Barring a radical change in the exchange rate, the fee for this course will be $2915. This amount includes tuition and all University fees, room with breakfast every day, twelve evening meals, three other group meals, admissions for sites we see as a group, and long-distance, intercity rail fare in Italy. It does not cover air fare, local transit fares, the Circumvesuviana and Cumana commuter rail in the Naples area, most luches, nine suppers and free day expenditures. Decent lunches can be had for 5 or 6 euro, sometimes less, but dinners run at least 10 euro for adequate nutrition. All told, about 225 euro will be needed for minimal expenses. Free-day activities, other than shopping, could add another 100 - 150 euro.
International telephone cards can be easily bought in Italy. A 5 euro card will probably be adequate. NEVER use the service widely advertized on telephone booths to charge international calls to your credit card! The first five minutes costs $35! Internet access usually costs about 4 euro per hour.
Laudromats in Rome and Florence cost 8 euro for washing and drying a load. Avoid laundry service provided in the hotels and laundries that charge by the piece. A little hand washing in Ascea can save you a lot of weight and expense.
The course is budgeted to break even at 18 students. We try not to take over 20, but each student over 18 adds a few hundred dollars that can be used for other meals and extras.
The instructors will pick the outbound flight and ask you to book it on the internet through orbitz.com, travelocity.com, cheaptickets.com, expedia.com or wherever you can get the best price. This approach has saved over a hundred dollars a person in comparison to group flights. In 2006, the typical flight cost about $650, but no guarantee can be made. This extremely modest price was possible because both the departure date and the return date are off-peak for travel. You must be ready to buy your ticket in early October within a day of being notified of the choice of the outbound flight. The return flights do not all have to be the same, since some of you may want to go to different cities in the U.S..
If you do serious shopping, you should take advantage of the refund of the value added tax at the airport on the way out. The refund is about 12 percent of the cost of the item. To get it refunded, you must have over 155 euro on a single receipt. You must take the receipt and the merchandise to a special desk in the airport at the time of departure.
Can you afford the course? How does the cost compare with earning three credits here in College Park? If you are an out-of-state student living on campus and taking the regular meal plan, you are paying $10672.50 for general fees, $1712.50 for meals, and $2498.50 for room, for a total of $14883.50 for a total of 15 credits, or $2976.70 for three credits, $61.70 more than the cost of this course! That difference would cover some of your other food expenses. If you are an in-state student, the comparable figure comes out at $1632.80, about 53 percent of the cost of this course. On the other hand, if you are an in-state student, you may qualify for scholarship assistance for this or any study-abroad program.
