In 2019, after their first year in ICEF Master’s Programme, three students, Anastasia Melnik, Arseny Turyshev and Nikita Tsyrlin, went to Rome-based LUISS through a double degree programme. Now that they have completed the first term at LUISS, we’ve asked them to share their impressions. Let’s find out why Italians’ relaxed mindset is nothing but a stereotype, why there is power in the ‘Russian mathematics’, where in Rome students can get the best accommodation options, why even thesis defense procedure has a baroque touch at LUISS, and why innovations and fundamental education should evolve separately.