Posted by Jessica Greenfield on Friday, May 13, 2016 in Blog posts.

This year, 14 Vanderbilt students are participating in the 2016 Maymester in Sicily.  We are spending the month learning about Mediterranean Culture and traveling around the island of Sicily using Cefalù as our home base.

On May 9th, I met the students at the airport and we took a private shuttle back to Cefalù.  Once here, my colleague Vittoria and I showed the students to their apartments.  One group is in a villa on the Cefalù lungomare (boardwalk).  It has three bedrooms and about 6 different terraces.  There are two full bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, and a patio with eating area.  This particular villa also has access to a barbecue area and parking spaces (not important for us, but parents if you ever feel like coming back and renting a family villa, this home can accommodate another 2-4 people!).  The other group is in a pair of apartments on via Bordonaro, located in the centro storico (historical center) of town.  The two apartments are located on the same floor and are right next door to each other.  Each has a full kitchen and bathroom.  One of the apartments has two bedrooms and the other, one.  Both apartments have a balcony overlooking the street off of their kitchen and bedrooms, access to a sea view balcony on their floor and private access to a rooftop terrace with sea and city views.  New this year is the addition of WiFi in the apartments.  Each dwelling also comes equipped with a washing machine, and students’ linens and towels will be exchanged weekly along with a weekly cleaning of floors, countertops, and bathrooms by a professional cleaner.  So far, everyone seems very happy in their temporary home!

On May 10th we met for an orientation tour of Cefalù and had a nice walk around town.  Those students who have already studied some Italian are having fun meeting new people and interacting with locals and those who don’t speak any Italian have already picked up on some important survival phrases.  I believe they have already visited the beach, found some favorite coffee and lunch places, and started sampling the local restaurants.

We have now had our first class meetings at Culturforum Language School, which is generously allowing us use of their classroom space, and yesterday took our first field trip.  We visited the Phoenician/Carthaginian settlement of Solunto and then, for fun, made a stop at the Anchovy Museum.  Neither Vittoria nor I had ever visited, and it was so much fun!  The students got to learn about Bagheria’s historical primary economy as well as some Sicilian folk songs, and had a good laugh trying to teach our museum docent, Michelangelo, some English.  Overall it was a great day!  Tomorrow we’ll be out of town for the whole day visiting Segesta, the island of Mozia, and Erice.  Keep checking back for updates and blog posts by the students!