Module 'CLAH263 The Roman Experience: History, Archaeology and Heritage' is a second-year module that provides undergraduate students with first-hand knowledge of key sites and monuments in and around Rome. This year, 48 students went to Rome from 24 February to 1 March 2025. This is the second of three student blogs about their experiences in Rome. Heidi Barker writes about her experience below.
Ciao from Liverpool! I’m Heidi, an exchange student from the University of Tasmania, I am loving my time at the University of Liverpool. A most exciting opportunity was the class excursion to Rome for the module CLAH263: The Roman Experience. There was so much to digest, a true feast for the eyes and mind. I am compelled to write about a theme, because I am also a student of literature, and I love simplifying the complex and complicating the simple. My theme for this trip has become ‘exploration, let us see the contrast and blend between the common present and the ancient past.’
Our journey was organised around several ancient sites, and our transport was a mix of walking and trains. What a privilege it is to be transported to antiquity via modernity.
The most memorable moments came from the surprises of the old bursting from the new and the calm of the old and new coinciding. My friend, an exchange student from Canada, and I ate paninis and gelato outside the temple of Hadrian and watched birds and tourists go by.
A walk through the colourful and tall buildings, and they guide you to an open space where the Agrippa Pantheon commands and grips your attention. The building itself felt like a statement of ancient domination.
The Pantheon, making a statement. Heidi Barker 2025:
Another example is the Circo Massimo, which is now a beautiful natural space on white sand, green hills, and a solitary tree on the centre patch. a place where I felt peaceful, yet meditative on the spectacles that would have taken place here.
Circus Massimo, from the sand level with the green hill on the left. Heidi Barker 2025:
Being guided through the Roman ruins by our brilliant professors was a treat, and I was able to understand so much more of my surroundings, such as the Christian additions to Trajan’s column.
Remains of Trajan’s forum. Modern infrastructure and medieval buildings circle the edges of the photo, Trajan’s Column is in the distance. Heidi Barker 2025:
In our free time, we were able to explore buildings of old and new history.
Rome's skyline with flying flag, from the viewpoint of Mussolini’s fascist wedding cake building. Heidi Barker 2025:
I became enamoured with seeing these ancient pieces of architectural art juxtaposed with modern comforts.
Image: Colosseum at dusk with buses parked outside metro station. Heidi Barker 2025:
Our time for free exploration led me to be very fond of the Termini and Metro as a whole, the rugged aesthetic was an encapsulation of the blend between old and new architecture.
On a metro headed toward Termini. Heidi Barker 2025:
Waiting for the metro at Termini station. Heidi Barker 2025:
A site I visited with friends on our free morning was this beautiful park where the temple of Aesculapius is.
Temple of Aesculapius hidden by a tree, boats on lake in forefront. Heidi Barker 2025:
Temple of Aesculapius on the island in the lake, geese on guard in the foreground. Heidi Barker 2025:
As a student of Classics from the University of Tasmania, I was eager for this delightful Roman experience and am grateful beyond words. Being Australian means I do not have an immediate connection to the ancient world of Greece or Rome, but we persevere, and I have been able to share my findings with my professors and fellow students back home.
My experience was made special by the friends I made along the way, I expressed my usual funny self and tended my confidence, and I became part of the University of Liverpool cohort in a stronger way, other students even recognising how cool it must be to be in Rome all the way from Tasmania.
For any exchange student considering Liverpool, I highly recommend this journey, you will have stories for a lifetime and getting to experience ‘study abroad-ception' (studying in a foreign country while studying in a foreign country). Stroll back into the past with the lovely University of Liverpool.