Where are we going? - Summer-Holiday-Courses-in-Northern-Italy - Art History Abroad

Venice

Mosaics, Masks and Maritime Power. The aquatic city is home to masterful painters such as Titian and Bellini, is the model city for a proud self governed republic and with its passion for Carnival and Casanova became a city of sumptuousness, display and party. The changing atmosphere of Venice is the highlight, its waters adding to the clarity of sounds and light.

Florence

Merchants, Bankers and the Renaissance. Home of Michelangelo and other fellow geniuses, as well as the place where the alarm clock was invented. This is the place to get to grips with politics, philosophy and the economics of a developing, successful city, where art and architecture both expresses and explains. The Italian literature of Dante and Bocaccio is explored amongst medieval churches and houses, whilst scenes from Henry James' 'Room with a View' can be reenacted in the Piazza Signoria and the dozens of loggias dotted around the city.

Rome

The Eternal City - where paganism met christianity and Martin Luther witnessed Roman Catholicism, leading to the Counter Reformation and the extravagant Baroque. From the Forum to the Colosseum to the first legal Christian Church, Rome holds more mind boggling moments than any other city. One look at the poetry of Byron, Shelley or Keats explains the impact that this place had on their 'Grand Tour'. There is also of course the Vatican Museum where one can indulge in the ancient collection of sculpture, Raphael's frescoes and the mighty Sistine chapel and ceiling.