On the 7-11 April 2026, Classics and Archaeology Studies students went on an exciting trip to Italy! Take a look below at the highlights of this trip and fantastic student feedback:
The University of Kent Archaeology trip to Italy was the highlight of the 2025-26 academic year. After a long wet winter, 21 students and 3 alumni jetted off with lecturers Luke Lavan and Alessandro Carabia, to visit some of the finest archaeological sites in the Western Mediterranean.
In only 5 days and 4 nights, we visited the Greek city of Paestum, plus the sites of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ostia, Rome, Ravenna, and Classe. We took in Archaic temples, Roman colonies, and the slopes of Vesuvius, alongside the streets, mansions, workshops, and monuments of 1200 years of urban history.
Highlights included time in Rome with trips to the Colosseum & the Catacombs, or coming face to face with Justinian & Theodora in the mosaics of Ravenna. We had our share of laughs & challenges: as when our bus was too long to wind up Vesuvius’ lava fields, for a pasta supper overlooking the Bay of Naples.
Students were given guided tours and talks on site by Luke and Alessandro, to bring them up to speed on topics as varied as Greek hero worship, Roman concrete, and episcopal succession. Days were long but entirely sunny. Good friends were made of the bus drivers, arranged by our Italian UoK student Fabio.
We managed the trip for 600 GBP each, about half the cost of what schools pay, by careful attention to budgeting. Further help came from the student experience fund, which provided a grant to cover the costs of the lecturers and plenty of pizzas, unusually served with chips, perhaps specially for the Brits.
The best moment was perhaps our early morning visit to Paestum, in the spring sunshine, alone, walking across the dewy grass full of flowers, towards the huge Greek temples set against the green mountains, so well-preserved, conveying all the majesty and awe of sacral buildings of the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.
Then, in the adjacent museum, to see the full contents of a Greek hero tomb, the ‘founder’ of Paestum, brought as a relic by refugees from Sybaris, was astonishing. It was also very fulfilling for Luke to be able to show the group around Ostia, where he had led 5 years of excavation with Kent students in 2008-2012.Alessandro took charge in Ravenna, where he had a great deal to say about Christianity and mosaics in late antiquity, visible in the dazzling 5th and 6th c. churches of the city, an art lost to iconoclasm in Istanbul. His knowledge of Rome took us in and out of the metro, into the tombs of early Christian saints and popes
There was also time for friendship, around a Peroni beer late at night, in taking a gelato by the Pantheon, or on the coach, as we passed one famous site after another, along the splendid coast of Campania, or in playing cards on the evening train through the Apennines, past the glowing stones of the medieval towns of Umbria.
The expedition (rather than holiday!) was an adventure-packed high-speed tour of Italy’s finest classical archaeology, giving students immersion in places that require little imagine to have one entirely enveloped by Antiquity, from ship sheds full of skeletons at Herculaneum to our stroll through the Forum of Rome itself.
- Jonathan Hollow
It was a real privilege to see some of the most important sites in the Roman and Byzantine world through the eyes of two scholars who have an intimate knowledge of built architecture, and how this was inhabited and used by everyday people. In Pompeii, the smallest detail can hold an unusual historical significance, so seeing it through Luke’s eyes gave me a kind of X-ray vision completely hidden from the thousands of tourists bustling through the streets. Alessandro added to the many fascinating details and was also, of course, a wonderful fount of knowledge about how Italy has excavated and managed its abundance of Greco-Roman sites.
- Amy Hodge
Being invited on this trip as an alumnus, three years after graduating, felt like an incredible privilege. It was inspiring to reconnect so immediately with a subject I love, but this time within the context of the places themselves. Seeing the artefacts and sites I had previously only studied was genuinely emotional and something I had always considered a bucket-list experience. It was also a pleasure to meet both familiar and new faces, and to share a collective passion with everyone involved. Luke’s enthusiasm was evident throughout the trip! His eagerness to share with everyone what fascinated him made the experience incredibly engaging and I thoroughly enjoyed our many discussions about the ancient world and its complexities, all while walking around the sites themselves. Alessandro also matched this energy, consistently offering insightful and thought-provoking conversations. Both lecturers really brought each site to life in a way that wouldn’t have been possible during a usual tourist / holiday visit. Being able to visit these significant places with not only knowledgeable but also passionate guides definitely made for a meaningful trip. The trip has made me consider returning to further education to pursue a master’s degree related to Classics, archaeology or ancient history, perhaps altering my career trajectory too. I have always valued my time at the University of Kent, and I really appreciate the continued support and connection I’ve been provided with. It was truly a week to remember and seeing so many amazing sites in such a short time felt very fortunate, especially having everything organised, allowing us all to fully immerse ourselves in the exploration. It was enriching from start to finish, and I enjoyed every second, walking in the footsteps of the ancient world!