Rises a reborn classicist!
My sincerest apologies for the super long break but I’ve been having a classics-themed mid life crisis! This blogpost should helpfully help you all get up to speed and perhaps help offer inspiration for anyone in a similar position.
I have decided to take a gap as
As a student of a subject which requires a lot of practice and discipline this was a very daunting decision, after all, Latin and Greek like any other language must be practiced. However, there are plenty of options of what you can do on your gap year, and they don’t need to be all travelling or working, you can even have an ‘academic‘ gap year.
I am planning on taking my gap year to explore the ‘living’ Classical world around me; that is, what physical monuments and artefacts that we are still lucky to have. Though London is full of opportunities (more of which I will describe in later blogposts as I have been doing much exploring) what better place to go than Italy!
Italy offers a wide range of opportunity for classicists even in visiting its touristic sites; the colosseum, the ara pacis, the Uffizi gallery, etc. I will be using this blog to follow me around to all of these places (that’s right you get free front row seats).
Another great opportunity for gap years is buying a single course from a university/ looking into courses offered on websites such as ’gooversea’. I personally have bought a course to study Latin literature and language for 42 hours (21 lessons) at the university of Rome in Sapienza and I am SO EXCITED. Many universities also offer English courses (Sapienza included) but I have decided to take one in Italian to learn Latin from a different approach whilst still strengthening my Italian.
This course will last about three months whilst I am also sorting uni applications and then from January the adventure begins differently as I will be looking for jobs to support me as I make my way around Italy and perhaps Greece. The top places on my list (at the moment, DEFINITELY TO BE EDITED) include:
Florence
Rome
Pompeii
Capri
Herculaneum
Paestum
Copanello
The valley of the temples
Segesta
Villa pliniana
Paestum
Crete
Lesbos