sites in Rome, but the best part has actually been the walk back from the Academy. After long days of practicing Italian and working alongside other researchers, I walk down Via Garibaldi on the Janiculum Hill (usually to the sound of Jon Bellion) and take in the marvelous overlook of Rome. Each look – especially as the sun sets – is as miraculous as the one before it. I just want to explore all of Rome’s maze.

And yet, despite how strong that feeling is when I walk down the Janiculum, I almost spent this weekend in. I had a rather exhausting week full of trips across town for my internship, trips across town for on-site classes, trips across town for my research… There were a lot of trips across town, okay? My legs did not want to walk another step. Luckily, I’ve made some great friends who refuse ever to let me rest. On Friday, I found myself in Trastevere experiencing some more of Rome’s nightlife: going for apertivo at Freni e Frizioni, having a chocolate shot at Rivendita, and wandering around the alleys with great company. Eventually, we were sitting down on the stairs of Piazza Trilussa drinking some wine and listening to some street musicians; it was definitely more exciting than a night in.

The next day, we took a trip out to Anzio – a little beach town to the south of Rome – to get some proper relaxation in. It’s not well pictured (mostly because I was not about to take my phone into the water), but the water at Anzio is so clear! There are caves and cliffs along the sides of the beach which made my adventurous spirit so happy! We swam, we explored, we tanned (and burned), but the clear skies kept me happy. Everything in Rome and around it forces you to slow down and I’m really starting to like it. A beach “afternoon” really becomes a beach day, a “lunch” with coworkers becomes a long conversation over coffee, and a “trip across town” becomes a night of sightseeing and great food. Even now, as I’ve settled down, I’m already looking forward to my next clear day out in the city.

Amalfi -> Pompei -> Napoli(:

By Samuel Schuldenberg | September 16, 2018

After a few train rides, some fun cabs, and a random boat trip, I was able to pack three cities into my first weekend out of Rome.

Running on about 4 hours of sleep, a few friends and I took a cab to the train station. Pretty neat experience with a driver who sang Mama Mia to us. We took a train down to Salerno, Italy, where we were going to catch a bus to the Amalfi coast. If you have ever been to Europe, you know that the bus system isn’t always very reliable. We waited an hour for this bus, and when it finally showed up, IT DROVE RIGHT PAST US!! We made friends with some other American’s who were on their honeymoon, also trying to get to Amalfi, and they invited us to catch a cab with them to take a ferry instead. We had no other options so we decided to tag along. It’s about 1:00 and we are on a boat sailing along the coast and it was the most beautiful site ever. The buildings of the small cities are so simple and colorful, and the ocean was so blue. Our plans didn’t go exactly how we thought, but I’m glad we didn’t have control over them. We layed out on the beach of Amalfi for a few hours with a bottle of champagne and it was the perfect way to spend my afternoon. Highly recommend Amalfi to EVERYONE! It is amazing.

Later that night we head back to Salerno where we take a train to Pompei, where we have a hostel. We woke up early the next day to check out the ruins which were so cool. If you haven’t been, the city of Pompei was buried by lava and was dug up. The city was huge and so interesting to get a glimpse of how they lived back then. Afterward, we took another train to Napoli, where we checked into another hostel and went out to explore the town a little. This is where I had the BEST cheese and ham appetizer I have ever had and probably will ever have. Everywhere I have been in Italy, the thing that always catches my eye are the streets. Black cobblestone, no street signs, people driving in cars and mopeds honking everywhere. And the sunlight reflecting off of the buildings is so pretty. Later we came back to the dinner that the hostel provided. Homemade, Italian style pasta, and let me tell you, pasta here is soooo much better than America!

The next day we walked through the town of Napoli and made it to the coastline where we walked to a castle and looked at the amazing view of the city from about 100 yards out in the ocean. The view was breathtaking, to say the least. And we couldn’t stop in Napoli and not get pizza, so that’s just what we did. Walked a little further down the coast and stopped at a random place and had some of the best pizza I’ve ever had. After our time there we made our way back to Rome.

Pretty successful weekend. After a week of classes, some exams, and seeing the Pope on Wednesday, I’ll be exploring Florence!

