Sponsored by the Meredith College Office of International Programs for alumnae, faculty, staff, and community friends.

 

Spring 2012 & Fall 2012

Have you ever dreamed of studying in Italy?

Here is your chance! Meredith College is offering for the first time 10-day or two-week mini-courses at our beautiful Tuscan Palazzo in Sansepolcro. We want to introduce you to Borgo Sansepolcro and share with you the Palazzo Alberti, home to Meredith’s semester and summer programs in Italy. A variety of intensives will be offered, all with Italian themes or influences. You will be sharing the Palazzo with students in our semester programs.

Courses will be taught primarily by retired faculty. We have kept the costs affordable to make this opportunity available to as many participants as possible. As part of the course, you will see the real Italy as few tourists do when you participate in local hospitality and culture. Where else can you study in Italy for our very affordable price while living in a 16th century palace, going on excursions to neighboring towns, and eating gourmet Italian meals prepared by the Palazzo chef for our very affordable price?

 

Course Descriptions

FOLLOWING THE PIERO TRAIL 

April 11-26, 2012 (Dates include travel time)

Instructors: Maureen and Jim Banker

Fee: $25 for extra excursions

In 15th century Renaissance Italy, Piero della Francesca was born and lived his 80 years in and around Sansepolcro. This walled town is now home to Meredith College’s International Campus in the Palazzo Alberti. Our introduction to the life and town of Piero will begin here, and then follow his steps to Arezzo, Monterchi, Urbino, Perugia, Rimini and Florence where we shall be able to examine and study, up close, the masterworks of this stellar Renaissance man. All throughout our travels we will not only see his paintings, but look at his worlds, both natural and man-made. This is a chance to go back in time 600 years and participate in the visual world of Piero. Fortunately for us, much remains the same. This mini-intensive course is part of a year-long celebration of the 600th birthday of Piero della Francesca. The town of Sansepolcro not only celebrates his birthday, but also continues to acknowledge this native son’s death on October 12, 1492, which coincides with our Columbus day.

Deadline for Application and deposit:  January 12, 2012 • Enrollment maximum: 12 Travel days: Lv USA Wed. evening, April 11. Ar. Rome April 12 and travel to Sansepolcro. Class begins Friday, April 14. Lv Sansepolcro Wed. AM April 25. Travel to Rome. Overnight in Rome for early departure to USA on Thurs, April 26.

 

A TASTE OF TUSCANY

May 5-17, 2012

Instructor: Margherita Tirabosco, Assistant: Aleksandra Burza

Fee: $50 for extra meals, food, excursions

Ask any Meredith abroad alumna who has studied in Sansepolcro to tell you what she misses most about her time in Italy, and odds are, she will say the cooking of Margherita Tirabosco. Margherita has prepared delicious meals for Meredith students for a decade.  She learned to cook delicious Tuscan fare from her mother and grandmother. Preparing wholesome meals for others is for her a real vocation, a calling. Margherita will teach cooking lessons for those who register for this intensive.  She will teach you how to prepare delicious sauces from simple ingredients—ragout, pesto, and arrabiata among them.  She will show you how to prepare fresh vegetables in a myriad of simple and delightful ways along with meat dishes you can make easily when you return home. Margherita’s desserts—both Italian classics (like tiramisu!) and her own concoctions— are truly historic.

Mornings will be spent watching, assisting and asking questions of Margherita while she cooks what will become your lunch. Afternoons will be a mixture of free time, visits to food and wine merchants to sample local wares, our local museum and a nearby farm. Additionally, Margherita is friends with two women who own and run restaurants in Sansepolcro, and both are looking forward to talking with you about their favorite recipes as you enjoy special dinners with them.

Deadline for Application and deposit:  January 12, 2012  • Enrollment maximum: 12  Travel days: Lv USA Sat. evening May 5. Ar. Rome May 6 and travel to Sansepolcro. Class begins Monday, May 7. Lv Sansepolcro Wed AM, May 16. Travel to Rome. Overnight in Rome for early departure to USA on Thurs. May 17.

 

DRAWING UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN:VISUAL JOURNALING

Supply Fee: $25

September 12-27, 2012 (Dates include travel time)

Instructor: Linda FitzSimons

This course will explore the basics of how to record your reflections of the environment and your experiences in Italy through both field drawings and journaling. You will learn how to develop a field drawing from on-site imagery. We will start in the classroom with pencil drawings focusing on how to break down a landscape into simple shapes, working from projected landscapes. Then you will learn how to add foreground objects while eliminating unnecessary details. You will practice reducing your composition down to five basic values. Lastly, you will learn how to translate your value patterns into a variety of pen and ink textures that fit the land, tree, bush, road or building. You will use your camera to frame your composition and your digital photos to help complete values not finished on site. We will draw in a variety of beautiful Tuscan settings, either in Sansepolcro or nearby towns. The goal is not to create drawing masterpieces but to take the time to sit, visually explore and really see the environment. Drawing on site and journaling require concentration and sustained observation, which lead to a total immersion in the experience and a meditative state. You will see Tuscany in a way that few tourists do. Drawing experience/training is not necessary, but for those with previous drawing experience, you will have a wonderful opportunity to practice and further develop your skills with these plein air studies.

