Introduction

The first UMass Journalism Travel Writing and Photojournalism class went to Sicily during Spring Break in 1998. Before that, the class had traveled to Mexico to explore Aztec, Zapotec and Mayan Ruins, as well as contemporary Mexican Culture. I then discovered Sicily on a personal trip in February of 1997. Not only was this Italian island beautiful, fascinating, and friendly, it had three unique and extraordinary assets that I found to be utterly compelling - the Sicilian cuisine, Mt. Etna, and Rosa Rizza, our tour guide and dear friend for the past 17 years on all of our Sicilian adventures. Then, several years ago, we met Mario Fili when he was our assigned bus driver for the week. Mario has been our exclusive driver and good friend ever since, becoming part of the team that made these adventures so successful. The team also included two very talented writing teachers, Karen Skolfield and Carol Connare. I could not have taught the course without them and I thank them immensely for the time and effort that they contributed. And last but not least, Durgan Travel Service has provided exemplary trip planning for us since the beginning, allowing us to have complete control of our itinerary while keeping the price of the program very reasonable for our students.

The Journalism course has now ended, but we didn't abandoned Sicily. In March of 2015 we went back with some of the alumni of the class. They returned to a place they learned to love as students and this time brought family and friends along so that they could share this magical island with them. We had an incredible time and there was much talk about doing it again.

Rick Newton      

About this site:

This site was originally created to provide information useful to the alumni going to Sicily in March of 2015. You'll find our itinerary, links to our hotel websites, links to other related sites, PDF files of documents related to our travels, and a complete list of students who have taken the course since 1998. The slide presentation is a visual tour of some of the places we visited. Enjoy.