Ciao Bella!

By Emma Majewski | September 12, 2018

Greetings From Bellisima Roma!

It’s been nearly two weeks since I landed in Rome! I can’t believe how fast time is passing, yet at the same time, I feel like a day is worth a week here! Can you believe that I am already avoiding pasta?! The hype is real, and then you realize that it’s way more carbs than you need! Ha ha! Let’s dig in…

(Me & My Roommate, Srishti, at the Roman Forum)

Defying Gravity!

Theoretically, packing for four months seems achievable. Now that I’m actually here, I realize that I am missing quite a bit of the things I couldn’t manage to fit into my suitcase. No, a large suitcase and carry on plus a backpack with a 50 pound weight limit do not cover it all! I guess I’ll think of it as an excuse to buy things here in Italy or wherever I might travel to! Funny enough, my roommate and I found ourselves at H&M down at the city center…very cultural of us.

The flight itself was decent. I tried sleeping, but I ended up playing trivia games with my roommate instead. When we arrived, the Zone Hotel told us our rooms weren’t ready yet. Jet-lagged, we hobbled over to the restaurant eno-z for a BIG glass of water. End of the story? We showered and napped before walking back to JFRC later that night for dinner.

(At the Airport)

Mamma Mia!

Let me just say that although interesting, orientation here reminded me of freshman orientation…except much cooler! The days were extremely long ranging from 9AM-9PM, sometimes longer. That doesn’t include the time it takes to get ready and walk over in the morning from the Zone nor does it include the outings at night that we went on in our own time. Moral of this story? Sleep is for the weak, but also for the smart! Nevertheless, it was fun.

(At the Pantheon for a Drink With Friends)

Lions and Tigers and Gladiators, Oh My!

On the first Saturday, we went in groups to see the Colosseum and Roman Forum. Prior to the trip, Dr. Sander Evers gave an engaging presentation about the history of Rome, beginning with the classic story of Romulus and Remus. Once at the Colosseum, I think the background information helped me appreciate the site more, yet it wasn’t as exciting since it was my second time visiting. At least I was able to make new friends out of the experience!

(At the Colosseum)

What a Beach!

As the last day to our week long orientation, the SLAs (Student Life Assistants) took us on a grandiose trip to the beach. From what I remember, it was called Rambla in Fiumicino. We each got our own lounge chair, which was nice because I don’t think I would’ve wanted to sit in the sand all day. You would think that after 7 hours in the sun and no sunscreen, I’d be burnt to a crisp. Somehow that wasn’t the case! While the weather was partly cloudy, it was still hot and perfect swimming weather. The waves were enormous, and it was a real swim to get to the sand bar because the waves would cap over in the stretch before it. Don’t worry, I made it! I cannot believe the amount of salt water I swallowed. I lost my voice for the next two days! After swimming for quite a bit, I sunk into my lounge chair, exhausted and an Aperol spritz in hand. What a day that was!

(At Rambla Beach)

School of Rock!

Classes started on Monday, Labor day. I love my schedule, and I better! It will be the easiest semester in my 4 years at Loyola considering I’m a Biology Major with a Molecular Biology Emphasis on the Pre-Med track. I think my favorite class so far has been Writing Fiction in Rome. It’s not that I’m a great writer or even great at English. It’s a class where I can be creative and not dread doing my homework all the time. It’s also partially on-site. I think Applied Piano comes close in second! My other classes aren’t bad either. Italian is actually useful because a lot of it is conversational and things I would use going out into the city center. Honors, not that it was really a choice, has been quite philosophical and beyond my mind so far…But at some point we will reach the topic of World War II, and I find that topic fascinating. I had my first Cell Bio class last night, and it was the smallest class I have here! There’s only 6 of us! I think it will be an interesting class, but I hope I don’t fall asleep since it’s from 7PM-9:30PM! I think I’ve underestimated my classes a bit. I wasn’t expecting as much homework as I’ve been getting from all my professors. I need to invest in superb time management!!

Umbria and More!

