Jenkins Fund Experience: Living Latin in Rome

Peter Hoffman visited the remains of the ancient aqueducts in Rome’s Aqueduct Park as part of his Jenkins Fund trip to Italy in summer 2026.

I would like to thank you again for awarding me the Jenkins Fund this year to attend The Paideia Institute’s, Living Latin in Rome summer program (“Ovid and the Poetics of Play”). My time in Rome this summer was incredible, and the two weeks that I spent reading and discussing Ovid’s works (entirely in Latin), exploring important ancient sites connected to the poet, and living daily life in the Eternal City itself (as Ovid did) was invaluable to my professional development as a teacher.

Prior to this program, Ovid was an author with whom I was only an “acquaintance.” I knew the major facts about his life from my Classics major studies in college, but the only work I had read in detail was his Metamorphoses, and only selected sections of that mythological epic in Latin. In this program, though, my classmates and I significantly expanded our knowledge of the poet’s repertoire, reading and discussing selections not only from the Metamorphoses, but also Ovid’s Fastī, Amorēs, Ars Amatoria, Tristia, and Epistulae Ex Ponto, along with works from several later poets influenced by Ovid.

However, by far the most valuable part of the program was the opportunity to study all these Latin works in situ, exploring the city where Ovid lived, worked, and desperately longed to return upon being exiled to the Black Sea. Led by our enthusiastic instructors, my classmates and I embarked upon adventures that included an epic trek around all seven of Rome’s hills (as well as obelisks), the palatial ruins on the Palatine Hill and relics of the Roman Forum, sculptural masterpieces in museums, and even a two-day class trip to Ovid’s hometown of Sulmona, a locale that still fiercely admires its poet laureate. (His most famous verses are strewn in lights on all the main streets.) The program also gave us some free time to examine our environs independently, in which I chose to check out the “infrastructure” ruins of Rome’s colossal aqueducts on the city’s outskirts, a site that has long been on my list.

Finally, through participation in this Paideia program, I became friends with such a wonderful group of fellow Latin scholars from all walks of life whom I may have never met otherwise. It was bittersweet at our closing dinner, but, as a last hurrah, we each recited a favorite selection of Ovid’s verses for the whole group. I am excited to incorporate the knowledge, skills and materials that I gained this summer into my Berkeley courses, particularly in the Ovid unit in Latin IV’s spring semester. Thank you so much again for selecting me as a recipient of the Jenkins Fund this year, and I really appreciate Berkeley’s generosity and support.

A selection of Ovid’s Latin verses is illuminated above the streets of Sulmona, the poet’s hometown.

Peter Hoffman and his fellow Living Latin in Rome participants pose next to a statue of Ovid in Sulmona.