Study Abroad Programs in Bologna, Italy

The program was well organized and communication from the staff and professors was reliable and helpful. The two class components (Bioregion/Sustainability and the local internship immersion) worked well together to flesh out our understanding of the community we were inhabiting; Professor Luca Trazzi has a strong teaching style, and proactively went the extra mile to facilitate better understanding of topics that students were interested in learning more about. He showed a professional command of his topics, and struck a great balance between teaching in a formal, academic context (readings, discussion) and organizing activities or more hands-on experiences to illustrate the real-world impact of the concepts discussed in class. Professor Bruno Grazioli was a perfect counterpoint, facilitating the Italian language immersion and internship components. I particularly enjoyed Prof. Grazioli's talent for encouraging us to engage with content on our own terms, centering joy and curiosity in the exploration of the classroom. The assignments were sufficient to make the class components feel worthwhile and academic, but not overwhelming in a way that restricted time to explore Bologna or make weekend plans. I want to express gratitude to Prof. Grazioli for going out of his way to make time for an advanced Italian course for me and another student who came into the program with a strong language foundation, so we were not forced to spend time in a beginner class and still benefitted from that component of the program. I specifically want to credit the program for organizing the class excursions: I rarely if ever felt like we were spending time unnecessarily or being forced to engage with things we did not enjoy, and it was a fantastic way to get a tailored exploration of cities like Venice and Turin. I also want to mention that Ellen and Elena Giulia were wonderful and efficient with the aid they provided us, and all four were marvelous for suggestions when we wanted to travel or were searching for something in the city. This program was a fantastic use of both my time and money, and I would highly recommend it to future students.

Art History Abroad was an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience I’m so grateful to have had. In just six jam-packed weeks I traveled to Rome, Siena, Florence, Bologna, Castelfranco, and Venice with a group of like-minded gappers and tutors. Cultural activities included painting Venetian masks, witnessing glass-blowing on Murano island, cooking traditional Italian cuisine, and marbling paper. We explored the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Uffizi, Pompeii, Ravenna Mosaics, and Guggenheim. We studied the magnum opuses of Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, Donatello, Bernini, and Botticelli, among countless others, in situ. We learned to recognize the tell-tale signs of Gothic art—gold leaf, pointed arches—as opposed to that of the High Renaissance—realist muscled figures in complicated compositions—which we in turn could differentiate from the chiaroscuro and dramatic motion of the Baroque. Perhaps most special was when we, still rubbing sleep dust from our eyes in the wee hours of morning before opening time, watched the sunrise over St. Peter’s basilica and took a guided tour of the expansive Vatican museums and fresco-filled Sistine Chapel.