As a final cap to our welcoming in Italy, the SLAs took us to Umbria for a weekend. It was an intense schedule for 3 straight days, but overall, it was worth it! We visited new towns and captured new sceneries on our phones. From the Narni Underground to the streets of Spoleto, I thought it was intriguing and again, I met so many people! I do, however, think I will be avoiding pork, potatoes, and pasta for a few days.

(With our Dean of Students, Dr. Beazley)

Until Next Time!

As much as this post has been a pleasure, it’s time for me to finally get some sleep! The next you’ll hear from me will be after my trip to Venice and Milan! I’m so excited!

Until next time,

Emma

Trying to be less American

By Matthew Walcutt | September 9, 2018

After one long flight from Chicago to Rome, a week of jetlag, a weekend in the Italian region of Umbria, and a brief period of lost luggage, I can finally (hopefully) say that I have settled into Roma at the John Felice Rome Center (JFRC).

It’s been a whirlwind of a week filled with gelato, glasses (or maybe bottles) of red wine, and practicing Italian, but I am so excited to be in Rome for this next semester during my year abroad. I can vividly remember the study abroad information session during Loyola Weekend in my senior year of high school when I first heard about the Ricci Scholars Program. The Ricci Program allows me to do cross-cultural research between Rome, Italy, and Beijing, China. From the first moment I heard about it, I knew I wanted to participate but it feels slightly surreal now that I am actually in Rome preparing to research changes in labor law and labor organization over the past half-century.

Not going to lie, the amount of work I’m staring down for this semester and the upcoming year has me feeling a little bit stressed. How am I supposed to balance my work while trying to soak up this whole experience? Last week, every night felt like a choice between being abroad and studying abroad. I was either back at the JFRC reading and working or I was out in Rome – a beautiful city – exploring all of its nooks and crannies. Every turn around the corner was a whole new adventure… but it also felt like I was shaking off my work.

This past weekend in Umbria, however, really helped me to realign myself and my goals for this semester. At first, I was upset that I would lose a whole weekend of either exploring or studying. Yet, as we traveled from city to city in Umbria, as we saw all these hidden gems of Italy, it forced me to slow down and realize that all of last week – in trying to immerse myself fully into my semester abroad – I was completely failing at immersing myself fully into my semester abroad. That fast-paced desire to experience everything, to do everything is so utterly American. This semester is about learning from Italian history and culture, and that means not just walking through a piazza but stopping in it, not just looking at a statue but reading up on it, and not just doing some research but actually learning from it. And why shouldn’t I stop and stare for a while? Every part of this country is beautiful.

And I know that no amount of speaking Italian, eating gelato, or learning about Italy this semester in Rome will be able to make me Italian, but maybe – if I let it – it can make me a little less American.

Entering Roma

By Samuel Schuldenberg | September 1, 2018

After a short trip of 14 hours from Chicago to Rome, I finally dropped my bags off in my dorm at the John Felice Rome Center and began my semester of studying abroad in Europe.

I’m super excited to keep everyone back home updated on what I’m doing, where I’m going, and talk about my experiences for the next 3 1/2 months. Already I have visited the Colosseum, the ruins of the Roman Forum, a couple of Churches, gotten lost in the streets of Rome, made friends with local shop owners and bartenders, ordered every single cup of coffee in Italian, and planned the next 4 weekends of traveling with people in the 4 days I’ve been here, which seems like 2 weeks already.

Orientation has been a beating with all the activities and amount of walking we are doing. And the jet lag doesn’t help with any of it. But it has been a great few days meeting all the other students here from Loyola Chicago, and a bunch of other Universities. My roommate, Kyle, is from Hawaii and studies at Santa Clara University and has introduced me to the group of students that have come from there. Today I started talking to a Junior, Hannah, from Xavier University and ended up exploring and taking pictures with her and my friend Beth.

I am continuing my nursing studies while here, along with 24 other sophomore nursing majors from Loyola. Balancing the 18 credits I’m taking and exploring the city of Rome and trying to travel around Europe is going to be interesting, to say the least. But I think this semester is going to be the best few months.

Oh yeah, the wine and gelato are pretty good here(:

Arrivederci Roma!

