In January of 1950 the Lowell’s moved into their first Iowa City apartment at 728 Bowery Street. He found his students unremarkable but among them only a few intelligent and talented individuals. His workshop class was held in a temporary structure in the barracks that remained on the east side of the Iowa River after World War II. At the end of his first semester at Iowa, he and his wife traveled to Italy for a year as Lowell had proven he was welcome at Iowa at any time. Upon their return to Iowa a year later, the Lowell’s fell back into the swing of their Iowa City lives, quickly finishing their final year and a half there. Lowell stayed busy with his classes and traveled frequently to other universities to speak or teach.  For the most part Lowell found the city, the university and the people “tame and friendly” and his teaching experiences were rife with personal growth and epiphanies about his own writing.