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All students take four courses taught in English and an Italian language course. While all classes are held at Casa Artom, each professor sees the city of Venice as their classroom and often take the students out exploring.  Local Italian professors teach language courses and courses within other disciplines. In our case this Spring semester,Continue reading “Classes”

Today we toured the Peggy Guggenheim Collection next door.  All modern art with cubism, surrealism, and abstract art, it is one of the premier collections in the world featuring over 300 works by over 100 artists of the 20th century. Peggy Guggenheim bought Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal in Venice, where sheContinue reading “Peggy Next Door”

Venice was built on 118 islands in the middle of the Venetian Lagoon at the head of the Adriatic Sea in Northern Italy.  It was in the 5th century that these Venetians began to take refuge in the muddy flats to escape the barbarians who descended from the north and took advantage of the failingContinue reading “The Beginnings of Venice”

Most come on Saturday by water taxi, but all are here by Sunday afternoon. Room assignments are made ahead of time by Joy. Most rooms have two or four beds and look like a typical dorm room with a desk and closet for each student. The mosquito netting is used during the warm months becauseContinue reading “Students Arrive!”

I was able to find all this on the internet: In the late 1960s Wake Forest University conceived the idea of offering students a semester of study in Europe and in 1971 acquired what was once the American consulate in Venice. In 1974 the University purchased the property outright from the American government, and itContinue reading “History of Casa Artom”

I love the terracotta tiled roofs of Venice. I also like how close they are to each other and almost create a visual landing. What I don’t like is the story Joy told me! Last semester after a heat wave in the autumn, many of the students were keeping the doors open off the terraceContinue reading “Rooftops and Doors”

Joy arrived yesterday! This bubbly former WFU student who lived in Casa Artom as a biology student, is our IPA (RA – “Resident Assistant” – is not the correct title anymore!) IPA stands for “International Program Assistant”. When our 19 students start showing up this weekend, she will get them all acclimated and assigned toContinue reading “Joy”

Being a visual person, I need to see the lay of the land before I can begin to understand the story or history of a place. I found some google maps of Venice and a little history of this house. The second picture here is a print hanging on our wall in our living room.Continue reading “Geography”

As the “Wolf” moon came out last night, we found ourselves on the Vaporetto (water bus). We caught the fast moving current of people walking up to the train station around 5:00 pm as people leave the tourist area. We went to purchase our first month’s pass and then chose to take the boat home.Continue reading ““When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.””

The apartment is bigger than I expected, but not as spacious as the Worrell House in London or the Flow House in Vienna. However, the master bedroom is so large that it has windows on opposite sides of the room. One side faces the outer wall of the house along a small canal while theContinue reading “The Faculty Apartment”

Arriving at the Marco Polo Airport in Venice was exhilarating! Sunny skies awaited us as be gathered our luggage (all of it!) and proceeded to the water taxi service that Laura, the house manager, arranged for us. Within minutes we were transported to the front door of Casa Artom where Laura and Massimo (the ITContinue reading “The Arrival”

We are now sitting in Munich airport. It is 10 am. The flight overnight from Washington was superb, with roomy seats and good food in Economy Plus seating. But getting onto this United Airlines flight was another story. Weather in Washington didn’t delay our Greensboro flight. But the dreaded mechanical issue on their commuter planeContinue reading “En route”

We are about to jump into the unknown!  Not that we haven’t been to Venice before, but this will be different!  Our first visit was in October of 2011 while we were living in Vienna, Austria.  We spent a few nights in a hotel and did the tourist thing.  It was breathtaking!  Our second visitContinue reading “My Bags are Packed”

It is January 2, 2020, and only 5 days until we fly off to Venice for our four-month stay at Casa Artom. The Christmas tree has been taken down, and all the holiday decorations are stored away. We’ve brought up suitcases to gauge how much room we have for packing. Errands are being run toContinue reading “Getting prepared to go!”