Summer Study Abroad 2009
June 18, 2009-July 2, 2009

Riva San Vitale, Switzerland and Rome, Italy

Phone numbers abroad:
Becker Italian cell phone: 011 393395626383.
Becker Swiss cell phone: 011 (0)79 427 36 49.
Daniela Doninelli, managing director, Riva: 011 41 91 6483652.

Deposits required for Riva San Vitale: click here to see.
Women need to leave deposits for Villa Maderni key ($40), laundry card ($15), and set of towels ($10).

Men need to leave deposits for Villla Maderni key ($40), laundry card ($15), set of towels ($10) AND a key to the apartment on C. Maderno ($10). This is because the men will live in this apartment until Monday the 22nd, and then will move into the Villa after that.

Plan to have exact change. You can pay in Swiss francs or euros but US dollars is easiest. Deposits will be held until we depart 6/26.

Updated trip itinerary now available at link on left.
Suggested packing list (including suggestions about money and communication home) at link on left.
Please check Delta's baggage requirements here.

Pre-Departure Required Forms
The University requires that each student submit one signed copy of each of the following forms before departure. These forms will be collected at our meeting on April 28th.

• Program Liability Agreement
• Health Insurance Certificate
• Emergency Contact and Information Release Form
• Authorization to Release Information (optional)
• Citizenship Expectations Form
• Refunds/Cancellations Policy

Additionally, we need one copy each of the following information:

• Your complete itinerary (including flight numbers, etc.)
• Your passport

Program Fee ($2800) Payment Schedule:
First Payment (Feb. 10th or now): $1000
Second Payment (March 18): $1000
Last Payment (April 10): $800
Please include T-pay (found at left) with payment to ensure payment is properly credited to summer program.

Students will also be billed separately for summer tuition.

CLA 3954: Ancient Rome and the Making of Europe, 3 credits.

This course examines the history of Rome and its influence in creating and shaping Europe. In particular, the course examines the city of Rome and its influence on one Roman province, the region of modern Switzerland. Though often at great distance from Rome, the capital of the empire, provinces regularly displayed Roman forms of architecture, art or other clear signs of Roman presence. We understand Rome better and indeed more correctly when we look at how life was lived in the Roman empire not just in the big city but in the smaller towns and provinces far away. Our course begins in the province and then proceeds to Rome. We will experience Cisalpine Gaul in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland, our base for week 1. We will then move on to Rome to explore the city directly and experience this city personally.

Our "textbook" will be the sites and museums we visit. Each of these acts like a text, and we will read them as best we can in the time we have. Tentative plans (and travelling always requires flexibility) include visits in the first week to Lugano, the rich town on the opposite shore of Lake Lugano, Bellinzona, modern capital of the Ticino canton of Switzerland, to see its three castles which held the pass and which were fought over for hundreds of years, and to Como, the Italian town perhaps most famous today as the home of George Clooney (and the Plinys). George, the Romans were there first! We will pay careful attention to our town too, Riva San Vitale, in which once lived a correspondent of Pliny the Younger. In week two, we head to Rome. While there we will see as much of the old city and its layers as we can. Our focus will be on ancient Rome, but there will be time for students to do some exploring on their own. We will visit the Forum, the imperial fora, Colosseum, Palatine, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Circus Maximus, and more. We will work our way through museums such as the Capitoline Museums (home to the Dying Gaul, the wolf with Romulus and Remus, the colossal head of Constantine, the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius), the Vatican Museum, the Palazzo Altemps, the Museo Nazionale, and perhaps others. Rome's grand churches will also be on our schedule.

Class time is 24/7, almost. Students will be required to attend every class (held in the classroom, held on site, held on buses). Debriefing sessions will occur most nights during which we will recap the day's learning and preview the next day's activities. Handouts, maps, etc. will be distributed during these times. Textbooks will be posted closer to our departure date.

Students will register for CLA 3954 in first summer session. There is an optional three credit pre-course, available to those who need to do six credits in the session in order to qualify for financial aid. The pre-course is not mandatory. If you need to do the pre-course, please contact Trudy Harrington Becker (thbecker@vt.edu) or Andrew Becker (andrew.becker@vt.edu). The pre-course will be done on-line and does not require residence in Blacksburg.

Estimated Costs

Cost for this trip includes three parts:

1) Tuition, billed as tuition by the bursar in the normal fashion. 3 credits.

2) Program Fee: tentatively $2800. This includes lodging, covered meals as above (all meals in Riva, breakfasts and three dinners in Rome), entrances to museums, monuments and historical sites, transportation to those sites, guides, and excursions.

3). Air Fare. Each participant will make his own arrangements for airfare to fly into Milan Malpensa, the closest airport to Riva, and out of Rome Fiumicino.

Program Fee does not include textbooks, personal spending money, and personal incidentals (nor tuition). This Program fee will be billed by Virginia Tech separately from tuition, and will be due in installments. The first installment of $1000 will be due February 10th. It will appear on your bill with a name such as "Riva" or "Study Abroad" or some name which distinguishes it from tuition.

In sum, estimated:

+ $633.00 (tuition in-state; check Tuition and fees, Summer 2009 at:www.bursar.vt.edu
+$2800 (program fees)
+$1200, rough estimate (airfare)
+$ ? personal spending money

With permission of your advisor, this study abroad course may be counted as Area 2, 3 or 7.

Classical Studies Program
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures 0225
335 Major Williams 540.231.5361