Italy and Sicily
The Legacy of the Ancient Mediterranean
This trip offers students studying Latin and/or Greek the opportunity to explore the cultural inheritance of the Greek and Roman worlds. By visiting archaeological sites, museums, towns and cities, students will gain experience with the cultural diversity and diversity of cultures presented in the Latin and/or Greek curricula at Deerfield. Significant themes include the study of antiquity through material culture, locality & identity in modern Italy, and the nature of current research in the field of classics.
Upon their return from this trip, students will be able to confidently converse on the nature and legacy of multinationalism, internationalism, cosmopolitanism, and diversity in the ancient Mediterranean; they will describe the many facets of Greco-Roman identity and their collective (or distinct) impact(s), become familiar with the study of history from both texts and artifacts, and gain comfort with slow-paced, open-ended, reflective travel.
Program Notes
- Please note: This trip conflicts with the June 3 SAT and June 10 ACT test dates.
- During this trip students will stay in hotels and eat meals at the hotel and at local restaurants.
- Students and faculty leaders will update families and friends at home through our Notes From The Field blog.
- Families are responsible for transporting their students from U.S.-based airport to their home destination for the summer.
Program Dates
May 30 – June 17, 2023
Program Eligibility
This program is open to current 9th, 10th and 11th grade students with a preference to those enrolled in Latin and/or ancient Greek. All interested students are encouraged to apply by November 6. Financial Aid is available to all qualifying students.
Faculty TRip Leaders
Dan Houston; Anna Delwiche
Approx. trip cost: $7,000 (*includes estimated round trip airfare from a NE/NY airport)
Deerfield Academy’s Center for Service and Global Citizenship strives to make all of our travel programs affordable and accessible for all students while ensuring a high quality global education experience. While the costs of travel around the world have been rising steadily over the past several years, all of our trips are subsidized, and thanks to the generosity of many we are able to provide robust financial aid for qualifying students.
Helpful links
- CDC and State Department briefings on travel to Italy.
2023 Preliminary Itinerary
*This itinerary is subject to change.
May 30-31: Travel from NE/NY based airport to Palermo
June 1 – June 6: Sicilia
- We’ll travel around the island of Sicily visiting sites that will help students understand the various influences that shaped the history of this island. Students will learn about the struggles for power between the Greeks, Carthaginians, and eventually the Romans as we see incredible architecture and visit archeological sites that argue for the important role this island played in the ancient Mediterranean.
June 7 – 9: Sorrento
- We’ll visit Pompeii and Herculaneum, two Roman settlements that were destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. We’ll see a treasure trove of the most important and interesting objects rescued from these towns when we visit the world class Archeological Museum of Naples. We’ll take a day trip to Capri before making our way to Rome.
June 10 – 17: Rome
- We’ll walk all over the historic center of the Eternal City. We’ll visit museums, archeological sites, and other points of interest as we learn how to read and interpret the layers of history in this cultural capital of the world.
June 17: Fly back home **
** Families are responsible for transporting their students from U.S.-based airport to their home destination for the summer.