The coronavirus situation has reared its ugly head and tossed a wrench into things.
The UGA Cortona program prides itself on extensive weekend excursions to important art and culture destinations in central Italy. These trips are really fantastic. While Cortona has a lot of things to see and do, in the end it’s a small town and the exursions allow students and faculty to travel together to view art, always in the company of a Ph.D. art historian who provides not only instruction, but context as well.
The decision has been made to cancel this weekend’s excursion to Voterra and San Gimignano, but there’s been no decision made yet about future excursions. This move was prompted by the Italian government declaring that all travel by school programs of any level was to be temporarily suspended, so as to avoid putting students into situations where the virus could spread.
The students, young and rarin’ to go, are saying “damn the torpedoes” but the program directors are doing the right thing and seeing where things go in the next few weeks. Our hope is that, at a minimum, the students can stay on our tranquil little hill and do lots of work and finish the classes that they have started.
Our weather for this time of year has been exceptional. Only a couple of days of rain and otherwise sunny and cool, but rarely cold. Delightful. We’ve just come in from a spectacular dinner with amazing food and wine. And, I had a great class today. At this point, we’re concentrating on the positives.
