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12 November - 18 November, 2006
 
Rome is a difficult city for the tourist, because it contains so much to see, and so much diversity. At a first visit, it is the vast remnants of ancient Rome – the Colosseum, the Forum and the Pantheon – that fascinate. Then Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque Rome clamours for attention, the city of Michelangelo, Caravaggio and Bernini. But for centuries between these two outpourings of artistic and architectural achievement, Rome was also the site for huge developments in the history of ideas and of western civilisation. It was the focal point for the early development of Christianity, a vital centre of pilgrimage, and the workplace of great administrators and reformers like St Gregory the Great (c. 540–604). The many and varied remains of this Rome will be the subject of our study week. Here is another city waiting to be discovered, of saints and martyrs, catacombs, basilicas built on pagan temples, sculpture and mosaics, and innumerable artefacts and buildings of great interest and beauty.
 
We plan to visit:
• the three-layered church of San Clemente where buildings from the second, third and eleventh century are superimposed;
• the thirteenth-century cloister and fifth-century apse mosaic at San Paolo Without-the-Walls;
• Rome’s oldest church dedicated to the Virgin, Santa Maria in Trastevere, a twelfth-century basilica with contemporary mosaics and a further series by the thirteenth-century artist, Pietro Cavallini;
• the fifth-century cypress wood doors of Santa Sabina depicting the life of Christ;
• the ninth-century church of Santa Prassede with Carolingian mosaics and the early medieval vaulted chapel of San Zeno;
• Sant’Agnese Fuori le Mura and Santa Constanza, a late antique circular mausoleum founded for the daughter of Constantine built in the shadow of the pilgrimage church of St Agnes which features seventh-century mosaics;
• the catacombs;
• and the National Museum of Rome where we will consider the transition of artistic traditions from the late antique to the early Christian periods.
 
To facilitate our visit – and because some of the sites we will be visiting are not in the city centre – we will have a private coach to take us from place to place on three of our five full days in Rome.
 
Tutor for the week will be Dr Cathy Oakes from Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education, an expert on early medieval art and architecture. She has led several very successful Learn Italy trips, to Siena, Padua, Burgundy, and Lucca. Martin Gray will be the tour organiser.
 
In November there is a slight lull in the number of visitors to the Eternal City; the weather is likely to be cool. We will stay in a family-run three-star hotel in a quiet residential area not far from Rome’s most famous landmark, the Colosseum. The hotel offers an evening meal, but there are also many restaurants of all kinds close by. As usual on our city trips, some group meals will be organised at cost price.
 
 
Guideline prices, excluding flights:
Per person, single use of double room:   £990
Per person, sharing a double room:   £860
 

These prices include:
six nights bed and breakfast in a three-star hotel in Rome;
lectures on the art and architecture of early Christian and medieval Rome;
entrance fees to museums and churches;
three days of travel by coach to chosen sites in and around Rome;
coach transfers between Rome Fiumicino airport and the hotel;
services of a tour organiser;
coach travel between the Cotswolds and Oxford, and Heathrow (if enough people are departing from the area).
 
Flights from Heathrow to Rome in November cost from about £100. Tickets on a chosen flight can be bought from a designated travel agent; the price will depend on when the traveller chooses to make their purchase, as prices are likely to rise steadily. Further information about these arrangements will be supplied on receipt of your booking form.
 

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