MSA CULTURAL TOURS

FELLOW TRAVELERS
NEWSLETTER

SPRING 2006

 

Hopefully there are travel plans in your future, and some of your travels will be with us. As many of you know we will no longer be offering our tours in cooperation with SCLN/LC. The new ownership considers our educational travel to be neither consistent with their mission nor sufficiently profitable to continue. The latter point is salient to our goal of offering affordable opportunities to travel abroad.

We want to assure you that we will continue offering you high quality travel opportunities at bargain prices. In this NEWSLETTER you will find the tours we plan to offer in the 2006 - 2007 travel season. Some of these tours are firm and we are now accepting registrations and deposits while others remain tentative.  Tentative tours are for the most part the result of airline policies that will not provide ticket prices more than 325 days in advance. Thus, a trip or example that would end on March 20th, 2007, ticket prices are not available until around May 1, 2006.  What follows is both our firm and tentative tours for 2006- 2007.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL PRICES ARE PREDICATED ON DOUBLE OCCUPANCY.  SINGLE ROOM SUPPLEMENTS ARE $200-$250 DEPENDING ON THE TOUR.

I. CULINARY TOUR TO THE ABRUZZI REGION OF ITALY , OCTOBER 30TH TO NOVEMBER 6TH. $1895.

Join us for this seven-day six night culinary tour of the Abruzzi region known as the culinary capital of Italy . Spend five nights in the picturesque Adriatic City of Pescara, which will serve as our operational base. We will leave Pescara and drive through vineyards and olive groves as we move from sea level to the base of Monte Maila to visit the renovated 12th century castle of Nocciano.  Here, amidst vaulted ceilings, antiques and tapestries, we will celebrate a magnificent feast of the local cuisine and savor the taste of the deep rich Abruzzi wines that have received world acclaim.  We will visit local vineyards, be introduced to the best wines of the region by local sommeliers, and visit facilities where the unique products of Italian olive oils, olives, cheeses and sausages are produced.

Participate in the preparation and consumption of two meals by local chiefs of the Abruzzi. Spend the final day and night in historic Rome where we will take a walking tour and visit the many architectural and artistic accomplishments of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. You will return home, enriched by a new culinary and cultural knowledge, appreciation and enjoyment of Abruzzi cuisine, wines and the warm hospitality of its people.

II. SICILY, NOVEMBER 3-10.   $1795.00

We have finally received an allocation of tickets from Alitalia for November and are now accepting registrations/deposits. There was a long waiting list for the Sicily tour but given the three-month delay in obtaining tickets some on the list have made other plans. Consequently, there are (as of this writing) eight places still available. If you are interested we suggest you get your deposit in ASAP. As an aside, despite the enormous popularity of this tour, this will most likely be the last time we offer a Sicily tour in November. The increasing popularity of Sicily in November and the difficulty of working with Alitalia, a.k.a. TAB, (Torture Ben Airlines), which has a monopoly on flights to Sicily, is making it logistically too difficult to continue.

III. NEW YEAR’S CELEBRATION IN ITALY , DECEMBER 29 to JANUARY 5TH. $1795

Join us for a traveler’s dream! A New Year’s celebration unlike any other! Start the New Year off with a magnificent banquet followed by dancing in the renovated 12th Century Castle in Nocciano, Italy , a New Year’s Day champagne brunch in Pescara, and three days in Rome at the 4 star Mercure Delta Colosseo Hotel. Spend three days in the Abruzzi region of Italy noted for its fine wines and cuisine, hospitality and natural beauty. End your dream New Year’s celebration with three days in the immortal city of Rome. Visit St. Peter’s, the Vatican Museum, the Forum, its many timeless ancient monuments, and fashionable designer shops.

IV. LISBON, SPAIN AND THE ALGARVE . JANUARY 8-17, 2007. $1695.

We are again offering this popular eight night tour which includes one night in the beautiful walled town of Evora, two nights in Seville (the cultural center of Andalusia), two nights in Largos in the beautiful Portuguese Algarve, and the final three nights in Lisbon. This year we are including an excursion to Sintra during our stay in Lisbon.

V. HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF MODERN PORTUGAL Very Tentative February 2007.

The tour will visit the sites seminal to the origins of the modern nation of Portugal . Porto, the city from which the name of the nation is derived, Guimaraes, the birthplace of Portugal where Alfonso Henriques was proclaimed Portugal ’s first king in 1139, Coimbra, Portugal ’s first capital and home of it first University, the great Gothic Church of Batalha build to commemorate Portugal ’s amazing victory over Spain in 1385 which preserved Portuguese independence. Other sites to be visited in Portugal will include the picturesque walled medieval City of Obidos, the Cistercian abbey in Alcobaca, Portugal ’s largest church, the shrine and pilgrim site of Fatima, Braga and the sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte.

VI. GREECE . MARCH 26-APRIL 3, 2007.

TRIP IS FIRM BUT DATES ARE TENTATIVE DEPENDING ON AVAILABILITY AND PRICE OF AIRLINE TICKETS NOT AVAILABLE UNTIL THE FIRST WEEK OF MAY.

We will feature the same itinerary as last year’s popular trip. The first two nights are in the beautiful coastal town of Nafplio, the first capital of modern Greece . While in Nafplio we will visit 13th-16th centuries BC Mycenae, the city of Homer’s King Agamenon and the acoustical perfect classical theatre of Epidaurus. We will also visit Ancient Olympia, site of the first Olympic games in 776 BC, Delphi, home of the most famous oracle in Antiquity and spend the final two days in Athens.

VII. TUSCANY AND LIGURIA. APRIL 2007. VERY TENTATIVE.

This tour will visit Camogli and Portofino on the beautiful Ligurian Coast, the undiscovered medieval town of Castell’ Arquato, San Gimignano, the city of towers, Siena, Pisa, Lerica on the Gulf of Poets (where Shelley drowned), Portovenere, the Cinque Terra and Florence.

For more detail on this tour (minus Florence), which will be featured as the MSA Post Congress Tour in May see www.mediterraneanstudies.org. When you get to the MSA website click on “Post-Congress Tour of Liguria and Tuscany now open.”

                                              GAZETTE

APPRECIATION

Many thanks to Ann and Skip Bedser for hosting the post-reunion party for the January Portugal/Algarve Trip.

Many thanks to Maryellen and Norman Shachoy for hosting the post-reunion party for the March Greece Trip in May.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Check the next  FELLOW TRAVELERS NEWSLETTER which will be out in June for details of the FIRST ANNUAL FELLOW TRAVELERS REUNION. We are planning an August date after Ben returns from teaching in Europe, but the exact time and venue are yet to be determined.

FUTURE TRIPS

Among the venues being considered are:

1. The Holy Roman Empire Survives: Budapest, Prague and Vienna

2. Roman, Medieval and Shakespeare's England

Let us know if either of these venues are of interest or if you have other suggestions.

HAPPY SPRING

IF YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS PLEASE CONTACT

BEN TAGGIE

P.O. BOX 79351                               PHONE: 508-979-TOUR

N. DARTMOUTH, MA                        E-MAIL Btaggie@umassd.edu

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