City Sketchbook by the Institute of Design + Culture in Rome

In the 18C and 19C it became fashionable for upper-class educated travelers to spend a few months in Rome studying history and practicing art. This was called “The Grand Tour” and most Grand Tourists – Goethe, Turner, Corot, and Ruskin among them - documented their visit to the Eternal City by keeping diaries embellished with drawings and watercolors.

Now we travel differently. We hurry. We dash from monument to monument, reading guidebooks as we go. We take photos. Sometimes we get home and can’t remember what our photos depict. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The next time you’re in Rome, take a day to slow down. Leave your camera aside and join City Scholar Augusto Balossino for our City Sketchbook Course .

Augusto, a professional artist, will give you a skill that will change the way you look at the world. His motto is, “If you can see, you can draw.” And Augusto, like many other artists, believes that drawing allows you to experience the world in an unparalleled way.

Imagine sitting before an ancient ruin – no camera lens between your eye and this glorious monument. You study the scene. Augusto helps you determine how its lines and masses are organized and he patiently coaches you as you try to draw what you see.

You feel the breeze. You smell the wild mint growing in the grass. You see how Rome’s golden light shifts and changes.

When you get home, what do you remember best? A wonderful dinner? The splendor of the Sistine Chapel (and the sprint through the Vatican Museums it took to get there)? Those are great memories, but what remains freshest in your mind is that very slow day you spent learning to draw.

You look at your City Sketchbook and it’s almost like you’re back in Rome, studying a scene, feeling the soft air, watching the sun move across the sky. And not only that, as a result of a day spent with Augusto, you’ve got a new tool for understanding the world around you. You’ve got a new way of thinking about the things you see. Your eyes and your brain are connected in a whole new way and at the center of it all is Rome, the Eternal City.