Location

The University of Arkansas Rome Study Center is conveniently located in the center of Rome in one of its oldest palaces, Palazzo Taverna, which provides an elegant backdrop to the creative and learning process for any aspiring student. Palazzo Taverna first belonged to the Orsini Family and, in 1328, the site took the name of Mount Giordano, the name of Giordano Orsini, Roman Senator in 1341.

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This is razorback country

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The headquarters of the University of Arkansas Rome Center. Today we are here to offer you our last video before the summer break and we thought that it would be nice to bring you with us to visit even if virtually our premise the beautiful fountain that you see behind my back is actually the most known feature of this palazzo because it's the only thing that people can see of the palazzo since this still is after almost seven centuries a private property palazzo taverna has been privately owned for almost seven centuries the original name was palazzo orsini from the last name of the cardinal giordano who in the 15th century began the construction of the palace re-adapting an old fortress that was sitting on top of monte giordano and even today we can still appreciate the symbol of the orsini family lorso the bear together with the fragment of a medieval tower after that the palace was sold to the gabrielli family and then the taverna and finally to the galaratiscotti who currently own the palace and one of the most interesting features of this palace that makes it in a certain way unique from many others is that it kept its original medieval structure that you can appreciate from these wonderful images.

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But this is not a lecture about palazzo taverna we're going to make a specific video in the following weeks today we want to bring you with us and experience the spaces that we have inside uh this amazing complex space is that during the lockdown we had the chance to renovate and optimize and most of all make it compliant with the most stringent regulations in terms of safety and well-being for our employees, faculty, and students follow me let's go upstairs.

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So here we are this is the checking point where every day every student will have to stop by and we will make sure to take the temperature uh make sure that they sanitize their hands and that they have their face mask with them also because these are the three um only mandatory rules for schools or universities like us together with the social distancing from here on you will see we enter in one of our classrooms the one that we call the bridge because it connects the so-called empire wing with the baroque wing of the palace and this is actually a connecting piece as a result of the works of the optimization and reorganization of our spaces that we carried out during the lockdown we have created this area which as you can see is the student life center and this is a particularly important space because it's very centric it's a sort of pivot point around which all the classrooms are organized and this is where the students will find the student service coordinators who will assist with their everyday needs either if they need to see a doctor or if they have to book a class if they have to do some paperwork or if they want to join some of our extracurricular activities that you can see represented here on this panel from here we have a direct connection to all the classrooms so as we said we have the wonderful new bridge that can seat up to 25 students then we have the so-called fresco uno and fresco and the frisco fresco take the name from the beautiful paintings that you can appreciate in these pictures.

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Fresco fresco due have a different layout fresco 1 is equipped for more traditional and frontal teaching while fresco 2 has this horseshoe table for a different type of didactic and as you can see all chairs are marked on the ground to make sure the daily respect the social distancing measurements but probably the most beautiful room of the empire wing is our main hall. Our main hall is where we host all the gathering sessions the orientation final reviews events lectures and so on this room can seat up to 90 people under normal circumstances but also in this case due to the covet 19 prescriptions the current capacity is down to 36. Actually thanks to this amazing room one of the largest in the historic center of rome we were able to organize interesting events also with the other institutions we're member of akupi we host the original chapter of the green building council of italy and this space was also until the late 90s the seat of the national institute of architecture a very important architectural institution and thanks to the feijoan school of architecture that for so many years has supported the rome center we're still continuing this important legacy last but not least here we are in the library also known as the yellow room this room together with the one next door the new seminar room are spaces that we have created to make sure that our students have a place to read study but also relax between classes and this room gives direct access to the brand new kitchenette that we have created in order to give our students the chance to bring their food from home store it in the fridge heat it up in the microwaves and if they want they can get some snacks some excellent italian coffee and of course we have a water fountain that purifies the water and they can taste it either steel or sparkling like the italians love so i hope that you enjoyed this tour we're now going to take a short break for the summer but we'll come back with more videos and actually we're going to show you the rest of the spaces that we have in this amazing palazzo but the most important thing and the most important message that i want to leave you is that the rome center is ready we are in full compliance with the most stringent rules and regulations in terms of safety and well-being of our students and faculty and as we like to say the aircraft is ready to take off anytime we're just waiting the passengers to be back on board with us soon. Ciao.

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Located in the historic center, students can relax by the fountains of Piazza Navona or visit the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain or the Spanish Steps, shop at the traditional open market and old bakeries of Campo dei Fiori, or visit the many churches within the area. Further along is the Tiber River, and if you cross the ancient bridge, Ponte Sisto, you arrive in Trastevere, another very picturesque area of Rome.