- The first day of the program is June 16 and the last day is August 17. It is essential that all students attend for the entire duration of the program, so they must arrive in Torino on Monday, June 15 and depart from Siena on August 18. Late arrivals or early departures are not permitted.
All students must attend the introductory class to the course, which will be held on the morning of Tuesday, June 16; the first events of the program will take place in the afternoon and evening of the same day. - You can arrive before June 15 and leave after August 18. However, please note that our residences in Torino and Siena are only booked for the duration of the program.
- If you do not have a valid passport (with at least three months’ validity remaining after the last day of the program and at least two blank pages for visas), apply for one immediately..
- U.S. and E.U. citizens will not need a visa for their stay in Italy. Some international students (depending on nationality) may need a visa. If that is the case, you are responsible for gathering all documentation and going to the Italian Consulate to obtain the visa. Obtaining a visa might be a lengthy process; do start it as soon as you joined the program. Please apply for a tourist visa (“short term”), not for a student visa. Click here for more information about visas. [<< This link is not yet active as the page will be updated in the coming days. In the meantime, you can consult the visa page of the Consulate General of Italy in Boston].
- You must have a health insurance plan that provides full coverage during your stay in Italy. Please become familiar with your provider’s provisions and understand the process for making claims from abroad. If out-of pocket medical expenses are incurred, the provider will indicate applicable reimbursement policies and procedures.
All students attending this program are covered under the International SOS policy, or “blanket study/travel abroad accident and sickness insurance policy.” This means that if a student incurs out of pocket expenses for medical care the student can request reimbursement for medical expenses via International SOS. Reimbursement is only available for covered medical expenses, so it is important that the traveler contact International SOS before getting medical care. In addition to helping students avoid out of pocket expenses, when possible, International SOS can advise if the medical care they need is covered.
Download on your smartphone the International SOS Assistance App and register to it before leaving for Italy. Register your trip in MyTrips. Here is a link to your International SOS 24/7 Assistance ID card.
See also: Insurance requirements abroad.
If you arrive in Italy before the beginning of the program or stay after the end, be sure to have health coverage. International SOS will assist you up to a week before and a week after the official period of the program. You can purchase from them coverage and assistance for the extra days or weeks that you plan to spend in Europe. -
We strongly recommend that you bring a sufficient supply of your prescribed medications; in Italy it may not be possible to find them, or you may need a prescription from an Italian doctor.
All participants are encouraged to travel with a basic first-aid kit. It might include: aspirin or ibuprofen, antacids for stomach upset, anti-diarrhea medication, motion sickness pills, antibiotic ointment, decongestant, band-aids, sunscreen, and mosquito repellent. Mosquito repellent is also very useful..
For more information see the Harvard Global Support Services page Tips for traveling with medication. - Students with disabilities or who have accommodation needs due to a disability must contact the Accessibility Services Office. Click here for more information.
. - Please complete all the steps and tasks required by the Summer School; for more information see this page.
- Familiarize yourselves with Summer School policies and regulations, which are similar, but not identical, to those of Harvard College.
. - Book your flight to Italy in advance; prices may increase and there may be fewer options available. It’s a good idea to contact other students to travel together or to share the cost of a taxi from the airport to the Torino Residence.
Remember that with most flights to Europe you will be departing the day before the day you wish to arrive.
When purchasing your ticket be sure that the fare includes one checked bag (usually 44 or 50 lbs).
The two airports closest to Torino are the Torino Airport (also called Caselle) and Milan Malpensa Airport. If possible, arrive at Torino Airport, which is much closer than Malpensa and smaller; fewer flights arrive there but it has connections to Rome, Frankfurt and Munich, Dublin, Barcelona and Madrid, Paris, London (Gatwick and Stansted), and other European cities. If you decide to land at Malpensa, bear in mind that the shuttle buses take about two hours to reach Torino. During the day, the buses run fairly frequently, but in the evening there are fewer services and none in the middle of the night.
For your return flight consider the airports in Rome Fumicino, Florence, or Pisa. Your accommodation in Siena has been booked until Tuesday, August 18. Depending on the place and time of your departure, you may find it difficult to get to the airport from Siena on the same day by public transportation. In that case, consider sharing a taxi or minibus with other students to get directly to the airport.
