The School
La Romita School of Art has been providing artists, professional and amateur, with the perfect working vacation for nearly 40 years. Students and instructors stay at La Romita, an exquisitely rennovated sixteenth century Capuchin monastery surrounded by olive groves in the foothills of the Appennine mountains. Classes are held in La Romita's frescoed chapel, day trips are held to the various scenic hilltowns that dot the region, and all students experience the sweeping vistas, exquisite food, and warm hospitality that the region offers.
STUDIO
The chapel, built in 1548 and used today as the painting and study center, has a main 700 sq. ft. (65 sq. meter) room and a partially separated 215 sq. ft. (20 sq. meter) apse and a recently rennovated 30 foot wood beamed ceiling. The walls feature dated frescoes and four large epochal, religious oil paintings. Abundant daylight enters through an 8 by 10 foot arched window onto the church garden and 4 smaller windows.
DINING
Of course, one of the prime attractions to anyone visiting Italy is going to be the food, and La Romita School offers some of the best. The typical breakfast spread includes bread, jam, cereal, juice, coffee/tea, fruit, milk, and yogurt - good fare for getting a boost of energy before tackling the day's projects - be they a day of instruction in the studio, or an afternoon "in the field". Lunch and Dinner feature the regional culinary masterpeices of our resident Cook - fresh salads, pastas, meats, vegetables, all of exquisite freshness and masterfully prepared with that signature Italian flare for simplicity and deliciousness! During full-day trips, students will pay for their own lunch - you can opt for a quick panino (sandwich) from a local cafe, unless tempted away from your easel for a full luncheon at the numerous trattorias.
SLEEPING
La Romita's sleeping accommodations feature mostly double bedrooms along the ground and second floors of the main building. Most of the rooms are appointed with antique furniture tied to the legacy of the buildings and paintings and prints by founder Enza Quargnali. Most rooms also feature sweeping vistas of Monte Torre Maggiore and the surrounding foothills of the Appennine mountains just outside their shuttered windows. There are two bathrooms per floor, with showers: La Romita a good supply of hot water provided by the gas and solar-powered heating systems. La Romita students may use the laundry service that provides the facility with fresh towels and linens.
GROUNDS
La Romita School of Art is held at the La Romita Facility, a 16th Century Cappucin Monastery located in the foothills above Terni, in the region of Umbria. The property sits on 3 and a half acres, surrounded by olive groves and stone walls in level coursing. The main structure consists of the Accomodation wing, the Chapel-Studio, and the "Torre", a set of accomodations located above the former Sacresty. The dining area is set aside from the main building. In addition to the dining area and Studio, a gazebo behind the dining area provides a wonderful outdoor meeting area, where students can socialize, paint, and watch video presentations of the art and history of the region. Behind the studio, the cloister garden offers a quiet place to contemplate the beautiful flowers and herbs, the fountain and well, and a grand view of the valley below.
HISTORY
A Capuchin monastery turned Art School
La Romita, situated on a hillside above the city of Terni, Italy, in the region of Umbria, was established in 1548 as a monastery by the Capuchin Order of Friars Minor. It remained an active monastery until the early 19th century. La Romita was considered a "poor" monastery because the Capuchins, like the Franciscans from whom they evolved, lived primarily from alms and charitable offerings of the communities they served. Church archives show that the Capuchin friars at La Romita at one time produced the coarse-woven woolen cloth used for the Order's robes. The ancestors of signora Amina Quargnali (the mother of school founders Enza and Paola Quargnali) purchased La Romita a few years after the monks left, and it was used for many years as a guest house and summer home. La Romita School of Art first opened in 1966, under the aegis of Enza Quargnali, as the summer art program of Rockford College in Illinois. For almost 40 years people have stayed at La Romita, painting the landscape, people, and towns in the beautiful Umbrian hill country, whose radient golden light has charmed artists since the days of Perugino and his famous pupil, Rafael. Although there have been many modifications and revisions over the centuries, much of the original structure remains intact. The participants sleep in two floors in rooms that open off a gallery aisle. Housing is dorm style, with two people sharing each (large) room. Interestingly, when La Romita was an active monastery these rooms were most probably the library and guest rooms for visiting religious dignitaries: the cells where the monks slept no longer exist.
UMBRIA
The Green Heart of Italy
Umbria, Italy's only state without a seacoast, lies in the center of the nation, in the heart of the hill country. Its earliest history is obscure, going back to the Umbrian and Etruscan people who lived and skirmished here a thousand or more years B.C. The Etruscans eventually took possession of this central territory because they were more active and adaptable, but it was the Umbrians who gave the region its name. The Etruscans never formed a central government, but remained a loose federation of city-states, each depending upon its own resources and defense. From frescoes and artifacts found in their tombs, we know that the Etruscans were sophisticated and creative. Unfortunately, they left no literature and their inscriptions are largely funerary. Fragments of city walls, gateways, and sewers attest to their engineering skill. Assisi, Spoleto, and Gubbio are cities which trace their origins to the Umbrians, while Perugia, Orvieto and Todi are of Etruscan origin. In contrast Terni -- of old, Interamna -- was founded by the Umbrian in 672 b.c. and then became a prosperous Roman town.
In the 3rd century B.C. Rome defeated the Etruscans city by city. The Romans built roads and acqueducts across Umbria, though some historians say the Etruscans taught the Romans how to build them! The Via Flaminia, built in 220 B.C., traverses Umbria northward from Rome towards the Adriatic.You can still walk on its ancient paving stones at Carsulae, about 15 kilometers from Terni and a regular stop for La Romita groups. After the Roman Empire wound down, the Middle Ages settled into the Umbrian hill country with a deep sense of belonging. Indeed, it has been said that here the Middle Ages never really ended. Farmers still build strawstacks shaped like houses. Mulberry trees support grape vines as they have since the late 14th century when Florence began importing silkworms. White oxen still plow fields (as, of couse, do modern tractors). And cuckoos and nightingales still sing in the trees. Medieval towns and fortresses still cling protectively to the hill tops, and monasteries nestle in valleys. Olive groves and cypress trees accent the Umbrian landscape. The wooded hills and steep valleys are bathed in golden sunlight, diffusing into a succession of misty blues in the distance. It is no accident that Umbrian painters imbued their work with mysticism and light -- for these are the elements of the Umbrian landscape. You see them in the backgrounds of Perugino's, of Fillippo Lippi's, of Rafael's paintings.
War was also a part of life in medieval Umbria. Fortified hill tops were fought over and changed hands frequently. Women, children, and the frail and elderly took refuge in their town or city's Duomo (cathedral), where they were usually safe... and men who had no stomach for the constant fighting took refuge in the monasteries. The history of central Italy in the Middle Ages was played out by artists, saints, and soldiers. Today warring factions no longer contend to control strategic hilltops. But the fortresses and towns are still there. Bells still toll the hours of prayer from chapel and cloister, And the golden light still swathes the hills and valleys of Umbria the mystic, Umbria the gentle....
The Directors
La Romita founder and president Enza Quargnali with husband and director Ben Benson.
...director Edmund Zimmerman
