Rome, Italy

Nathaniel Scott (Tré)

CEA CAPA Rome, Italy – Engineering

Major: Mechanical Engineering

 

 

 

 

 

Jump To: Pre-Departure Post, In-Country Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, Post 4

Pre-Departure Post

Ciao everyone! My name is Nathaniel Scott and I go by Tré. I am a second-year mechanical engineering student at UMBC. I fly out to Rome, Italy in just a few days! I am so incredibly excited for this study abroad experience, and I want to thank God, family, friends, and all of the faculty who have supported me to make this possible!

For some context, I’ve always been interested in stepping off of the beaten path, and that absolutely applies to the mechanical engineering pathway at UMBC. As a freshman, I saw the proposed semester consisting of Vibrations, Machine Design, Transfer Processes, Solids Lab, AND a third year foreign language and said, “Nah”. That being said, I’ve done everything in my power to circumvent the usual route by taking everything that I can in the Winter and Summer semesters. With a little bit of magic, I’ve been able to take ten classes over Summer and Winter, saving my future self.

For my last trick, I wanted to take Fluid Mechanics over Summer 2026, hoping it was going to be offered by UMBC like in Summer 2025, but alas it was not. Just when I was about to give up on getting ahead, I remembered that my friends were going to study abroad and wanted to get me to join a class too, but I shut that idea down long ago after thinking that engineers aren’t offered classes abroad due to their STEM requirements. Yet, I gave it one last look and was able to find a single offering of Fluid Mechanics for Summer 2026…

I will be studying Fluids in Rome through the CEA CAPA Education Abroad Program! I started the process immediately, applying, gathering paperwork, emailing professors for permission to take the course abroad, managing finances, applying for a passport, all while understanding that if it didn’t go through, I would be held up a semester from graduating because I was dropping Fluids for Spring 2026, in hopes of taking it in the Summer instead.

What I want to share with you is that you need to have (true) grit. For a long time, I desired to study abroad, but gave up on the idea thinking that engineering programs abroad were rare, that I wouldn’t have a shot, and that it would be an insane risk, academically and financially. When I realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, for me and for literally every other engineering student I know, I knew I had to take a risk. I saw what needed to be done, I made a plan, I reached out to get information, I turned things in on time, I stayed cautious, but I got it done. This resolve is what will get us to where we want to go!

I am currently fighting through three finals this week (taken early due to early departure) and my next post will be from Rome! I thought that I would feel more anxious or worried, yet all I can feel is excitement at the moment, because all of the hard work is behind me. I will miss my friends and family, but I am so ready to represent my fellow MechE’s and share this awesome experience with you all!

 

In-Country Post #1

Hello everyone! Some time has passed and I have now been in Rome for a few days! The flight got delayed by two hours, but it was alright; I watched a movie and caught up on a lot of sleep. When we arrived at the airport, I felt wide awake and tried to take in a lot of my surroundings so I wouldn’t lose any of my stuff or miss any important signs. The airport looked exactly like it would when arriving at BWI or IAD, so it wasn’t very complicated. I got through Customs and security and found my way to the CEA CAPA Pick-Up service.

I met a few other engineering students, and we were driven to our apartment(s) in the nice neighborhood, Prati in Rome. The drive was a mixed basket, seeing things both familiar and new, relative to America. The highway felt identical, with signs, exits, and multiple lanes across the city. One of the first things I noticed was that we were going a little bit fast and I glanced at the speedometer and read 130 km/h, and I jumped for a second, thinking it was miles per hour. I quickly realized that it was fine and googled it to see that it was about 80 mph! On the way, and especially in the city, I noticed that a lot of cars are very compact, and typically electric, think Fiat. In the city, cars, along with many mopeds and motorcycles, park along the road or in a parking garage, like D.C., which saves a lot of space.

I hung out in our common space for a while until all our roommates arrived. Our apartment has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, wooden floors, A/C units per room, and a window in every room (besides one bathroom), and it is located 10-15 minutes from classes. My program offers the opportunity to stay with a local Italian family or to live amongst other Study Abroad students in the program. I chose to live with other students so that I could be around people my age in the city, discuss our different experiences and adventures, and make new memories. For the rest of the day, we walked around Rome, seeing what shops and landmarks were in our vicinity, taking in the fact that not only were we foreigners in this country, but that we would be living here for about two months.

