Please choose from the following week-long programs:

Dates:
July 6th – 12th, 2008
July 13th – 19th, 2008

Combine your CLE Study experience with the magnificent beauty of the Italian city of Grado.
Off the beaten tourist path, but close to Venice both physically and culturally, Grado is an ancient, picturesque island-city with a celebrated Old Town, a quaint fishing port and world-class beaches. Grado is a rare and ideal setting for learning: a beautiful, historic town, full of lively summer activities, not far from many of the most celebrated northern Italian cities.

Itinerary:

Each morning, Monday through Thursday,from 900 AM until 12:00 Noon, you will attend classes. From 1:00 PM and into each evening you will participate in a privately-guided excursion. A beautiful dinner will be included each evening.

Sunday Evening: A Welcoming Reception, 7:00 –9:00PM       

Monday afternoon: A Tour of Aquileia

"Aquileia omnium sub occidente urbium maxima" ("Aquileia, the greatest of all the towns in the West"). That is how the Byzantine emperor Justinian described the town in the sixth century and, though he perhaps was exaggerating a little, Aquileia could once boast to be the ninth largest city in the Roman Empire, fourth in Italy. As the capital of Regio X (the Tenth Roman Region), it was for centuries the seat of the Roman governor as well as the home of the Northern Adriatic Fleet. In the first century AD, the Roman historian and geographer Strabo described it as a "bustling trading center for Mediterranean and transalpine countries." In recognition of its impressive ruins and its important place in Roman history, Aquileia is considered a World Heritage site by the United Nations. And in light of its significant role in early Christian history, when it was for thirteen centuries the seat of a Christian Patriarch, it was proclaimed by the Vatican City as one of the five official Jubilee cities in Italy. The city preserves both Roman and early Christian ruins, including the Roman port and forum, remains of Roman public baths and private houses with beautifully preserved mosaic floors, Roman roads with visible chariot tracks, a Roman burial ground, and the ancient Patriarchal Basilica preserving both the largest known Paleo-Christian polychrome mosaic floor in Western Europe (early fourth century), and a ninth century crypt adorned with thirteenth century frescos. The excursion includes transportation, a guided tour of the various sites by an ancient historian in both Italian and English, and entrance to the museums, the church foundations and the frescoed church crypt. Dinner in our return.
    

Tuesday afternoon: Wine-Tasting in Italy's famed Collio Region

Wines from the Friuli area were famous already in the age of the Roman emperor Augustus and today it is considered one of the three premier wine regions of Italy and is widely regarded as the home of Italy's best white wines. We will tour the famed hillside vineyards of the Collio and Colli Orientali (D.O.C.) wine producing areas of Friuli, visiting several well known estates. First we tour the celebrated cellars of the 16th century Castello di Spessa, prized for its award-winning barrel-aged white wines and grappa. After a guided tour of the cellars and wine-tasting, which takes place in the castle itself, and a walk around through the castle's gardens, we proceed to the 11th century Augustinian Abbazia di San Rosazzo, one of only three estates still producing the rare and world class red wine Pignolo. In Rosazzo, we visit the medieval abbey, take in the exceptional views of the vineyards, tour the oldest wine cellar in Friuli and try more award-winning wines indigenous to the region. Afterward, we make our way slowly through the picturesque, rolling hills and vineyards on beautiful, winding roads to our final destination, a rustic restaurant in the countryside. Private transportation, guided tours of the estates, all wine-tasting, a lecture on wine-making and wine-appreciation, and the dinner are included in the excursion.

Wednesday afternoon: A Tour of Cividale del Friuli

Founded by Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC, it later became the first and most important Lombard duchy formed in Italy after the 6th century Germanic invasion of Italy. Cividale is home to much of the most important Lombard art and architecture in Europe. In addition to the charming Old Town, where the facades of the medieval houses are adorned with frescos, there is a beautiful 8th century Lombard chapel wonderfully intact and archeological museum rich in Lombard and early medieval treasures. Frescos also adorn the interior of the 13th C. Chiesa di San Francesco and the 15th C. Duomo. For the adventurous, there is a 3d century BC underground Celtic burial chamber. The excursion includes transportation, guided tours of the Old Town, the Duomo and the museum with a local historian in both Italian and English, a visit to the Celtic burial chamber, and a rustic dinner in the Friulian countryside, which generally begins with a taste of two local gastronomic specialties, prosciutto crudo of neighboring San Daniele del Friuli and Verduzzo Friulano, a celebrated local wine.


