»Exploring Italy’s Art Cities

Students from any discipline at Chapman can apply to the January interterm course set in one of the Italian art cities, currently Rome or Florence. Students conduct individualized research projects while visiting major museums, representative artistic and cultural centers, and historic neighborhoods. Students design individualized projects interfacing the city’s resources with their academic and professional goals with the mentorship of Chapman faculty and then pursue research in the field during two weeks abroad, where they also interview experts and discuss findings with university peers from local universities.

*Designed by Dr. Federico Pacchioni in collaboration with International Studies Institute Florence and ItaliaIdea and Borromini Institute in Rome.

Moments from The Beauty of Ideas: An Experience of Florence

“My travel course experience in Florence brought experiential learning to a new level through engaging group adventures and the remarkable knowledge of our faculty. The time I’ve spent here has reignited my passion for exploration and learning and has motivated me to continue my academic pursuits through travel in the future” – Mac Francini

“On this trip, I had the opportunity to tap into the artistic ecosystem of Florence and use the complexities of such a historic city to draw ideas for my own work. From the workshops and museums, I learned how to listen for inspiration.” – Ashleigh Cohan

“I feel so grateful to be able to engage with Florence to such an immersive degree. This class has been such a unique experience that I feel has expanded my perspective in a way that I could not have gotten traveling on my own!” – Marissa Thompson

“Being one of the most influential experiences of my Chapman journey, I have learned so much about myself and the world beyond our own. It has been an incredible opportunity with personalized education like no other.” – Emalia Katelanis

Moments from Interpreting the Past: An Experience of Rome

“To explore and study the past in a city so full of its presence at every turn was an experience I will never forget. Of the Eternal City, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote: ‘Come to Rome——it is a scene by which expression is overpowered which words cannot convey.’ I have found this sentiment to be true, and I urge all those who can to come to Rome as well. It is a city that will remain eternal within me.” – Lauren Moyle

“I keep thinking about the quote on John Keats’s tombstone: ‘Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water.’ I hear it repeated over and over in my head as I walk around the city. We all want to be remembered. Names without faces. Faces without names. And some in the invisible spaces who will never be recovered, seen, or called. But they can be felt. Here, in Rome, we remember. We remember humanity. And we experience it.” – Kelly Taylor

"Rome is a museum representing some of the darkest and proudest moments in human history. One of the beauties of traveling is that it makes us wiser, and there is no better place to visit and live in as a student than the Eternal City." – Max Brittner Olsthoorn

"Studying abroad in Rome over interterm was nothing short of a miracle. This course sheds light not only on the ways Italy has functioned as a global nation in the past centuries, it also entrenches you so deeply within the culture that you forget it's only a visit." – Maithu Koppolu

A life-revealing experience of community and cultural collaboration that is entirely what you make of it. — Linn Tang