It's time to renew this travel blog. Kim, Nicole and I leave in three weeks. I'll be teaching in Italy for five weeks. We will be doing a little bit of traveling before and after.

I am teaching two classes in Italy: basic video production and documentary. My students will come not only from Ball State, but also from other member schools of the Kentucky Institute for International Studies, the consortium through which the courses are offered.

This program will be dramatically different from my 2002 teaching in Macerata through the AHA consortium. First and foremost, we will be spending one week in Rome, then four weeks in Florence, the three of us sharing a hotel room the whole time. I will not have regular Internet access as I did three years ago, when a connection was provided for us in our apartment. For that reason, I can't be sure how much updating I will be doing of this blog from Europe. If you're reading this in July and it's the most recent post, I obviously didn't update it.

A round trip flight to Rome during the summer (with gas prices and exchange rates) would run about $1,300 each. With advice from Kim's sister to check Aer Lingus, we were able to cobble together a rather convoluted itinerary which saved us about $250 per person. Our itinerary:
June 7: Indy to Washington Dulles/Independence Air
Dulles to New York/Independence Air
NY to Dublin/Aer Lingus
June 11: Dublin to Rome/Al Italia
June 19 - Bus to Florence
July 15: Class ends. Drive rental car to Siciliy
July 20 or 21: Drive to Slovenia, stopping a night in Macerata
July 28: Drive to Milan to return rental car
July 29: Milan to London/Ryan Air
Aug. 2: London to Dublin/Aer Lingus
Aug. 3: Dublin to NY
NY to DC
DC to Indy