Courses in Arezzo
All students take three 4-credit courses, which are taught in English, plus a 6-credit Italian Language and Culture course. Language instruction is geared to meet the needs of beginning, intermediate, and advanced students.
- Jump to a course:
- Comparative Literature
- History
- Art History
- Italian Language & Culture
General Program Requirement
Class and course-related trip attendance is mandatory. All students are expected to observe the guidelines laid out in the Code of Conduct for University of Rochester Study Abroad Students, available from the Center for Study Abroad.
Comparative Literature
CLT 207B/IT276
Italy: A Cultural Mosaic in an Intercultural Context (4 Credits)
Instructors: Federico Siniscalco, Donatella Stocchi-Perucchio, John Thomas, Renato Perucchio
Segment A: (2 credits)
Technology, Science, and Society in Italy from Caesar to Galileo
Unit 1: Building the Ancient Italy: Roman Engineering from Pompeii to Imperial Rome
Unit 2: Galileo and His Universe
Segment B: (2 credits)
Experience Medieval and Modern Italy
Unit 3: In Terra d’Arezzo on Dante’s Footsteps
Unit 4: Comparing Cultures: Study, Work and Leisure in Italy and the United States
Unit 1: Building the ancient Italy: Roman engineering from Pompeii to Imperial Rome
Instructor: R. Perucchio
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
University of Rochester
Baths of Caracalla
View Restaurée du Frigidarium
by Viollet-Le-Duc [1]
Course Description
During Imperial times, approximately the first four centuries of the Christian Era, Roman civilization developed and maintained a surprisingly high level of technical knowledge, certainly amongst the highest ever reached in the pre-scientific and pre-industrial world. Especially in the area of what we define today as civil engineering, this knowledge yielded results that are extraordinary even when compared with those of the industrial age. The concrete dome of the Pantheon – one of the most daring structures ever built – together with aqueducts, bridges, baths, sewers, theaters, amphitheaters, and countless other monumental buildings throughout Italy and the Empire stand as a lasting evidence of the achievements of Roman technology. The present unit of the Mosaic examines Roman civil engineering in the context of four Roman cities: Pompeii, Herculaneum, Roman Ostia, and Imperial Rome. The primary theme is the development of the building technology from the late republican – early imperial times (Pompeii and Herculaneum) to the second century and late Empire (Ostia and Rome). Half of the unit is done on location, with extensive visits to the archaeological sites of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Ostia , and to specific monuments in Rome.
The unit begins with a series of introductory lectures in Arezzo (September 1-7) which provide the technical background for the study of the Roman monuments on location. Addressing the fundamental question “How does a building stand up?”, we briefly discuss the statics of a building and the mechanical behavior of structural materials. We then examine the engineering issues associated with foundations, walls, roofing frames, vaults, and domes. Finally, we introduce Roman buildings and systems that will be studied during the visits to the archaeological sites: residential structures (houses, villas, insulae), water systems (aqueducts, public fountains, sewers), temples, thermal bath complexes, theaters, and amphitheaters.
During the second week (September 8 – 15), the unit takes place on location in southern and central Italy, first in Pompeii and Herculaneum near Naples, and then in Rome with a day-long visit to Roman Ostia. This is a magnificent grand tour of some of most spectacular archeological sites of Roman Italy. In Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Ostia, moving around private houses and public spaces, visiting temples, baths, theaters, and palaestras we experience the life of a Roman city while carefully exploring its technology. In Rome, we focus our attention on the public buildings erected by the Emperors: temples, baths, and the amphitheater (the Colosseum). Throughout our visits, we compare aspects of technology (and Roman life in general) in a small provincial setting (Pompeii and Herculaneum), in the imperial trade center (Ostia), and in Rome.
Unit 2. Galileo and his Universe
Instructor: John H. Thomas
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
University of Rochester
Course Description
Galileo Galilei is one of the most important figures in the history of science. He was the first to fully employ the scientific method, as we know it today, and indeed he may be considered to be the first scientist in the modern sense of that term, this course unit has two main themes. The first is a look at the life and times of Galileo, in the context of Italian society of his time. We will explore his relationships with his students and other scientists throughout Europe, the Italian nobility, government officials, and the Church. We will consider evidence of Galileo’s genius, his sometimes abrasive personality, and his questioning, disputatious attitude, which early in his career earned him the nickname of “the Wrangler.”
The second theme will be an introduction to Galileo’s fundamental discoveries in astronomy, physics, and engineering. We will study some of his insightful deductions from astronomical observations and simple experiments, as described in his own writings. In particular, we will study his early astronomical discoveries, described in his short books Siderius Nuncius (The Starry Messenger) and Letters on Sunspots, and his important contributions to the engineering sciences of mechanics and strength of materials, described in his Mathematical Discourses and Demonstrations Concerning
Two New Sciences: The scientific ideas contained in these works will be presented in a way that is accessible to the non-scientist or non-engineer.
