The time we got to spend in Rome was such a great experience! I’ve got to learn more about the amazing Roman Empire, try true Italian food, and hear first hand from international businesses.
My initial thoughts about Rome going into this trip was that the city was going to be really similar in a way to Athens where its culture was going to be surrounded by its ancient history, but since it is a heavily toured area there were going to be a lot more commercial businesses. I was surprised to find out that Rome is way more urbanized and the businesses are mainly family owned. I believed one of our tour guides said 80% of Rome is local family businesses. It was also really interesting to visit the marble factory and how it has been a family business from 1897 till now, and has done some really big projects across the world.
Really beautiful and amazing architectural sights that we got to go and visit were the Colosseum, Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, St. Peter’s Basilica, Sistine Chapel, and Hadrien’s villa. The Roman empire used cultural intelligence and adopted some architecture work in some of these buildings, such as using marble and columns. As well as some mythological gods but just gave them different names. On our first entire day in Rome, we got to tour the Colosseum and the Roman forum, which was one of my favorites of the trip because this is where the gladiators would fight and was a great role of entertainment in their society, if I remember correctly the stadium originally could hold around 80,000 people or so. Augustus Caesar, the first Roman Emperor, built some of the temples and arches in the forum which sort of depict Augustus as in authority and made the people of Rome look towards him as his right to rule. Building and renovating structures in the forum reflected both his dedication to the well-being of the Roman state. Another ruler that helped Rome become its best was Constantine and all that he did to help religious diversity by ending the Christian persecution.
This trip helped me open my eyes to different understanding and viewpoints to global leadership and cultural intelligence to become a successful leader in the world today.