By Ben LaScola | April 30, 2018

Arrivederci Roma! We sang that song three times at our Voice concert celebrating the end of the semester on Monday, April 23rd. There were a lot more people in the audience than I expected. (Many of us had pleaded with our friends not to come.) They came anyway, and we laughed and stammered through a few classic Italian songs, including our solo pieces. Most of us were not singers, but we had fun with it, breathing sighs of relief in between phrases because the semester was almost over, we were almost on our way back home.

Street art in Prati, Rome

Early on in the semester, I read a blog post written by a former JFRC student, she warned future students not to spend too much time wishing they were home. She wrote that during her semester, she never really stopped missing home, but that’s okay. I too found myself stubbornly missing home and looking forward to going back all semester. I never woke up one day no longer missing home at all. When I read her post, I realized every moment spent wishing I was home was a wasted one. Soon, I knew, I would be writing this last blog post, from my own kitchen table in Chicago. I think after I read that, I was more motivated to make the most of each day, and I did that the best I could for the rest of the semester.

Looking back, I loved my semester. Even though it wasn’t perfect, it was my own, unique experience that I wouldn’t change. I traveled to Poland and Switzerland, I toured Auschwitz and jumped off of a mountain. I had pizza in Naples and gelato in Florence. Saw the David, the Trevi, Botticelli’s Primavera, and dropped coins in the hats and cases of dozens of street musicians.

St. Peter’s Square

Not only am I lucky to have been able to take this trip, but doubly lucky to be able to come home to a place I love. Friends and family, and a whole list of things I missed. Less than 2% of American college students study abroad, an even smaller percentage gets to study abroad, all the while looking forward to coming home, while still enjoying their experiences in the host country. Needless to say, I have a lot to be grateful.

I got home Friday, April 27th. It’s been a relatively smooth transition. Three months is long enough to grow and change, but not enough to forget what home is like.

Next steps: Have a fun summer, and hopefully work a good internship related to communications. Next year I will be an RA at Loyola University Chicago, living at the water tower campus near Michigan Avenue. One more thing: I can’t wait to travel like a tourist in Chicago. It’s time for me to see more of my city, and my country!

A hungry scavenger waits for a meal above a fish market

One Weekend Remains!

By Ben LaScola | April 15, 2018

This weekend I stayed in Rome and took some time to revisit some of my favorite sites in the city. On Friday I went to a cool cafe called Ex Circus in the city center. They serve many different types of tea, healthy sandwiches, and salads. It’s one of the few cafes in Rome that welcomes students to come in and do some work on their laptops. Many cafes are made for a quick espresso and maybe a bite to eat, nothing more. It was nice to hang out in a cafe like at home.

I enjoyed some gelato near the Pantheon and walked around, checking out The Spanish Steps and Piazza Navona. The city is even more colorful now that flowers are growing and the summer tourists from all over the world are making their way to Rome.

The weekend was warm and mostly sunny, and Saturday was a good day to visit the Villa Borghese Gardens. Borghese is a giant green space in Rome with gardens, museums, and restaurants. Go kart drivers, rollerbladers, and dog walkers travel through the almost 200 acres of the park in the spring and summer. SLA Ola, two other students, and I had more gelato and took a roundabout way to the park. We rented a rowboat and paddled around a small man-made pond in the park. After everyone had had a turn clumsily trying to row the boat, I became the designated driver. The girls did not enjoy it when I brought us close to the angry honking geese on the shore.

I’m always surprised by how close everything actually is in Rome. The city is chaotic and can seem confusing, but in the center, the main sights and structures are only a few minutes apart on foot. When you can get an overhead view, like at the top of the Spanish Steps, it’s easy to point out landmarks and see that the main sights are all fairly close together.

After a fun weekend walking around and ignoring my homework, I’m back in the library writing this post. With two weeks left, I’m determined to make the most and not let them slip by.

Leaving TRG

By Sarah Higgs | April 14, 2018

I’M DONE WITH MY FIRST INTERNSHIP!!!