In addition to being one of the key figures in the history of science, Galileo was a well known figure in the Italy of his day, and his interactions with intellectuals in other fields, with members of the nobility such as the Medici, and with the Church provide several avenues of approach for students with different backgrounds. Our study of Galileo is particularly appropriate for the Arezzo program: he was born in Tuscany (in Pisa) and spent much of his life there (principally in Pisa and Florence). There are many sites and collections related to Galileo in the area. As part of the course, we will have a field trip to Florence where we will visit the Museum of the History of Science (Museo di Storia della Scienza), which houses the famous Medici collection of Renaissance scientific instruments (including Galileo’s only surviving instruments), Galileo’s tomb in Santa Croce, and his villa in Arcetri where he spent his last years under house arrest following his famous trial by the Church.
Unit 3. In Terra d’Arezzo on Dante’s Footsteps
Instructor: Donatella Stocchi-Perucchio
Dept. of Modern Languages and Cultures
University of Rochester
Death of Bonconte da Montefeltro
by Luca Ferrotti
Course Description
The unit aims at an exploration of the Aretine territory along the historical and imaginative trajectories delineated in Dante’s own poem, The Divine Comedy, in Dante’s biographies, in the testimonies of those travelers who choose Dante as their guide to the discovery of Italy, and in popular culture.
Along these trajectories we will concentrate on particularly significant points of intersection of history, literature, spirituality, and art, both medieval and Renaissance, One is the Church of Saint Francis in Arezzo with the fresco cycle on the Legend of the Cross by Piero della Francesca. Another is the Casentino Valley, with its medieval castles, its historical and legendary vestiges of Dante’s times, and its famous characters immortalized in the Comedy. A third is and the Sanctuary of La Verna which, along with Assisi, is celebrated by Dante in his hagiography of Saint Francis.
Together with Christian legends codified by tradition, Piero della Francesca’s cycle evokes crucial turning points in the history of Christianity such as the reign of the Emperor Constantine, which is a steady object of Dante’s critical reflection.
The Casentino Valley is one of the most relevant places in the life of Dante first as a Florentine citizen with a prominent status in the city political and military life and then as a Florentine exile who found hospitality in the Castle of Poppi, strongholds of the Counts Guidi. Casentino is also, if not more, relevant for the stories that Dante’s literary imagination consecrated to posterity: among them the invective against the inhabitants of the Valley marked by the course of the Arno River, the story of Master Adam, the falsifier of Florentine currency at the Castle of Romena, and the death of Bonconte da Montefeltro at Campaldino. It is plausible to envision the exile Dante right there, in the castle of Poppi overlooking that very battlefield, writing about the momentous battle of 1289 that saw him as a protagonist on the side of Guelph Florence, and the mysterious disappearance of one of his major opponents, the Ghibelline leader Bonconte, whose soul he encounters in Purgatory.
In addition to maintaining alive the lore of these medieval times, the Castle of Poppi, one of the best preserved medieval castles of Tuscany, houses a rich library with a precious collection of medieval manuscripts and early printed texts. Visiting this library and learning abut its history, intertwined as it is with the history of Tuscany and of the Italian Unification in the XIX Century, provides an opportunity to reflect on both the transmission of culture from antiquity, though the Middle Ages, to modernity, and on Italian history.
After the descent in the Casentino Valley, depicted by Dante as a land of bloody conflicts and populated by evildoers, the ascent to the mountain of La Verna, one of the highest peaks of Tuscany, allows a refreshing and a thought provoking encounter with Franciscan spirituality and message. That encounter will be facilitated by both Dante’s text and the conversations with Franciscans friars about the meaning of such message at the time of Francis and now. Another vehicle of understanding will be art. While the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi contains treasures of medieval art that visually narrate the hagiography of the Saint, the Basilica of La Verna contains a magnificent collection of Della Robbia plates that interpret Franciscan theology in the artistic language of the Renaissance.
The unit instructor, Donatella Stocchi Perucchio, is native of Arezzo, and maintains both affective and intellectual ties with her territory of origin. In the course of these visits, she will introduce students to various people who are both personal friends and collaborators and who are willing to share their multiple expertise in the interest of intercultural exchange and understanding.
Unit 4. (semester-long unit) Comparing cultures: study, work and leisure in Italy and the United States
Instructor: Federico Siniscalco
Dip. Letterature Moderne e Scienze dei Linguaggi
Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia di Arezzo
Course Description
The aim of this section of the mosaic course is to engage the University of Rochester students in a dialogue with the students from the University of Siena in Arezzo concerning the different issues relating to study, work, and leisure as perceived in Italy and in the USA. The students will sit together for one hour a week for a total of six weeks with Italian students who are studying North American Culture in English. During these classes the American students will comment on aspects of their own culture, as relating to the topics of study, work, and leisure, and will hear from the Italian students how these topics are perceived within Italian culture. The discussions will be aided by reading materials and by audio-visual materials that will be assigned and presented in class.
