May 14-22, 2024

Venice

May 14-17

We’ll host a reception upon arrival and activities may include: gondola ride, tour of Grand Canal (including sites where Woolson lived and visited), walking tour on American exapts in Venice, excursion to Torcello.

Florence

May 17-20

We’ll visit Bellosguardo, where Woolson lived for many years and Henry James visited, as well as Casa Guidi, home of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, and other sites Woolson loved. Possibilities include the Boboli Gardens and the Medici Chapels.

Rome

May 20-22

We plan visits to the Non-Catholic Cemetery, where Woolson, Keats, Shelley, and other notables are buired, and may also go to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps & Keats-Shelley House.

Join us to follow in the footesteps of the author Constance Fenimore Woolson in Italy from Venice in the North all the way to Rome (or Sorrento) in the South.

A packet of suggested readings will be provided well in advance–not for homework but for your own pleasure–should you wish to read some of Woolson’s writings about the places we will be visiting.

OPTIONAL ADD-ON

Sorrento

May 22-26

An optional exra night in Rome, plus three nights in Sorrento, where Woolson spent the winter in 1882, looking out over the bay toward Mount Vesuivus. We are planning optional excurions to Paestum (which Woolson also visited), Pompeii, and other sites.

TRIP LEADERS

Etta Madden

Author Etta Madden led her first adult themed trip to Italy in 2013. Prompted by a William J. Fulbright award to serve as a Senior Lecturer in American Literature in Sicily, she turned her research and writing to US authors in Italy. Through that work she has been a fellow at the Library Company of Philadelphia and the New York Public Library and, most recently, a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome. As a trip leader, and with her All Things Italy newsletter, Etta offers insights off the beaten path, appealing to those who want something other than typical tours. Read more about her past trips and publications on her website.

Anne Boyd Rioux

Former president of Constance Fenimore Woolson Society, author of biography Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist (Norton, 2016), and editor of Constance Fenimore Woolson: Collected Stories (Library of America, 2020). Also former English professor now traveling throughout Europe and writing about it: Letters from Anne.

DETAILS

Small Group: This is a small group trip curated for 8-12 travellers. There are limited spots still available. Paying the deposit secures your spot.

Cost of trip (Venice, Florence, & Rome): $2650.00 (Per Person, Double Occupancy)–Includes 8 nights lodging & breakfasts, 8 dinners, most ground transfers, & several Woolson-related site visits. DOES NOT INCLUDE AIRFARE or transfers to-from-to airport-lodging.

Sorrento option: $1000 (Per Person, Double Occupancy)–Includes 4 nights lodging, breakfast, dinners, transfer from Rome, & Woolson-related site visits.

Deposit: $450.00 Per Person–Your deposit secures your spot.

Single Room add: $450.00 base trip; $150 Sorrento option.

Contact: Etta (ettammadden@gmail.com) or Anne (anneboydrioux@gmail.com)