2027 CCS Study Abroad
Art, Belief and the Made World: Italy
17–28 May 2027
12 days
Three home bases and three coach days. Rome for the Baroque, Orvieto for the Etruscans and the clay, Assisi for Giotto and the hill. Perugia is a stop on the road between Orvieto and Assisi, so nobody doubles back.
The pace is one or two sites a day with time built in at each entrance. Travel days carry nothing else. Mostly Churches visits are in the morning. There is one full free day in Orvieto and a free afternoon before each move.
Rome · May 17–20 · three nights
Caravaggio and the Baroque
We stay in a hotel near Termini station. Accademia Italiana, a design school across the square, gives us a seminar room and one session with its art history faculty. Rome is flat but spread out, so expect a lot of walking each day. A three-day transit pass covers the buses and metro.
Monday, May 17 · Arrive
Fly into Fiumicino. The hotel holds bags for anyone who lands before check-in. Late afternoon: a short orientation, the emergency card with every contact on it, and the rules for the twelve days. City bus tour. Orientation dinner. Tuesday, May 18 · The Caravaggio churches, then Accademia
Morning on foot: San Luigi dei Francesi for The Calling of St Matthew, Sant'Agostino for the Madonna of the Pilgrims, Santa Maria del Popolo for the Conversion of St Paul. The churches are free and the paintings hang where they were made. Lunch on your own. Afternoon at Accademia Italiana: a walking session with their faculty on how Rome has been drawn, and a look at the school.
Wednesday, May 19 · Borghese and the Forum
Timed entry at the Galleria Borghese: Bernini's Apollo and Daphne, Caravaggio's David. Afternoon at the Roman Forum. Evening free.
Thursday, May 20 · Under St Peter's, then the coach
The Scavi, the excavations beneath the basilica, in two small groups. Bags on the coach after lunch; 120 km, about an hour and a half. Arrive Orvieto mid-afternoon, check in, and the first bucchero class at five.
Orvieto · May 20–24 · four nights
The Etruscan city on the rock
The whole town sits on one piece of volcanic stone and everything is a ten-minute walk. A hotel in the centre, five minutes from the cathedral square. Cobbles and underground stairs; about 12,000 steps a day. Monday is the day the museums close, and that is the day we leave.
Thursday, May 20 · Bucchero, class one
Late afternoon in Rosaria's studio: how the Etruscans made their glossy black pottery, then building the shapes by hand. Ninety minutes. The pieces dry for two days before the second class.
Friday, May 21 · The Duomo and the Faina
Morning at the Duomo: the golden front and the Last Judgment painted wall to wall inside. Then the Faina museum, directly across the square, for the Etruscan collection, including the bucchero that the studio copies. Afternoon free in town.
Saturday, May 22 · Under the town, then class two
Morning at Pozzo della Cava, the archaeological complex under the streets: Etruscan cisterns and the medieval kiln rooms, with their two-hour session on dating Orvieto ceramics. Late afternoon, bucchero class two: burnishing with wooden tools until the surface shines, then the pieces go to the fire. Orvieto dinner.
Sunday, May 23 · Free day
A rest after six full days. Optional, self-pay: the thermal springs, Lake Bolsena, Civita di Bagnoregio, the Sunday market. The fired pieces come out of the coals today and are collected before dinner. Go out in pairs; back by 11 pm.
Monday, May 24 · Orvieto to Assisi by way of Perugia
One coach, one long day
Bags in the hold at 8:15. Three stops before Assisi.
9:00 · Panicale Cashmere, Corciano. A working cashmere house, forty minutes from Orvieto. Thirty to forty-five minutes on the production floor to see how a garment is made here in Umbria, then the company boutique. The visit is free.
10:30 · Perugina Chocolate School, San Sisto. The Magic of Baci: two hours in which every student does every step, from cutting the block and making the hazelnut ganache to tempering by hand and the final glaze. Then the historical museum and the factory walkway, about an hour and a quarter. Each student leaves with a certificate, the recipe, an apron, and the chocolates they made.
14:00 · Perugia old town. Coach to the bus park, MiniMetro up the hill. Lunch on your own on the main street. The National Gallery of Umbria for anyone who wants it; the rest of the afternoon in the town.
17:00 · Coach to Assisi, thirty minutes. Check in. Assisi dinner at the fire: torta al testo.
Assisi · May 24–27 · three nights
Belief made visible
Pink stone, quiet mountain paths, and walls painted seven hundred years ago. A guesthouse inside the old walls, five minutes from the Basilica. This is the steepest terrain of the trip; about 16,000 steps on the hermitage day.
Register Your Interest
Tuesday, May 25 · The Basilica
Morning at the Basilica of St Francis, guided by the Basilica's own office with headsets: Giotto's life of St Francis in the Upper Church, the tomb in the crypt. Shoulders and knees covered. Afternoon: Santa Chiara and the main street, at walking pace. Evening free.
Wednesday, May 26 · The hermitage and the castle
Morning walk up to the Hermitage of St Francis on the mountain, paced to the slowest walker with rest stops; a minibus for anyone not walking. Afternoon at the Rocca Maggiore, the castle above town, and two more churches on the way down. Sketchbook time. Evening free.
Thursday, May 27 · Coach to Fiumicino
A free morning in Assisi. Coach at one o'clock, 190 km, about two and a half hours, to a hotel at Fiumicino. Farewell dinner. The program ends here. Anyone travelling onward independently signs the CCS release and leaves the group after dinner; the program fee does not change.
Friday, May 28 · Fly home
Any time. The hotel runs a shuttle to the terminal.
What you take home
A few fired pieces you made in Orvieto. A box of chocolates you made in Perugia, if they last. A sketchbook that went everywhere. Three credits in art history. And three towns you will be describing to people for years.