At various points, we split off to explore our own paths, some visiting the Vatican, some getting food, some taking a nap. Personally, I went to the Castel Sant’Angelo, which is a huge castle that now functions as a museum, which was once the tallest building in Rome. Crossing the (river) Tiber, I visited the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. One cannot stress enough how many tourists are here during the Summer. After getting my fix of awe, not understanding how the Romans could’ve possibly built these structures, questioning why I’m not doing the same, I felt some irony as I approached McDonalds, curious about their menu. It was very amusing to see Spinach and Parmesan Croquettes, Croissants (My first croissant in Europe was from McDonalds), Macarons, and Tiramisu). I swear I won’t eat at McDonalds again on this trip haha, I will be seeking authentic Italian cuisine :).

Following that, I met back with my group, and we had dinner with another group of 14 students, totaling 24. My first meal was the “Insalata di Salmone”, which is translated to Salmon Salad. It was great seeing everyone attempt to order using the Italian name, before resorting to pointing and the hostess understanding and laughing. The Italians we interacted with seemed to be very accustomed to communicating via body language mixed with a bit of English, overall, very accommodating to our situation. Afterwards, we visited a gelateria to get gelato (Wow!!) and I noticed that reading the menus in Italian wasn’t all that difficult, as it was mostly similar to English or Spanish, and since then, I have learned the words for a few of the dishes, such as Insalata (Salad), Melanzane (Eggplant), or Torta (Cake).

We’ve also started our class, with most students taking Thermodynamics, Art and Architecture, or some in Fluid Mechanics like me. One day after class, we decided it was time to start cooking our own food to save money, which is very reasonable! We’ve learned that while there are many options for eating out in Rome, most people go to the store, grab ingredients, and cook for the day/meal. Following our class, a friend and I walked to the supermarket and picked up some things to cook. We (tried?) making Carbonara, using spaghetti pasta, pecorino romano cheese, eggs, guanciale, and black pepper. Guanciale is a pork that is widely known for its use in Carbonara, and it helped me assess my ability to pronounce Italian words (you should’ve seen us staring at it in the store trying our best).

It turned out to be a 6.5/10 (C+) and I will be trying again in the future. Amongst the three of us eating, we spent about 25 euro, embarrassed ourselves cooking, had a blast, and leftovers! The next day, I took the metro for the first time with a friend, and it reminded me a lot of the D.C. Metro. All the signs were very picture friendly, and it made a lot of sense, making it very relaxed and interesting to see the comparisons. It’s amazing because I probably won’t touch a car while I’m here, lots of walking!

We visited the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and discovered the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, very similar to the one in Arlington! It started to pour, so we ran to the bus stop and rode back to the city, where we met with his family for dinner. Within this first week, I truly think I’ve made major progress in my understanding of day-to-day life here and I can’t wait to share again! Ciao!

 

In-Country Post #2

Hi everyone! This past week has been packed. We’ve fully settled into our classes and have created our own schedules. For me, I have class Monday through Thursday, 09:15AM to 11:00AM. A typical day is quite well-rounded, waking up around 8:45AM because I love to sleep in (and go to bed late…), heading to class, going to the market for a snack or groceries to cook, eating lunch, doing homework, going on a walk to somewhere new, and hanging out with friends late into the evening when everyone is free.

We’ve noticed that Rome is a very busy city, full of pedestrians and motorists throughout the day and even the night, accommodated by a few 24/7 cafes, late restaurants, and mini markets. It is really nice to learn about the socialization of the people here. On a 30-minute walk through the city, you will see families eating dinner, groups of friends outside of a gelato shop, and people taking walks. Italians spend the weekend to rest from work, enjoying time with the people they love, taking a breather from the long week. I’ve made the acquaintance of many other study abroad students and we often spend this time together, visiting monuments, cool shops or restaurants we found, or just taking walks, and doing so has made me appreciate the Italian way of living.

Let’s talk about food! Gelato. It’s everywhere. It’s delicious, inexpensive, plentiful, and essential. With the temperature rising this Summer, I’ve decided that it is completely reasonable to have some gelato every (other?) day 🙂 At the last shop I went to, I ordered White Chocolate & Coconut and Ferrero Rocher flavors, and they were lovely! We registered for a pasta-making class where we made ‘Trascinati’ pasta using 100g flour and 50g water for one serving… that’s it.

They also showed us how to prepare a proper tomato sauce, bringing the dish together with fresh onions, basil, and salt. Our instructor made a point of suggesting that we use fresh ingredients whenever possible, explaining the benefits in flavor, aroma, and overall satisfaction. It was very yummy! Some night, I would like to try cooking more kinds of meats and cheeses offered in the stores here, but I will probably stick to Italian recipes to make sure I don’t break any unspoken cultural rules, like eating fish with cheese… (not illegal, just disagreeable).

