Throughout the journey, I was able to learn about the culture and society of this country with an incredible level of depth because we truly immersed ourselves. We traveled as Italians do – by foot and by public buses – so as to experience life intimately as they do. We went to places that weren’t where tourists go but where Italians go – adventuring to the gardens of the roses and the oranges, not to the Colosseum. Perhaps one of the most effective ways in which we did this was our visit to the Capitoline museums – where we discovered the long, complicated history of the state so that we could understand it on a modern level.