The 2/2024 issue of Sapienza Magazine, our University's bi-annual magazine produced with submissions from the various components of the University community, is now online. 

The issue opens with a reflection on the classical world, here and now, in order to clarify what classical culture represents today, focusing on the relevance of Classicalism as a shared heritage of values and knowledge. We propose three insights: an overview of the worldwide interest in classical studies, starting with the degree programme in Classics offered by Sapienza in English; the experience of an international student studying Classics at our University; and an in-depth study of the walls of Rome as a resource for the contemporary city.

The 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death in 2024 has instead inspired the second macro theme of this issue, which focuses on the experience of travel, including Italo Calvino's (in)visible cities, geography as a science for understanding complexity, the Library of Oriental Studies and future automated vehicles.

The In Sapienza section presents the heads of the two teams working on the Einstein Telescope project for Sapienza; a new infrastructure for the observation of the universe through gravitational waves, for which Italy has submitted a bid. And it is still research, but also collaboration, the Corebiom project, which takes Sapienza Museums to Mozambique to participate in the restoration of the Maputo Natural History Museum.

Extending the community to the territory, Sapienza's relationship with the network of Italian high schools has been enriched for several years thanks to the Percorsi per le competenze trasversali e l’orientamento now known by the acronym PCTO. We present it through the words of those centrally responsible for its management, but also the testimony of a lecturer involved in the projects.

Finally, we wish a happy birthday to Sapienza's Faculty of Political Science, which will be one hundred years old in 2025,  a century lived constantly interpreting the changes in our country.