If you don’t book a direct flight, you should purchase the entire ticket on the website of a single airline. In this case, even if they board you for one or more legs on a partner airline’s plane, they are responsible for the entire journey (for example in case you miss a connection due to a delay or cancellation). Otherwise, the second airline has no obligation to you and may ask you to purchase a new ticket. I would therefore avoid purchasing tickets for multiple routes on Expedia, Skyscanner or independently on the websites of different airlines.
Note that if the intermediate stop on your return flight is in Europe, your luggage will be sent directly to your final destination. However, if the stop is in the United States, you will have to clear customs at that airport and then check in on the second flight. Aer Lingus allows you to clear customs in Dublin before boarding the plane.
Click here for more information about your return flight.
Click here for information on how to get to your residence in Torino from the airport.
. - At passport control at the airport of entry into the European Union and possibly at the airport of entry into Italy, if asked about the reasons for your visit, say that you participate in a cultural trip organized by Harvard. In short, you are not enrolled in any Italian school or university.
On the way out, choose the green line to go through customs (“nothing to declare”). (Unless of course you have something to declare).
Those of you who have not needed a visa can stay in Italy and the EU for 90 days. It is possible that your airline will check that you have a reservation for your return flight, and the same check may be made upon entry into Italy or the EU.
. - It is imperative that you travel with no more than one suitcase and one carry-on. If students come with too much luggage, it will be impossible to fit it all on our transport buses from Torino to Molveno, from Molveno to Trento, and from Trento to Siena, and you might have to ship your extra luggage. You may choose to fill your suitcase only partially in case you want to bring back purchases after the summer.
If you want to lock your luggage, invest in a suitcase with a built-in TSA-approved lock, or buy a TSA-approved combination cable lock. These can be opened only by you and a TSA agent with a master key. All baggage is screened before it’s brought onboard and if your lock isn’t TSA-approved, the TSA can break it to gain access.
Put a note with your name and phone number inside your suitcase. It is advisable that you make your luggage recognizable attaching a distinct tag, a colorful ribbon, or other distinguishing element. Make sure that you can describe your luggage; even better, take a photograph of it before departure in case it gets lost. In any case put all valuables (like your camera, computer, keys, non-liquid medication, wallet, insurance card, jewelry, and passport) in your carry-on..
- The program requires a total immersion in it. Do not expect to be able to do any other activities in Milan, Trento or Siena. Not only is it not permitted to hold part- or full-time work or participate in internships; even independent academic research could be detrimental to the fullness of our experience.
. - Please remember that you must purchase the following five books in advance and in the United States. You’ll then have to bring the books to Italy. The books are:
– Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities (Harcourt).
– Giovanni Della Casa, Galateo or, The Rules of Polite Behavior (Chicago University Press).
– Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (Penguin Classics);
– Plato, Symposium, trans. Christopher Gill (Penguin Classics);
– Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just (Princeton University Press).
It is strongly suggested that you read at least the books for the first two weeks before the beginning of the program, and in particular Kant’s selection (almost 200 pages) and Scarry’s On Beauty and Being Just. Click here for more information.
. - For the duration of the program, you are asked to have a working smartphone so that Prof. Erspamer and the TAs can reach you in case of emergency and vice versa. Ask your American carrier for international plans and be sure that the phone would work in Europe. It may be cheaper to buy an Italian SIM card with a pre-paid account upon arrival in Italy. The SIM can be used with an American phone only if it is a tri-band or quad-band phone, if it has been unlocked, and if it has GSM capabilities. Otherwise, you should purchase a cell phone in Torino.
Click here for more information about cell phones and cell phone plans in Italy. - We have found that an efficient way of communicating and putting students in contact with one another is to create a WhatsApp group. Please join WhatsApp if you have not yet done so; it allows cheaper calls to and from Italy.
. - Please note that credit cards transactions may be denied because done overseas and your card may be blocked. To prevent this inconvenience, inform in advance your credit card that you will spend two months in Italy.
Google Pay and Apple Pay are usually accepted but not everywhere; check with your bank if they will authorize payments in Italy and ask about any fees they may charge for overseas usage.
If you use your debit card to withdraw euros at an Italian teller machine, you may be charged a fee. Ask your American bank if they have a partner institution in Italy, so that you can withdraw cash in their branches without paying a fee.
. - Personal travel outside of Italy is not allowed.
ITALY 2026: Torino, Trento, and Siena 