Your Alithea guide will meet you at the airport. Together you'll hop on the bus and head to the hilltown of Orvieto. After stopping for an Italian breakfast and an orientation to Alithea's style of travel, you'll meet with a local wood craftsman before having free time for lunch and to visit the cathedral. 

In the mid-afternoon, your journey will continue north towards Palaia where you'll sleep three nights. 

This evening you will regroup for a traditional Tuscan dinner.

After breakfast in your hotel, you'll depart for nearby Volterra, one of the great Etruscan towns with a history dating back almost three thousand years. Your morning will be dedicated to an alabaster workshop with a local craftsman. 

In the early afternoon, you'll be free for lunch, to visit the Roman ruins, and to observe the spectacular carved sepulchers and ceramics in the Etruscan Museum. 

Following in the footsteps of Michelangelo, with a modern twist, you'll head north to the marble mountains of Carrara. In the mid-morning, you'll split into small groups to explore the mines in jeeps. 

This afternoon, we'll work 'farm-to-table,' you'll head to the workshop of a local craftsman to learn to practice with the famous Italian stone. 

Departing Palaia after breakfast, you'll head to nearby Florence for two days immersed in the spectacular art and architecture of the city eponymous with renaissance. 

After dropping your bags at your hotel, a former convent converted into a guesthouse, you'll head out for a walking tour of the city with your Alithea guide. While traversing the Piazza della Signoria you'll see how the craftsman of the city provided the foundation for a newly rediscovered perspective. Concluding at the Academia, you'll see Michelangelo's David, his unfinished sculptures, and the plaster busts used by artists such as Gianbologna to seemingly bring intertwining marble figures to life.

This evening, you'll regroup to celebrate your Renaissance discoveries with a Tuscan feast.

This morning you'll be free to explore the city on your own. Consider visiting the Bargello, Orsanmichele, the Pitti Palace, Uffizi, or Galileo Museum. Be sure to book these tickets long in advance. Your Brunelleschi pass will give you entrance to the Baptistry, the Duomo Museum, and Giotto's bell tower. 

In the mid-afternoon, you'll regroup with your professors and Alithea guide to split into small groups. At around 5:00 pm you'll regroup to climb Brunelleschi's dome. 

Departing Florence after breakfast, you'll head east towards the Adriatic coast and the region of Marche where you'll stay two nights. Your morning and early afternoon will be dedicated to a blacksmith workshop with a local master. 

In the late afternoon, you'll check into your seaside hotel for a free evening.

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Today will be dedicated to the Dolce Vita, the sweet life. Whether sailing or lounging on the beach, you'll practice the Italian art of relaxing by the sea.

Leaving behind the sea after breakfast, you'll head to the region of Abruzzo in the center of Italy where you'll stay two nights. En route, and time-permitting, you'll visit a local stone-craftsmen and set foot in the same churches as Charlemagne, learn to cook like a local, and watch the sunset from a castle ruin at the top of Rocca Calascio. 

Your hotel will be an albergo diffuso, a hotel that has converted medieval homes spread across town into individual accommodation. 

Following the historic migration of shepherds and the transhumance, this morning you'll tackle the mountain slopes in the high plateau of the Campo Imperatore. An experience in the immersive beauty of nature, your mountain guide will conclude the morning's hike at a local refugio serving rosticini, meat grilled over an open fire.

Departing your medieval mountain village after breakfast, you'll go to Rome, where you'll spend three nights.

Your arrival to Rome will follow the ancient roads of the Romans along the via Salaria. There, your local guide will introduce you to Rome as a multi-layered and many dimensional palimpsest, or a manuscript that has been written over many times. Visiting the Mausoleum of Costanza, or the marvelous catacombs and mosaics of Saint Agnese Outside the Walls, will illustrate how the work of craftsmen can endure for millennia, reflecting a vision of eternal beauty. 

Following lunch, and time permitting, you'll visit with a local wood craftsman before checking into your hotel, a seventeenth century palazzo and convent now run as a guest house in one of the city’s best locations. 

Before dinner tonight we’ll visit the Pantheon, the temple to all gods, and perhaps the most enduring of all Roman monuments. Perfect in its many proportions, this creation tells a story not only of the ancient Roman vision of the beautiful, but also of the relationship between stone, sky, and time.

This morning your study abroad activities will begin near one of Rome’s longest standing engineering feats, the ancient sewer. Here, by the Tiber River, you’ll stand in one of Rome’s focal points between past and present, in sight of ancient temples, an old forum, and the city’s oldest bridge, the first stop this morning will be Santa Maria in Cosmedin, the Greek church built over the temple to Apollo and the home to the Bocca della Verità. Together with your guide you’ll trace through the centuries as you climb the Capitoline steps, designed by Michelangelo, see the equestrian bronze of Marcus Aurelius (a replica), and pass through the courtyard between the world’s oldest museums and the temple to Jupiter before visiting the ancient Roman Forum and Palatine hill.

You’ll be free to spend the afternoon drawing in the Capitoline Museum, the Palatine Hill, or visit Saint Peter's and the Vatican Museum.

After dinner we'll regroup for an evening stroll through the city to see Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Hadrian’s temple, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. 

After breakfast in your hotel, you’ll ride the bus to San Clemente, where you'll explore Rome’s many layers. In the later morning, you’ll visit the Palazzo Colonna where you’ll glimpse eight hundred years of history, family traditions, and the continuity of life in Rome through art, furniture, carpets, painting, and architecture.

This evening you’ll regroup for one last celebratory meal as each of your ACBA travelers will be invited to reflect what this journey has inspired while feasting as the Romans. La dolce vita.

Wake early to watch the sunrise from the Capitoline Hill or in the square in front of the Pantheon. Your study abroad program concludes at breakfast. Your guide will arrange taxis back to the airport and be available to help with questions.