Twenty students from the University of Georgia spent three weeks exploring Croatia and Venice this last Maymester. Led by Profs. Jordan Pickett and Cari Goetcheus, students from a wide range of majors—biology, engineering, business, history and pre-law, as well as the professors’ home departments of Classics and historic preservation— traveled from Zagreb to the Adriatic. Working their way up the Adriatic coast, from Split to Zadar and Pula, the program concluded with several days in Venice (which controlled Croatia’s littoral for the better part of seven centuries, until 1797). Throughout these weeks, a vast spectrum of history and landscapes confronted our students: traveling and learning to look and study architecture and landscapes carefully in situ, while reading and discussing, is a transformative experience. For the professors, providing this experience was thrilling. “We can see the difference travel makes in students' curiosity and engagement with the world around them,” said Pickett and Goetcheus. Moreover, the world is especially complex throughout the Adriatic, with deeply layered urban histories and landscapes. For instance, throughout their journey together, students and faculty visited modern cities known for their wealth of Roman archaeology, such as Split, where the emperor Diocletian’s Palace is remarkably well-preserved and became the nucleus of the medieval and modern town, as well as abandoned sites like the marvelously huge Roman-Byzantine city of Salona, and incredible cultural landscapes like the lunar island of Pag, where the group toured a two thousand-year-old olive grove and a famous cheese factory! Many students ate their first whole (grilled) fish in Dalmatia, and truffles were enjoyed in Istria, too. Another highlight for students was taking a ferry to the island of Brijuni, where Yugoslav dictator Josep Broz Tito had his summer villa: Tito followed the Romans there, as more than half a dozen ancient villas have been excavated on Brijuni in recent decades. For faculty, perhaps, another highlight was going to the Biennale in Venice where they walked with students there, to the other end of the Rialto and more than a mile from the hotel, and students had to navigate to find their own way home afterwards! The University of Georgia has been sending students to Croatia for nearly nineteen years, for a tapestry of transformative experiences, and the Classics department looks forward to more years ahead! Type of News/Audience: Alumni Faculty and Staff Students
