Padova Handbook
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PADUA ITALY 2012 Handbook BU in Padua 3 Getting Ready to Go 9 Arrival Language Preparation Travel Arrangements A Sense of Purpose Arrival Day Helpful Websites Orientation 4 Academics 9 Housing Programs Housing Assignments Courses Italian Households Università degli studi di Padova Family Housing Guidelines Libraries Academic Policies and 12 Life in Padua Procedures Food/Dining Erasmus Student Network 6 What to Bring Tandem Learning Handbooks Shopping Documents Entertainment Textbooks Transportation: Getting Around Calling Home Padua Clothing and Climate Mail, Packages, and Faxes Prescriptions and Drug Store E-mail Items Newspapers and Other Appliances Publications Laptops Television and Radio Miscellaneous Items Padua-area Hotels and Hostels 7 Money Matters 16 Names and Numbers Program Fees Cash Housing Deposit Airfare for Academic-Year Students Banking Getting Ready to Go “… For the great desire I had To see fair Padua, Nursery of Arts. Padua (known to Italians as Padova) claims to be the oldest I am arrived… city in northern Italy. Ancient Padua, inhabited by Veneti, thrived thanks to its excellent breed of horses and the wool And am to Padua come, as he that leaves of its sheep. Its men fought for the Romans at Cannae, and A shallow plash—to plunge him in the deep.” the city (a Roman municipium since 45 BC) became so powerful that it reportedly was able to raise two hundred thousand fighting men. The historian Livy was born in — Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew Padua, and Padua was the first home to one of the most Act I, Scene I famous architects of the Renaissance, Andrea Palladio. Padua is also the setting for most of the action in Shakespeare's “The Taming of the Shrew.” LANGUAGE PREPARATION The city is the economic and communications hub of the It might be a good idea to brush up your Italian before Veneto region in northern Italy, and is included, with Venice leaving for Padua. Students who have not recently taken an (Italian Venezia), in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area, Italian class (in Italian) are particularly encouraged to do so. population around 1,600,000. Its agricultural setting is the The more you revive your Italian before departure (particu - Pianura Padana, edged by the Euganean Hills praised by larly in terms of grammar and vocabulary), the more you are Lucan and Martial, Petrarch and Ugo Foscolo. The city is going to benefit from your semester (or academic year) in picturesque, with a dense network of arcaded streets Padua! opening into large communal piazze, and many bridges crossing the various branches of the River Bacchiglone, A SENSE OF PURPOSE which once surrounded the ancient walls like a moat. There is more to preparing for your semester in Padua than A lively city of 240,000 inhabitants, Padua is home to the deciding what to pack or brushing up on your Italian. You second oldest European university, founded in 1222, and it will also need to identify your own goals and objectives: now hosts a student population of 60,000. Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, the first woman to receive a college • Establish some general priorities before you go— degree, graduated from the Università degli studi di Padova academic, personal, and professional—and try to keep in 1678. Galileo Galilei taught in Padua, and his podium is them in mind throughout the semester. still preserved at the Palazzo Bo, the historic university • Think about what you hope to accomplish while you are building in the center of the city. Having been a university in Padua and in Italy. town for almost eight centuries, Padua bustles with all the • Think about how you might accomplish those goals. diverse cultural and social life that a large population of • Remember to keep an open mind. students and scholars brings. • Learn from all of your experiences. Located about 20 miles west of Venice, Padua is extraordi - HELPFUL WEBSITES narily rich in art and architecture: it boasts Giotto’s frescoes in the Cappella degli Scrovegni; works of Mantegna, Info on Boston University Study Abroad Padua Donatello, and painters of the Venetian school; and it is one www.bu.edu/abroad/programs/padova-language-and- of the largest groups of interconnected medieval and renais - liberal-arts-program sance public spaces in Italy. Virtually all the great buildings www.bu.edu/abroad/media/padova-what-students-say of Palladio are within forty minutes of the city. Info on Padua Boston University’s Padua Academic Center is located in the www.padovanet.it historic center of Padua and within walking distance of most http://portale.provincia.padova.it university departments. Università degli studi di Padova www.unipd.it Local Newspapers www.gazzettino.it/home_page.php?sez=NORDEST&ssez= PADOVA www.mattinopadova.gelocal.it www.bu.edu/abroad 3 Italian Courses Offered in Intensive Month Academics LI 211 Third-Semester Italian LI 212 Fourth-Semester Italian LI 303 Self-Expression in Italian I Boston University