Beginnings

Our intrepid group of 25 college faculty scholars from across the US and our leaders ( Greg Warden, our scholar in residence; Carole Lester, our incomparable Director: and Marsha Anderson, Co-Director and Local Arrangements guru across Italy) began our study of the lost culture of the Etruscans on June 5, 2012.  Our group was harmonious from the outset and only contiued to bond as we shared our various knowledge and expertise with each other over the next three weeks.  In our first 3 days in Orvieto, we were able to visit excavations under a church from the 11th century ( we went farther back in time below the church), view the Etruscan countryside from the heights of Orvieto, hold artifacts that were thousands of years old, have seminars in the lovely Orvieto library, explore the first of our 12 museums and enter the first of our many Etruscan necropli.  These days set a tone of high quality and scholarship.  The institute would only become better!

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