I found the community of scholars very stimulating, the opportunity to exchange ideas is very real at the BSR.  Dinner at the BSR is a very important event  and the people I met there and the conversations I had sparked so many ideas. Walks around Rome with many of the scholars was fascinating.  Through the eyes of an architectural historian churches like Santa Maria Pace, San Lorenzo and Santa Maria Trastevere were revealed to me.  The excursions organised by the BSR, that I attended, similarly offered detailed access to sites and the perspectives of disciplines outside of my own. 

— Michael Finch