Italian Passages™ students will participate in a fresco workshop led by Maurizio Ruspetti, one of the few remaining fresco masters in Italy. Maurizio will walk the students through the many stages of creating a fresco: construction of the lathwork, laying of the arriccio (mortar), drawing and "pouncing" of the sinopia (preparatory drawing), laying of the intonaco (second layer of smooth plaster made of lime and sieved sand), and, finally, the actual painting using natural pigments.

Marbleized papermaking is a Florentine tradition that originated in 10th century China and spread through the travels of Venetian merchants. Marbleizing is a method of decorating paper by "floating colors." The artisan applies colors to a liquid called marbleizing size. Patterns form on top of the size, are stabilized by ox gall, and are then removed from the size by laying a piece of paper on them. The paper produced is truly one-of-a-kind and is used to cover books, boxes, and picture frames. We will visit the studio of a local artisan who will demonstrate this craft for which the city of Florence is famous.

Siena is celebrated for Il Palio, a horserace of medieval origin in which the various neighborhoods of the city, contradas, compete against one another in a bareback run around the Piazza del Campo. Every person born within the city walls is born into a contrada and loyalty to one's neighborhood "family" is fiercely intense. Italian Passages™ students will have the rare and extraordinary opportunity to visit the private museum and chapel of the Giraffa Contrada.