Thursday afternoon: A Tour of the Castles of Northeastern Italy 

The region of Friuli, with its long history of independent dukes and counts, is particularly rich in medieval and Renaissance castles. Our tour commences with the most touristed castle in Fiuli, Trieste's romantic seaside Castello di Miramare (19th C.), home to the Hapsburg Archduke Ferdinand (later Emperor of Mexico) and his wife, the Belgian princess Carlotta. After a brief historical tour of the Old Town of Trieste, we proceed to the center of the city, visiting the Venetian Castello di San Giusto (15th C.) with its enormous walls and draw-bridge. After a brief stop at one of Trieste's historic cafés, we travel north to the fortified medieval city of Gorizia, a charming town situated in the foothills of the Alps on the border with Solvenia and which, like Berlin, was divided in two after World War II. We begin our tour at the imposing Castello di Gorizia (11th C.), the wonderfully preserved medieval castle of the Counts of Gorizia, complete with fortified walls, moat, watch-towers, and a number of historic buildings, including the Banqueting Hall and the Music Salon, and the Hall of Arms. Afterward, a brief historical tour of the town of Gorizia is followed by a traditional dinner, either in the city or in the countryside. 

 
Friday All Day: A Tour of the City of Padova and Frescoes of Giotto

“Faire Padua, nurserie of Arts.” So Lucentio, in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, accurately describes one of Italy’s most interesting and historic cities. As the Roman colony of Patavium, the city flourished and, despite suffering numerous barbarian invasions with the fall of the Roman Empire, it rose again to prosperity in the early medieval period. In 1164, Padova declared itself an independent republic which helped usher in a Golden Age in the 13th and 14th centuries, when the town attracted many first rate artists. One of Europe’s oldest universities was founded in 1222, a magnet for many distinguished men, including Dante, Petrarch, and Galileo. But the town’s most celebrated “citizen” is surely the “wonder-worker” and most beloved of all Christian saints, Saint Anthony of Padova, whose tomb is in the city’s 13th century basilica built in his honor. The most well known monument in Padova, however, is arguably the medieval Cappella degli Scrovegni, whose frescoes are the masterpiece of Giotto and widely considered to be one of the greatest achievements of Italian painting.

We begin with a guided tour of the Old Town, home of the city’s celebrated 14th century town hall, Il Salone, situated between the Piazza delle Erbe and the Piazza della Frutta, two bustling squares that formed the heart of medieval Padova. We continue with a private tour of the university, where we see, among other things, the cattedra (pulpit) from which Galileo lectured physics, as well as the medical school’s famous Anatomical Theatre, Europe’s oldest. In addition to an extensive tour of the Basilica of Saint Anthony, which contains magnificent art from the medieval and Renaissance periods, including important bronze statues and reliefs of the sculptor Donatello, we also visit the Prato della Valle, the largest piazza in Italy; the Battistero del Cattedrale, the interior of which is completely covered by frescoes of the medieval painter Menabuoi, his best work; the Basilica di Santa Giustina, which houses both a masterpiece of the Venetian artist Paolo Veronese as well as the relics of several important saints, including those of the apostle St. Matthias and the evangelist St. Luke; and the Chiesa degli Eremitani, a 13th century church which boasts Renaissance frescoes of Mantegna.

We conclude with a private tour of the spectacular Cappella degli Scrovegni and the recently restored Giotto frescoes. A tour of one of the celebrated villas along the Brenta Canal, such as the “Malcontenta,” designed by the most famous Renaissance architect, Palladio, or the stately Villa Pisani, with its celebrated Tiepolo frescoes, is also normally included. The excursion includes transportation, a guided tour of the city, churches, and monuments, as well as all entrance fees and concludes with a beautiful dinner.