This weekend, we attempted a trip to a beach in Focene, but it was quite the trek. With poor planning, unshakable motivation, and optimism, we set out for the beach. The plan was to get to the Roma Termini, which is the primary train station in Rome, and take it to Focene, and then take a bus to the beach. By the time that we were ready to leave on a Saturday, we forgot that the Metro to get to Termini, a 35 minute walk away, was closed due to organized union strikes, protesting various social issues regarding war, employment, and social policies. So, we wanted to take a shuttle bus, only to realize that everyone else had the same idea and it was full. We decided that an eight-person Lyft would be the most efficient choice. We ordered it on FreeNow, a highly rated European Taxi app that we were recommended, splitting the 32 euro cost eight ways, coming out to be close to the total bus fare. Our Lyft pulls in front of our place and the driver steps out, counts us, and says “Ten-euro, one person”. Personally, I laughed a little bit. We’ve heard of scammers and petty crimes happening all the time, but I was very intrigued to see where this was going. To be clear, the driver was telling us to pay him 80 euro, after we paid 32 on the app.

There was a mix of, “The app has not paid me yet” and “Too many people, I charge extra”, and it was all quite comical because we all understood that we would NOT be paying him anything. This ended with him telling us to cancel him from the app, incurring a five-euro fee since he already showed up. While this was mildly unfortunate and we pursued a refund, we ordered two 4-person Ubers instead, and they were great people! Frankly, the whole thing was pretty funny and a great learning experience 🙂 Once we got the Termini, we missed the train because we tried to buy tickets within five minutes of it departing, so we waited another hour for the next one. The Termini is very similar to most shopping malls in Maryland (but train station shaped), with many store choices. Once we got on our train, we were able to get to Focene and take another Uber to the beach.

Surprisingly, Uber really happened to be the most efficient form of transportation when traveling as a group because splitting the cost is very effective, often coming out cheaper than the bus in our situation(s). The beach was great! There was a party nearby with awesome music and we played some football with local guys our age. We stayed till just past sunset and headed back, this time taking the airport train back, which was much faster and straightforward. By this point, it was about 10PM and we searched for museums as it was Europe’s Night of Museums, where almost all museums are open until around 2AM and at fractions of the cost. There were so many people out on the streets, with lines of people, Italian and foreign, wrapping around buildings. We enjoyed the sights from afar and walked through an art and sculpture museum before getting hungry and visiting a shawarma shop!

I saw a lot more of the city this week. In my class, Fluid Mechanics, our professor briefly shared some history on the aqueducts and how they functioned, relating their mechanics to what we learned in class, particularly based on mass flow rate, pressure, and structural architecture.

Following this, we visited the ancient aqueducts throughout Rome, following a trail that stretched for miles, walking alongside them and enjoying nature. I saw turtles and a lizard, which were the first reptiles I’ve seen in Europe, and that’s a big deal for a guy from Florida. I noticed that there is a lot of graffiti around the city, mostly in Italian, so I normally just appreciate the font, but it reminds me of the DMV.

To top it all off, we walked past Rome’s ‘Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary’, where there is said to be over 100 cats! We spotted about 10 within three minutes, I think the rest were napping in their favorite spots 🙂 The people here really appreciate their animals, and I love that (I miss my dog, shoutout Meco).

Arrivederci!

 

In-Country Post #3

Ciao everyone! I feel like this won’t be the last time I’m saying this, but this week has been a lot! We ended the week strong, studying for class and getting ready to depart for Copenhagen, Denmark 🙂 Before coming to Europe, I planned to take a few trips to other locations outside of Rome, taking advantage of cheap flights, and this time I was able to get a few friends to join me! It’s quite interesting; everyone seemed to have trips planned for this weekend, and I talked to people going to Prague, Copenhagen, Krakow, Munich, Barcelona, and more. Most of our weekends are three days long and such travel is very enticing and recommended.

Getting through the airport and to our gate was very simple… and honestly, so was everything else! We landed around midnight and saw that our hotel reservation had been exceeded, so we rushed off the plane, navigated the metro, walked a bit, and got there in time before they REALLY gave us the boot. The craziest part was that it was all in Danish! Can you imagine landing in a foreign country and being on a time limit to get to a certain location? The thought never crossed my mind before doing it. However, this was my first realization of how accommodating Copenhagen’s infrastructure is. Everything was so simple to navigate, most things able to be discerned in English, nothing too confusing to overcome, and all in an extremely efficient manner. After this trip, I see why Copenhagen is rated one of the most sustainable and livable cities in the world.

