I’m privileged and excited to announce that I’ll be leading Benedictine College’s inaugural “Raven Discovery Travel” trip to Italy next summer, June 15-24, 2020. The trip is the type I usually like to lead–it’s sort of a pilgrimage…and a class…and just a great time to have some fun and experience another culture with a group of people who share the type of Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts, community-centered vision that we embrace at Benedictine College.
Between adding ne
w members to our family and having to undergo some major surgeries, it’s been some years since I’ve been able to lead a pilgrimage abroad. So I’m especially excited to lead a group back to places I’ve lived, studied, and taught in years past. Although I’ve led a number of trips abroad for Benedictine to destinations including Greece, Turkey, Israel, and India, the one place I always keep going back to and bringing others to is Italy!
The trip is offered to all alumni, parents, and friends of Benedictine College as a distilled experience of our Florence study abroad program. We will be visiting the major sites of Rome, Florence, Assisi, Subiaco, and Montecassino, and my job will be to help participants discover and better appreciate the Catholic and Benedictine roots of Western culture, as well as make connections between faith and beauty in art, nature, and relationships.
More than 1,000 have participated in our Study Abroad program, thirteen years after its founding in 2006. The semester program begins in Rome, where students visit the main historical and religious sites and participate in the Wednesday papal audience. The program also includes guided visits to Subiaco, Montecassino, Florence, and Assisi.
For a detailed itinerary, cost, and more information, send me an email at mramage@benedictine.edu or see our program’s website here.