hosts a rich language and liberal arts LI 306 Advanced Italian Practicum program in Padua, which offers a semester or academic year IT 310 Stylistics of intensive language study and coursework. After the intensive language month, students have an In the fall and spring semester students will complete four opportunity to choose from approximately 10 courses at the semester courses. All courses are approved for upper BU Padua Academic Center. These include courses in Italian division credit. The BU program offers an intensive language language and/or literature and cinema; art history; and program during the first month designed to prepare history. All readings are in Italian. A minimum enrollment of students for University-level coursework in Padua. The four students is necessary for a course to be offered. remaining three semester courses can be completed at the BU program site. Upon successful completion of the Language and Liberal Arts Elective Courses Intensive course and with the approval of the Director, LI 212 Fourth-Semester Italian students have the option to combine BU Study Abroad LI 303 Self-Expression in Italian I Padua courses with one or two courses at the Università LI 306 Advanced Italian Practicum degli studi di Padova. Please note: the Resident Director IT 310 Stylistics monitors each student’s progress and preparation and IT 343 Contemporary Italian Literature counsels accordingly. IT 341 History of Italian Art: From Giotto to Tiepolo IT 344 Topics in Italian Music History All BU Study Abroad Padua courses are taught by Italian IT 401 History of the Jews in Italy faculty from the Università degli studi di Padova or other IT 403 History of Italian Cinema from Neo-Realism Italian universities, as well as by the Resident Director. The to Present program also includes excursions in and around the Veneto IT 520 Art Seminar on Masterworks of the Italian region, as well as to other major Italian art cities. Renaissance in Venice (Fall) IT 520 Art Seminar on Masterworks of the Italian The Università degli studi di Padova is organized in schools Renaissance in Tuscany (Spring) (called Facoltà) scattered across town. The various Facoltà HI 324 The Venetian Republic are separated according to the various disciplines. The HI 330 Modern Italian History Università degli studi di Padova is particularly strong in archaeology, classical studies, art history, Italian literature, The academic offerings may vary during the year, as new political science, history, sociology, law, medicine, and courses may be approved. Please check the BU padova page philosophy. The Fall semester in Italian universities starts at for updated information: www.bu.edu/abroad/programs/ the beginning of October and ends in January; the Spring padova-language-and-liberal-arts-program . semester starts at the beginning of March and ends in June. *Note for fall semester students: fall term courses at the UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA (UNIPD) university finish at the end of January, but you will most COURSES likely be able to make arrangements with your professor to Students who feel confident in Italian should speak with take your exams early. their advisor about the possibility of taking courses at the Università degli studi di Padova. Once in Padua, they will For more information about the Università degli studi di receive assistance to select the most appropriate courses. Padova, please visit the website www.unipd.it . Please check out the various departments for course offerings: www.unipd.it/strutture/facolta/facolta.html . BU PADOVA COURSES In order to be admitted to the Padua program students are Please note that the UNIPD course listings are not available required to have completed at least two semesters of until shortly before the beginning of the academic year in college-level Italian or the equivalent. Upon completion of October for the Fall semester, or March for the Spring the Intensive Language Program in the first (intensive) semester. For this reason, Boston University Study Abroad month, students below LI 306 (sixth semester Italian) enroll Padua cannot guarantee the availability of a particular in a consecutive (also four-credit) language course. course in a given semester. In any given semester, UNIPD offers more than 200 courses in the humanities and social sciences. 4 Boston University Study Abroad Padua Some courses that have been taken by students at UNIPD in Attendance the past are listed below: You are expected to attend each class session, field trip, and any other course-related event unless you have a valid Facoltà di Lettere reason for being absent. Attendance and class participation Medieval and Renaissance Literature will influence your grade for the course. You will be required Contemporary Italian Women’s Literature to account for undue absence either by personal explanation Contemporary Italian Poetry to the course instructor and/or to the Resident Director or History of Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature by written statement from another authority.