A Semester in Urbino, Italy

Attend classes that focus on topics such as Renaissance art history and literature, take an intensive Italian language course and study photojournalism with a focus on mobile phone imagery. Classes will take place in Urbino’s historic city center but many class sessions will venture outside of the traditional classroom, including trips to Florence, Siena, Rome and other villages closer to Urbino. In your free time, you’ll have a chance to travel to other destinations in Italy and beyond.

Why Urbino?

The city

Urbino, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a picturesque Renaissance city that sits atop a hill in central Italy. Approximately the same size as Ames, the city is rich with art and history, normally only found in major cities – the painter Raffaello grew up there. Urbino is home to the University of Urbino, which swells the population by another 15,000 during the academic year.

Unlike the larger cities of Italy that cater to foreign tourists, Urbino offers a small-town experience. Its historic center is alive with the citizens’ daily activities as they pick up groceries at a neighborhood shop or stroll in the evening with a gelato in hand.

Living in a foreign country for an extended period integrates you into a community in ways not possible during short visits. Within weeks, you will be calling out “Ciao!” to your neighbors. You will find that people in Urbino are friendly and will do their best to help you learn Italian and feel at home in their gorgeous town.

Although the municipality is spread out over an area twice the size of Ames, most of the town’s amenities are concentrated in or near the city center and are easily accessible by foot or city bus. Don’t forget to pack shoes that will enable you to climb Urbino’s hilly streets!

Housing and meals

All students will be housed in single rooms with a private bath in the Collegio del Colle at the University of Urbino. A full meal plan (21 meals a week) at the two university cafeterias is included in the program fee. One cafeteria is located in the dorm, and the second one is in the historic city center.

Courses

• Italian (4 cr.) – ITAL 1070 Meets one year of foreign language requirement. Intensive class that takes place Monday-Friday during the first two weeks and then twice a week for the rest of the semester. Italian films will be shown during afternoon sessions.
• Art History of the Renaissance (3 cr.) – ART H 3850 Meets humanities requirement.
• Literature of the Renaissance (3 cr.) – WLC 3000 Meets humanities requirement.
• History of Material Culture (3 cr.) – WLC 3000 Meets humanities requirement.
• Fundamentals of Mobile Photography (3 cr.) — JL MC 3110 * Meets Greenlee majors 3000-level skills requirement.

*All participants must register and complete the sequence of five courses listed above.*

Program prerequisites

• Minimum cumulative GPA of 2.5.
• Students are not required to have previous photography courses.

Tuition and financial aid

The semester program cost is comparable to the cost of studying at Iowa State for one semester. Iowa resident students will pay approximately the same tuition and room and board as they would at Iowa State. The program’s cost for non-resident students is less than a semester at Iowa State. See ISU Abroad’s budget worksheet for more info.

You can generally apply your financial aid packages to study in Urbino. Contact the Office of Student Financial Aid for further information. Some departments, as well as the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, offer competitive scholarships specifically for students studyingabroad. Learn more about LAS study abroad scholarships and deadlines.

For more information about the Urbino, Italy, program, contact Deni Chamberlin, program director, or the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Study Abroad Office.

Apply

For more information, visit the ISUAbroad website.