As a general preparation to the course the students are required to read Alice Leccese Powers’s Italy In Mind. This book will offer an insight into the way in which other American and British travelers to Italy have perceived Italian culture and customs.
Prof. Siniscalco’s unit will run for six weeks beginning Monday, October 15th within a University of Siena regularly scheduled class from 5 – 6 pm.
History
HIS 228/IT 228/CLT 207 C
History and Story: Italy—Kingdom, Regime, Republic, and the Literary Imagination (4 credits)
Instructor: Gregory Conti
University of Perugia, Italy
Course Description
The Italian word storia means both story and history. This course aims to explore both meanings and their interaction through the reading, analysis, and interpretation of memoirs and narratives by major Italian writers of the 20th century Gabriele D’Annunzio, Primo Levi, Beppe Fenoglio, Leonardo Sciascia, Italo Calvino, Carlo Levi, Mario Rigoni Stern, Rosetta Loy and others. We will focus on the 150 years from the Napoleon’s occupation of Italy in 1796 through unification, the Fascist ventennio, WWII, the resistance and the founding of the Republic in 1948.
While these writers and their works will certainly be of interest for majors in Italian Studies, English, and Comparative Literature, they also provide opportunities for reflection and discussion of important themes of special interest to students in a variety of disciplines:
- Science/Technology/Literature – Levi, Calvino
- Justice/Conscience/the State – Fenoglio, Levi, Sciascia
- History/Memory/Fiction – Fenoglio, Loy, Carlo Levi
- Judaism/Catholicism – Primo Levi, Rosetta Loy
- City and Country – Carlo Levi, Calvino, Fenoglio, Pasolini
- Region vs. Nation – Fenoglio, Rigoni Stern, Sciascia
Students will be keep a reader’s journal from week to week and write a final paper (10 pages) comparing two or more works by the same or different authors. There will also be a midterm exam.
Art History
AH 244/IT 244
Renaissance Art & Social Changes in Tuscany (4 credits)
Instructor: Monica Capacci
University of Siena/Arezzo
Course Description
"In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the others eyes as mine see it" - Michelangelo Buonarotti.
In 14th and 15th Century Europe, a number of factors contribute to create the background against which artists were commissioned to decorate churches, public buildings and private houses: the power struggle between the Pope and the Emperor, the rise and fall of Florentine bankers, the reform of the preaching orders, patronage and the art market, the revival and the influence of classical art, theories of perspective and design, the role of women in Renaissance society, and the changes in the status of the artist himself.
This course will immerse students in the art and culture of the Renaissance enhancing their experience of the artistic phenomenon and of the changing world view expressed through different art forms. Through the study of artists, movements, and works of art we will learn how to read and interpret the complex elements at play beneath the immediate surface appearance of paintings and sculptures and by exploring the universal unspoken language of signs and symbols used by artists at this time.
The cities of Arezzo and Florence will be the classroom as students study the masters, explore museums, churches and public buildings analyzing their historical significance. The course will follow a chronological analysis and study the stylistic development of the masterpieces of Tuscan Art from the late 1300s to the 1500s.
Italian Language
IT 111: Elementary Italian (4+2 credits)
Instructor: Gloria Convertito
Accademia Britannica
Course Description
An intensive training in communication skills and an introduction to basic Italian grammar, with emphasis on speaking and comprehension. Language training is geared towards practical needs. The second component teaches how the language works in terms of grammatical structures and linguistic principles.
IT 153: Accelerated Italian (4+2 credits)
Instructor: Gloria Convertito
Accademia Britannica
Course Description
The course enhances comprehension and communication skills as well as knowledge of Italian grammar. Emphasis is on reading, vocabulary building, and perfecting oral and written skills.
Culture in Context: A Practicum in Peace Studies, Community service, Literacy Program, Local Traditions (2-credits Italian language)
Instructor: Donna Logan
Fac. di Lettere e Filosofia di Arezzo
Course Description
This component of the program offers a unique hands-on cultural experience within the city, its surrounding territory, and its community. It brings students in direct contact with city life and traditions and takes advantage of developments on the local scene as they arise. It promotes students’ involvement in a wide range of events and activities such as learning about medieval jousting, reading in English to young children at Santa Caterina Boarding School, practicing tandem-speaking with local university students, participating in international workshops in Peace Studies. Other activities include visits and excursions to industrial and agricultural sites to foster understanding of the Aretine industrial and agricultural economy—such as the manufacturing of gold, design clothing, and furniture as well as the production of wine and olive oil.
[1] Viollet-Le-Duc, Discourses on Architecture. Trans. Benjamin Bucknall. 2 Vols. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1959.