Overview: Have you ever dreamt of walking through a 2,500-year-old Greek temple? Want to test the perfect acoustics of a nearly perfectly preserved ancient theater? Feel like experiencing the original “la dolce vita” by exploring a magnificent Roman villa? Thinking about channeling your inner Indiana Jones by exploring Etruscan rock-cut tombs? Need to try the world’s best gelato? Discover an extraordinary side of sun-kissed Italy during this three-and-a-half week-long summer adventure through Sicily, the Bay of Naples, Tuscany, Umbria, and Rome, exploring the diverse cultures that flourished in ancient Italy prior to the Roman conquest. In a small group, students will explore once-powerful Greek settlements in southern Italy and Sicily, an island Phoenician city, excavations of famous Roman towns buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, prominent Etruscan towns of central Italy, as well as the finest antiquities collections and archaeological sites in Rome.

Course Description: Generally, the term “ancient Italy” recalls images of togas and gladiators, but between the 9^th and the 2^nd centuries BCE, this pivotal area of the Mediterranean was home to a wide variety of peoples who flourished prior to the rise of the Roman Empire. Unfortunately, these populations, ranging from the Greeks and Phoenicians, who colonized the south, to the Etruscans and Celts, who dominated the north, have left us no written sources other than very brief texts, often dedicatory in nature. Thus, our knowledge of these civilizations is based on inherently biased references in the writings of outsiders, often mainland Greeks and later Romans, and what we can glean from the rich archaeological record. Through travel in Sicily and the Italian peninsula, this unique six credit-hour course explores the artistic and architectural achievements of pre-Roman Italy to reveal the splendor of the regions that inspired and fueled what would become one of the greatest superpowers in world history.

Brief Itinerary (subject to change):

June 1^st – Depart for Italy

June 2^nd – Arrival in Catania via Rome, bus to Syracuse, visit Castello Maniace and Museo dei Pupi, group dinner

June 3^rd – Syracuse: walking tour of Ortigia, visit the Parco Archeologico (Neapolis), watch performance of an ancient Greek play

June 4^th – Syracuse: visit the Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi, free afternoon, sunset harbor cruise and group dinner

June 5^th – Visit Morgantina, Museo Archeologico in Aidone, and the Villa Romana del Casale di Piazza Armerina, group dinner at an agriturismo

June 6^th – Agrigento: visit the Museo Archeologico Regionale and Valley of the Temples, group dinner at hotel

June 7^th – Selinunte: visit the Area Archeologico, afternoon at the beach

June 8^th – Visit the ancient Phoenician site at Mozia and the Elymian settlement at Segesta

June 9^th – Palermo: visit the Regional Archaeological Museum Antonio Salinas, walking tour of traditional street foods, Monreale cathedral and cloister, overnight ferry to Naples

June 10^th – Naples: visit the National Archaeological Museum, group pizza lunch, Naples Underground Tour

June 11^th – Visit Pompeii, Torre Annunziata, and Herculaneum, ancient Roman group dinner at Caupona restaurant in Pompeii

June 12^th – Paestum: visit the archaeological site and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale

June 13^th – Florence: visit the archaeological site and museum of Fiesole, introductory walking tour of Florence

June 14^th – Florence: visit the Archaeological Museum of Florence, the Medici Chapels, the Duomo (cathedral), Baptistry, and Duomo Museum

June 15^th – Florence: free morning (optional visit to see the Basilica di Santa Croce and Basilica di Santa Maria Novella), visit the Uffizi Galleries in the afternoon

June 16^th – Florence/Orvieto: visit the Bargello Museum and Galleria dell’Accademia (Florence), followed by the Belvedere Temple and the Crocifisso del Tufo necropolis (Orvieto)

June 17^th – Orvieto: visit the Etruscan Museum Claudio Faina, the Duomo, and the National Archaeological Museum of Orvieto

June 18^th – Orvieto/Rome: free morning in Orvieto, walking tour of ancient Rome

June 19^th – Cerveteri/Tarquinia day trip: visit the Necropoli della Banditaccia (Cerveteri), the National Archaeological Museum of Tarquinia, the Ara della Regina (Tarquinia), and the Monterozzi Necropolis (Tarquinia)

June 20^th – Rome: visit the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, free afternoon

June 21^st – Rome: visit the Villa Giulia National Etruscan Museum, Palazzo Altemps Museum

June 22^nd – Rome: visit the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, the Domus Aurea, and the Colosseum

June 23^rd – Rome: visit the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme Museum and the Capitoline Museums

June 24^th – Rome: visit the Ara Pacis and the Pantheon, free afternoon, farewell dinner and group activity

June 25^th – Departure for the U.S.

Assignments: Grades will be based on an oral on-site presentation, a daily journal exercise, two brief visual analyses based on an object of the student’s choice selected during particular museum visits, four pop-quizzes involving the identification of unknown works of art based upon material studied previously in the program, and a take-home essay-based examination.

Housing: We will stay in three- and four-star rated accommodations including an agriturismo in Sicily, a working farm that provides rooms in a renovated manor house. Students will share rooms (generally double). Roommate requests will be accommodated as much as possible.

Transportation: Students will fly directly to Catania, Sicily from the United States via Rome. During the course of the program, students will travel using a charter bus as well as many forms of public transportation including trains, buses, cable car, and an overnight ferry.

Meals: Breakfast will be provided daily and other group meals as noted in the itinerary as part of the program fees.

Costs: Expenses covered by the program include tuition, all administrative fees, housing, all transportation between arrival in Catania and departure from Rome, certain meals (see above), and admission to all museums and archaeological sites. Students are responsible for airfare (a group flight option will be offered but not mandatory), lunches and most dinners, as well as personal expenses and incidentals.

Instructor: Keely Heuer is an Associate Professor of Art History at SUNY New Paltz. Her research concentrates primarily on the iconography of Greek vase-painting and the interrelations between Greek settlers and indigenous populations of pre-Roman Italy. She has presented talks at conferences in the United States, Europe, and the Near East, and has published numerous articles and essays. Professor Heuer’s courses cover the breath of the visual culture of the ancient Mediterranean, with a particular focus on the art of Greece and Rome. She has excavated at the Sanctuary of the Great Gods at Samothrace and has held fellowships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

How to Apply: Applications are submitted online through SUNY New Paltz Center for International Programs’ website at www.newpaltz.edu/studyabroad. Deadline for all application materials is January 14, 2022. For further information, please contact Professor Heuer at heuerk@newpaltz.edu.