I’m so happy with how far I’ve come, oh my goodness. My last day was this Friday and it’s my longest day in office all week. This gave me plenty of time to complete projects I had and wrap everything up. I completed my final events post for May. I added some content to MeetEdgar for the events posts to get it out there on all the social media accounts. I created a thread on Twitter for all of the food tours The Roman Guy offers so it’s easily accessible to whoever goes on their page. Finally, I went over everything I’ve accomplished and what struggles I’ve faced throughout the course of the internship.

Facebook:

YouTube Videos get the most interaction.
Best time to post: between 6 and 9pm
Posts with a longer description do better.
People aren’t as engaged on Facebook, so they aren’t really into answering questions about their favorite places or anything like that. They prefer visual content that doesn’t involve much interaction which is why YouTube videos do great.

Twitter

Live tweeting does well and I think it’s much easier than scheduling into Meet Edgar.
Testing: Scheduling a few key posts into Meet Edgar such as events posts, and live tweeting while in the office. I think live tweeting does best because it seems more authentic in my opinion.
Constant content creation/ Updating is key!
Best time to post: any time/all day. With twitter there isn’t really a set time because people tweet so often that in order to be seen we also have to constantly tweet.

Instagram

Stories do well and I’m a such a fan of saving the whole story as highlight because it organizes content by what people would like to see. Polls are best in thestories because they’re easy to followers to use. “Foodie Adventures” were my favorite thing to do once a week because it involved the least amount of work with the greatest engagement.
Posts: Sweets, cheap food, trip advisor recommended restaurants do the best
Best time to post: between 6 and 9pm
Testing: posting on Saturdays instead of Mondays seems to be doing really well and hitting a bigger audience.
Tested: Putting borders around pictures with a common theme, but it takes too much time and doesn’t really add much to the value of the posts.

Enjoyed:

I really liked running the Instagram because it allowed me to see immediately what posts did best and the analytics are easy to have a look at.

Highlight:

I really enjoyed the tour. It was a super interesting to see the quality of what the Roman Guy offers first hand because I spent the past few months hearing about the tours so it was cool to finally see what all the hype was about.

Enjoyed the Least:

Twitter: I feel like Twitter could be really fun and has a lot of creative potential, but with the new rules in MeetEdgar it’s difficult to keep on renewing content.
I wish I had more time to try more creative things with twitter. For example, I think it would be a good idea to create a thread on twitter of food tour information and pin it to TRF twitter so its the first thing people see when coming to the twitter. This would also be a good way to link TRF Twitter to other social media accounts.

Challenges:

Having enough photos for posts. Since constant has to be constantly flowing, it’s important to always have new pictures and places to talk about. That can be difficult if one week there isn’t time to go out and take more pictures.
TIME! I just wish I had more time here. I feel like I could have accomplished so much more. By the time I got used to how everything works and what I’m supposed to do, it’s time to go!
Sometimes tasks seemed a bit disorganized. Sometimes I’d have assignments on google calendar, then there was the google doc, now there’s asana so it was a bit confusing figuring out what to do at time.
Some weeks I’d have the main things I’m supposed to be doing like the FB, TW, INSTA, content creation, stories, monthly blog post, follower growth for TRF, but then I’d also have follower growth for TPG and TRG along with Pinterest, and Trip Advisor reviews which ended up being a lot considering I’m only able to come in for 10 hours a week. It did get a lot easier once more interns came do tasks weren’t so heavy.

What can TRG do to help future interns?

Show them exactly what posts should look like or what key points to hit. For example, on Instagram, name the place, food item, price of food item, recommend it.
For blog posts, I think formatting is helpful to go over because it’s so important in making TRG look professional.

After going over all of this with my supervisors, they gave me a run-down of improvements among their social media accounts. Engagement and website traffic went up for all social media

accounts which is awesome! Although I didn’t reach my goal of 4,000 followers on Instagram, I have brought Facebook engagement to a record high. I had no idea I was actually doing well because I wasn’t sure of myself throughout the course of the internship considering I’d never worked in Marketing before. I was really shocked because it kind of felt like I was drowning a bit, but I pulled through.

That night we all went out for aperitivo and gelato in Testaccio. It sad to go, but I’m beyond grateful for the time I’ve spent with the Roman Guy.

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