In Spring, 2018, students from the College of Liberal and Fine Arts will immerse themselves in the study of Linguistics, Italian Language, and Medieval and Renaissance Art History for an entire semester. The COLFA Semester in Urbino, now in its sixth year, offers students the opportunity to live, study, and travel in Italy, to explore the beauty of the medieval town of Urbino, the birthplace of Raphael, and to travel with their professors to many other cities of Italy as part of their curriculum.
Students will earn 13 hours of credit toward graduation while working with professors from UTSA, the University of Urbino and other European universities to “dig up” linguistic artifacts that will tell them about the history of their own language, explore how religious affiliation has had an enormous impact on the history, culture, and languages of Europe, and learn how these linguistic developments interact with other cultural developments, such as art, architecture, and music.
One of the most valuable components of the COLFA Semester in Urbino is the opportunity for students to travel. During the semester, students make three 4-day trips to Rome, the Veneto (Venice and Verona), and Tuscany (Florence and Siena), plus six day trips to cities like Bologna, Ravenna, Assisi, and Ferrara. All trips are faculty-led with itineraries that are carefully designed to enhance and augment the classroom material. Students visit sites that are relevant to their courses to gain a direct experience of the language, art, and history of the area—the Colosseum of Imperial Rome, the Roman catacombs, the Renaissance cupola of the Florentine cathedral, the ancient foundations of the early Christian church excavated beneath it.
We ask for your help in covering the expenses for student admissions to museums, events and performances throughout the semester that will provide invaluable insight to their studies abroad. The price for visiting the Ducal Palace in Venice, the Vatican in Rome, or Michelangelo’s magnificent David at the Accademia in Florence is substantial but represents a priceless contribution to the education of our students.
Thank you for your support of this once-in-a-lifetime experience! Please spread the word about our project by sharing on social media with others who love language, art, and all things Italian, and who are interested in helping our students.
For more information on the COLFA Semester in Urbino program, visit http://colfa.utsa.edu/urbino/
Your gift covers the cost for a student's day trip to Gubbio where they will visit the Iguvine tablets, the site of St. Francis’s miracle with “Brother Wolf” and the funicular ride to the mountain-top chapel overlooking the city
Your gift covers the cost of one student to tour the Ducal Palace in Urbino, the Byzantine churches of Ravenna and the moated, medieval castle of the Este family in Ferrara.
Your gift covers admission costs for one student to visit the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museum, the Appian Way and the Catacombs during the trip to Rome.
Your gift covers the admission costs for one student to visit museums and galleries throughout the semester. Our stops include the Florentine cathedral, the house of the Capulets in Verona, the Jewish Museum of the Borghetto (Ghetto) of Venice and the Villa Borghese in Rome.