We spent the next two days exploring the city, taking in sights, scenery, and quality of life things, like sidewalk trampolines on the waterfront (HELLO? Huge fan of this). After walking through the Fisketorvet Mall, we took a water taxi up north and noticed something funny. Along the Øresund strait that runs through Copenhagen, you will see hundreds of people enjoying ‘Harbour Baths’, which is a means of providing a “beach” within the city. Imagine if the Patapsco around Fed Hill ran through Baltimore, split it in half and the shore is just beach and boardwalk. Frankly, I’m a huge fan of how it’s working for them, seeing kids jumping off diving boards, people swimming, and a large amount of people tanning, on a very mild Saturday morning. We visited an old fort, saw many statues and memorials, and the famous Little Mermaid statue.

We moved towards the inner city, moving along a route that took us through the Amalienborg Palace, where they have Royal Guards with fluffy hats, and the King’s Garden, where we pet some carp in the moat 🙂 It was all very peaceful and quiet with great picnicking spots. We relaxed at the Nyhavn (Noo-haun) canal, got some food, and headed to the Christiansborg Palace’s Tower, which allows for a 360° view of the city. After that, we visited Tivoli Gardens, the second oldest amusement park in the world, which is said to have influenced Walt Disney’s theme parks. We got to ride one roller coaster before they shutdown for the night, but then we stayed for a Danish Pop artist’s concert and enjoyed a great time in the arcade. Funny story, I acquired arcade tokens and thought they were actual Danish Krones, until I was told otherwise after trying to convert them… whoops (Guys it was really dark and I couldn’t see).

The next day, we spent biking! Biking is another thing I really love about Copenhagen. Having a relatively flat geography, the engineers of the city did a world-class job on their transportation system. You can’t go anywhere without seeing some two-wheeled vehicle, and it’s amazing how efficient it all is. Once we realized that we could rent bikes for the entire day for extremely cheap, we hopped on and ran laps around the city in a fraction of the time. First, we strolled through the neighborhood of Christiania, enjoying the street art, murals, and impressive volume of art installations. Moving on, we visited the Reffen Street Food Market, where we tried food from multiple vendor stalls and enjoyed the beautiful weather, before moving onto a pub to watch the Arsenal vs. PSG game. The game was a great watch, and the energy was relative to watching the Superbowl, and it was a grand experience to have been there. From there on, we enjoyed the local life around the city as the sun went down, noticing that the activities never really slowed down, and it became even more excited, with groups of people dancing, going out for food, in line for a karaoke bar, or like us, waiting in the 35 person long burger king queue… We made our way to the airport for our flight the next morning back to Rome! After catching up on sleep I had to spend a while reading my textbook and preparing for class.

We’ve reached a spot where things are making a little bit less sense, so I am trying my best to learn content ahead of time, especially with these crazy weekends. My program runs the class in a study center, our professor is Italian, and he is a mechanical engineering professor. He gives us a lot of good tips about the city and does a very good job at explaining concepts that we learn in class. We have a midterm coming up next week so I’ve spent a bit of time studying daily or reading, really enjoying some boring downtime. I took a nice commute to a calisthenics park about 30 minutes away from home and I had a great time. It was nice to see people outside enjoying the evening weather, jogging, working out, and just enjoying the park because it reminded me of home. On my way back, I passed the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Circo Massimo, where Ancient Roman chariot races were held, and a rose garden exhibit (which I didn’t get to view because it was late).

I headed back home that night and picked up a ‘Too Good to Go’ order on the way back home. Too Good to Go is a food waste reduction app, where restaurants will pack up fresh food that they haven’t sold and sell it at an affordable price. I didn’t know about it until hearing it from a classmate but it’s a pretty solid travel hack! You reserve from a restaurant, go there, they give you a ‘mystery bag’ where they just pick up random foods, put it in a bag, and give it to you. I got three donuts, a funny anchovy sub-sandwich, and a fried cheese ball thing for about five euro (Otherwise around 15). It’s an interesting way to try food at different places! At another place I got about 10-15 pounds of bread (Pizza/Loaf/Bun) for five euro… and in Copenhagen I was able to give our surplus of bread to someone in need… and I’ve tried a few really random (but yummy) pizzas too. There is a LOT of extra bread everywhere… It’s a fun past time because you never know what you’ll get 🙂

Arrivederci!

P.S. Yes, there was a spot in Copenhagen with trampolines in the sidewalk… for fun!

 

In-Country Post #4

Hello everyone! I am writing to you with a sore throat and troublesome cough 🙁 Our apartment seems to have caught something so I’m in recovery after finding some medication at the pharmacies. These pharmacies are very easy to locate in the city because they’re lit up outside by big green “+” signs, in a video-gameish kind of way. Anyway, this week was very nice! Started off strong by baking some banana bread, leading into relaxation, some preparation for an outing to Florence, Italy, and then returning the following week to study for our Midterm Exam.

