The Program in Ascoli Piceno

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Arrival

You are responsible for making your own travel arrangements to Ascoli Piceno. If you are unsure about your return date, look for a ticket with an open return date or a very low fee for changing it.

Traveling with Confidence from the Airport

After your long flight, you will be both tired and eager to see your new home away from home. You are almost there, but first you need to find your way across Rome from Fiumicino/Leonardo Da Vinci Airport to the START Bus Station on Viale Castro Pretorio 84.

After retrieving your luggage at the airport, follow signs in the terminal for the airport train to Rome’s Termini Train Station. These trains run every half hour. You will need to purchase your ticket in one of the machines or ticket booths near the entrance to the train terminal. These tickets cost about 11 Euro. Be sure to validate the ticket before getting on the train (you must do this for any bus or train ticket in Italy) by inserting it into one of the many yellow machines set up near the tracks. You will be fined if you do not validate your ticket. There are two train platforms (binari): yours is the one on the right.

Once you are on the train, the trip to Termini Train Station (Rome’s central station) is about 30-40 minutes. Since this is an express train, there will be no other stops en route to Termini.

From Termini Station, you have two options. You can either choose to walk with your luggage about 7 blocks to the bus stop on Viale Castro Pretorio (a 10-minute walk) or take a taxi. The taxi ride should not be too expensive since it is such a short distance. If you walk, you will want to exit the train station on the right hand side onto Via Marsala. Turn left onto Via Marsala and then take your first right: Via Vicenza. Follow Via Vicenza for 7 blocks until you come to Viale Castro Pretorio. Make a left and the bus stop will be on the left side of the street.

Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa

N. B. Do not expect to see a bus terminal. Tickets are sold in a simple store with the sign “START” over the front door. The bus to Ascoli will be across the street. The store could be closed when you arrive, but it will open at least half an hour before the departure.

Go into the START office to purchase your ticket to Ascoli Piceno. Just say: “Vorrei un biglietto di sola andata ad Ascoli Piceno.” A one-way ticket will cost you 14.50 Euro. The ride to Ascoli takes about 3 hours (the bus makes a 10-minute rest stop at about the halfway point). The buses run several times a day, but since most of your flights arrive in the late morning, you will probably want to try to make a 2:30 p.m. (14:30) bus (“alle due e mezzo”). If you miss that one, you will have to take the 6:00 p.m. (18:00) bus (“alle sei”) or the last one, which leaves at 8:15 p.m. (20:15) (“alle otto e un quarto”). Note that there is no restroom on the bus, though it does make one ten-minute stop at the midway point when it is possible to use facilities and to get a bite to eat. Please contact the office staff if you are delayed—they will be at the Ascoli Train Station (which is also the bus stop) to meet you when your bus arrives to show you to your new home away from home.

Orientation

Your first week in Ascoli Piceno will be filled with activities designed to help you get acquainted with each other and feel comfortable in your new surroundings. These will include a walking tour of Ascoli Piceno; selection of apartments and roommates; group meetings to give you instructions on registering for your permesso di soggiorno; getting acquainted with UNH-in-Italy academic procedures; written and oral language placement examinations; and other practical information.

UNH-In-Italy Program Center

The UNH-in-Italy Program Center is located in the heart of downtown Ascoli Piceno.

Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa

Here the Resident Director holds office hours, conducts academic advising and meets with students individually to answer questions and help resolve problems. The Program Coordinator, who assists you with housing issues, provides information about banking, telephones, insurance, permessi di soggiorno, and assists with other student needs, keeps regular office hours here. Students receive their mail at the program office as well as notices of Program activities, deadlines, and cultural opportunities in the area.

The majority of Program courses are held in the Center, and it houses a modest collection of reference texts in English and Italian for background reading and classes. Alert the Resident Director of additional texts, guide books, etc. that could be acquired for common use. Note that studio art courses are held at the UNH-in-Italy Studio Art Center on Corso Mazzini, 39.
The Program Center is equipped with a fax machine, which is available for official university communication and emergency use only. Similarly, the office photocopier, DVD player, and projector are reserved for academic use.

Computers and Internet Access

The Program Center has six IBM compatible computers (with Open Office and Internet) for student academic use. A printer is also available though individuals must supply their own paper. It is also equipped with free wireless service which allows you to use your own laptop to connect to the Internet.

The Academic Program

Your visa from the Italian government is very precise about why you are in Italy: motivi di STUDIO: to study. The principal goal of the UNH-in-Italy Program is to provide you with an academic experience that facilitates your integration into Italian culture.

Academic Advising

The Resident Director has responsibility for all academic matters. Check carefully with academic advisors on your home campus prior to departure to determine which courses or types of courses will meet your degree requirements. The Resident Director cannot be expected to be familiar with the academic requirements of different institutions, so you are responsible for knowing as much as possible about your own degree requirements.

Course Load

Students are required to take a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 5 courses per semester. All students, if eligible, must enroll in an intensive language course.

Grading Policies

Following the end of the semester, the Resident Director sends all grade reports and course titles to the University of New Hampshire, which in turn forwards them to your home institutions, each of which has its own system for reporting program courses and grades on its transcripts.

Many students used to the American system of grade bartering are surprised to discover that such a system not only does not exist in Italy, but that Italian university professors find the practice somewhere between amusing and insulting. Part of the lesson of studying away is to learn also the different ways things are done in other cultures. You will quickly learn that you must assure the positive evaluation you expect of your work through the convincing quality of your performance before the assignment of the final grade.

Grading Scale for UNH-in-Italy Students: Italian universities use a grading scale of 1 to 30. UNH-in-Italy applies the following scale of equivalencies:
Italian System/Percentage System/Letter Grade
29-30/94-100/A
28/90-93/A-
27/88-89/B+
26/84-87/B
25/80-83/B-
24/78-79/C+
23/74-77/C
22/70-73/C-
21/68-69/D+
20/64-67/D
18-19/60-63/D-
01-17/00-59/F

Incompletes

All coursework must be completed and submitted by the end of the term and prior to your departure. No incomplete grades are permitted for overseas courses. Unfinished course work will result in a grade of F for the course. Only documented illness is considered a legitimate excuse for missing a final examination.

UNH-In-Italy Program Courses

The UNH-in-Italy offers a number of special courses for its students. These courses are taught in both Italian and English by university faculty. For a list of courses being offered in the current and upcoming academic year, please see section "Dates and courses".

GRE

If you intend to take the Graduate Record Exam in Italy, make inquiries at the Bologna campus of Johns Hopkins University soon after your arrival. The exams are administered at the Hopkins Center, but applications must be completed and mailed well in advance.