During your time in Sansepolcro, we will visit artists’ studios, experience incredible Tuscan and Umbrian views, meet many of the locals and experience events that coincide with our September stay. The festive Palio della Balestra takes place on September 11, 2011. This is a wonderful folk tradition dating back to the 15th century in which Sansepolcro challenges neighboring Gubbio to a competition with crossbows. The citizens all dress in tradition medieval costumes, and the Piazza becomes the site of this historical competition.

Deadline for Application and deposit:  June 12, 2012  •  Enrollment maximum: 12 Travel days: Lv USA Wed. evening, Sept 12. Ar. Rome Sept 13 and travel to Sansepolcro. Class begins Friday, September 14. Lv Sansepolcro Wed. AM, Sept 26. Travel to Rome. Overnight in Rome for early departure to USA on Thurs. September 27.

 

 

JUSTICE AND LIBERTY: WORLD WAR II IN ITALY

October 3-16, 2012 (Dates include travel time)

Instructors: Betty Webb and John Rose

Excursion Fee: $35

This intensive will focus on the final year of World War II during which Italy was under siege by both allied forces and the Nazis. Once we are as clear as we can be about the context, we will begin to put a human face on events by reading Alexander Stille’s Benevolence and Betrayal, an account of five Jewish families under fascism.  After that, we will read about the Italian Resistance, a complex movement of brave resisters first of Fascism and then of Nazism.  Then, to learn about the brave partisans who resisted the Fascisti and the Nazis, we will read Maria de Blasio Wilhelm’s The Other Italy. Our final book is Iris Origo’s War in Val d’Orcia, an amazing diary that will give a fuller picture of civilian life in Italy during the war. It will also occasion a group trip to La Foce, her 1200 acre estate. We will view and discuss films and visit local sites significant to the war in Italy. In particular we will also go t the beautiful hill town of Gubbio.

Deadline for Application and deposit: June 12, 2012 •  Enrollment maximum: 12 Travel days: Lv USA Wed. evening, Oct. 3. Ar. Rome Oct. 4 and travel to Sansepolcro. Class begins Friday, Oct. 5. Lv Sansepolcro Wed. AM, Oct. 15. Travel to Rome. Overnight in Rome for early departure to USA on Thur. Oct 16.

 

 

 

Tentative Schedule

Classes may include lectures, demonstrations, visual presentations, art lessons, field trips, walking tours, visits to museums, excursions to nearby towns or any appropriate and available local cultural experiences. Times can vary depending on class schedule for the day. Those taking two-week Tuscan Intensives will have one day free for independent travel (Thursday) and all Intensives have Sunday morning free.

 

Costs

$1,275 + airfare & personal expenses

Cost includes accommodations, 6 breakfasts and lunches, instruction, entry fees and excursions. Some courses include additional fees for supplies or extra excursions.

Availability of space varies in the Palazzo Alberti, depending on the number of students present at any given time.  If possible, we prefer that all Tuscan Intensive participants stay together in the Palazzo, but when this is not possible, some may stay at Santa Maria dei Servi, a former 13th century convent,  now a beautifully remodeled B&B, for the same cost. It is just a short walk  from the Palazzo Alberti. See details at http://www.santamariadeiservi.it/english/english/convento.html.  In both accommodations, bedrooms are shared (except for couples) as are bathrooms.

Airfare and train/bus fares to and from Sansepolcro are not included.
 
Prior to departure, you will receive a complete schedule of events, general pre-departure information, a guide for flying into Rome or Florence, directions to Sansepolcro by train and bus, and other relevant forms. For those traveling independently, we attempt when possible to pair you with other participants on flights to Italy and back so you will be with others while navigating your way to Sansepolcro.  There will be a pre-departure information meeting for you after deposits are collected.

Meredith College reserves the right to make changes in the program itinerary, schedule, cost, academic program, etc., as needed.

 

 

Application

For additional information, program details, and course information, please see the Tuscan Intensive Brochure. 

Download the application here Tuscan Intensive Application to begin your Tuscan adventure!

 

Questions?

Contact Dr. Betty Webb, Director of International Programs (webbb@meredith.edu) or class instructors.

If you would like a printed copy of the online brochure, email Linda FitzSimons (lfitzsimons@nc.rr.com) with your name and address. She will mail you a copy.