My favorite spot to relax outside on a beautiful day is Villa Borghese, a very popular park perfect for picnicking, sitting with family, walking, running, and art viewing. I was able to take a few hours to read and nap on a bench in the shade and I really enjoyed the change of pace. In the evening, I went with some friends to one of my new favorite gelato spots, Caffe Portofino, where they give pretty good scoops of great flavors at a nice cost. I find joy in knowing that I’m pretty good at finding quality gelato spots that aren’t super up charged for tourists 😀

We packed some overnight bags to travel to Florence, Italy, where we would do some sightseeing, spend a night, and head back the next day. We took a highspeed rail that ran for about 2 hours, and it was very efficient, just enough time to take a nap. I was quite interested to see what all would vary from Rome, as this would be my first trip to an Italian city outside of Rome. During a guided audio tour, we were able to see many buildings and contrast the energy throughout the streets, as well as the general structure of the city. We noticed that Florence was quite similar to Rome in its city infrastructure, featuring a dense population within a maze-like city of shops and homes. In the area of Rome that I live in, there are many more homes, with shops sprinkled in, but then there are other areas with many more shops, with homes sprinkled in.

We ended our tour with lunch, trying multiple different pastas and sauces, and then we got gelato! Next up was to climb Giotto’s Bell Tower, a tower that allows for a sight of the entire city, consisting of over 400 steps. This was a great time, especially climbing up and down on a steep staircase 4 feet in width. It was really cool getting the view of how most, if not all, of the buildings in Florence have the same red, terracotta tile roofing for miles in every direction. We walked around a lot for the rest of the day until getting some pizza for dinner and split up for the night. The next day, my group went in search of “genuine Italian leather”, as one of our guys wanted to buy himself a nice jacket. Interestingly, there are ENDLESS street vendors for leather products in Florence, around every corner. Every time we inquired to the origins of these products, we never got clear answers, always one word, “Factory” or “Italian!”, with a friendly smile. Alongside the presentation, volume, and questionable pricing, we were fairly convinced that these were the common “Tourist Traps” and ended up steering clear. Fortunately, we passed an alley and read a sign leading to “Scuola Del Cuoio: Leather School”. Following it, we were able to run into an entire leather school, which turned out to be world renowned, founded shortly after World War II. We were very impressed with all the works, as they all gave an air of extreme precision and professionalism. We viewed many hand-bags, jackets, and belts while reading notes of the school’s history along the walls. This was my favorite part of Florence because it showed a deep history of an intensely trained skill that I’ve never considered learning about in the past.

Returning to Rome, I got some really good rest to try getting over my cold, but I will update on how that goes. I’m spending the rest of the week studying for our Fluid Mechanics midterm. Currently, I’m struggling a little bit to bring a connection between the calculus and engineering math, but when this has come up throughout the trip, I just read the textbook, talk it over with my classmates during our outings, and ask questions to be clarified in class and I’m able to figure it out. Something I realized is that engineering school work can be done anywhere in the world. That being said, I find it very unfortunate that many engineers that I know don’t pursue study abroad opportunities. In my mind, studying abroad has always been ruled by studies pertaining to art and culture and a handful of STEM degrees, not including engineering.

I am extremely fortunate to have had the ability and opportunity to take part in this program and I will be very intentional when I return to school to make sure that any engineer I meet is very aware of their ability to pursue the same opportunity. It is very easy to hear about it and write it off as something out of reach or unrealistic, like I did. Personally, I was very motivated to put plans in place to make sure that I could achieve this. I work at two different jobs and was able to take out a loan, understanding that I could pay it off responsibly. UMBC offers many resources to help connect students to different scholarships, but assuming any or all of these fall through, like mine did, you would need a backup plan. My financial aid counselor was very helpful in walking through my aid flexibility, and I was able to do a lot of proactive footwork myself to make sure all of the numbers added up, but this can be a lot for some students, especially during finals season, so I wish there were a better way of receiving realistic and especially optimistic financial coaching. It can be very easy to write off something as impossible for your situation, but there may very well be a silver lining that could change your life.

I can safely say that I’ve made so many lifelong memories and connections with the people around me and I truly believe it was worth every dime spent and email sent. I think beyond taking an engineering class, it is important to seek opportunities to explore amongst other likeminded individuals to see what things are like in other places, bounce ideas, and immerse yourself in a truly unique culture, one that can only be found in college. As engineers, we owe it to the world and each other to connect and grow each other and doing that in another country is just another aspect of exposure that most engineers don’t get.