THE VENICE COURSE OPTION FOR ADULT PARTICIPATION
Over the years we have been asked by parents, family members and adult friends if we provide places on The Venice Course for grown-ups. The answer is yes, we do.
Our solution is to offer places on the course for a very limited number of adults; a maximum of six per year.
This means that people can benefit from what we arrange for our students, to take part in the activities, and take advantage of the fact, for instance, the private, night-time experience in the Basilica of San Marco, or the after hours tour of the Vatican Collection that culminates in the private visit to The Sistine Chapel can be arranged with the benefit of having (student) numbers that make it possible.
Places are very limited, so booking is on a first-come-first-served basis.
The dates and fees of the 2 options are below, or they can be combined together to make a 6 week option at £5,500.
It is also possible to book on the Florence and Rome extensions.
OPTION 1
From Monday 3rd February until Thursday 20th February 2025
Price: £2,750
OPTION 2
From Monday 24th February until Thursday 13th March 2025
Price: £2,750
NOT INCLUDED
Travel, accommodation and meals are not included. We are happy to advise on this though.
Lectures are held at the Istituto Canossiano, Rio delle Romite, Dorsoduro.
Please contact Vicky at the office for more information.
WHAT THEY SAY
Here is some feedback from recent adult participants:
We arrived in Venice on a cold evening with the mist swirling along the grand canal. In every alley way and campo could be seen the masks and costumes of the Carnival revellers.
On to the rich feast that only Venice can offer. Verrochio’s statue of proud Colleone on his horse outside SS Giovanni e Paolo, Veronese’s Marriage of Cana replica at St Giorgio, Titian’s Maria Assunta at the Frari and the Bellini family at the Academia.
Cosy crowded family restaurants in side streets and sunny waterfront tables watching the vaporetti ploughing past. Welcoming warm wine bars after a cold walk between churches. A coach ride through the terrafirma to a Palladian palazzo and a brutalist mausoleum. Weekends free for a night at the opera and a day in Padua and three weeks of intense cultural exploration.
A morning coffee and a warm croissant for breakfast in San Barnaba. A visit to the islands to see the glass blowers and the mosaics in Torcello followed by a lunch on white linen and a windy boat back. So many fascinating insights into the multi layered, ever changing but eternal world of the Serenissima.
Unforgettable.
Dominic and Jannene
We got home on Monday night and I am still far from over my jet lag! Just wanted to write and say how much we appreciated joining the course. It was really great and we learned an enormous amount.
What a brilliant programme you and your father have created. Each lecture and presentation was far more than we could have wished for, and to cap all of that off with those visits – San Marco with the mosaics slowly being lit, travelling across the lagoon to Torcello and Burano, and all in the company of a friendly and welcoming group of bright teenagers. A complete thrill, thank you so much for letting us take part!
My time as an adult student on the John Hall course of 2023
by Eleo Carson
Where to start on this extraordinary experience? Thanks to Charlie I checked up on Week 1 of the John Hall Course and decided I needed to come and listen to the lectures that week … and Week 2 … and Week 3 … and on it went for 7 weeks, which means that now I am on the final week in Rome. I came as one of two adult students, hadn’t studied for years but managed OK.
I have loved it all. We have covered such a wide range of subjects, the organisation and quality of the talks were exceptional and we were indulged in private visits to many places, including the Guggenheim, St Mark’s Basilica, the Zanetti glass factory on Murano and here in Rome, guided by Charlie and Frank Dabell, the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, with so many other well planned trips to avoid the crowds. Lecturers from all over flew in and flew out. We had Charles Hope for five talks on amongst other things: Venetian Renaissance painting, debates: ‘Is this a Giorgione or a Titian and did Vasari honestly ever go to Padova?’ etc; Andrew Hopkins on architecture, Leslie Primo on Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese, Ben Street had us on the edge of seats with his talks on art, Nigel McGilchrist spoke about marble – of all colours and types, plus mosaics, frescoes, Venetian trade and much else. One day he gave us a demo on tempera making. He arrived with a kitbag full of strange things: mussel shells, egg yolks minus their skin, needles, gold leaf which behaved badly and flew away if one was wearing the wrong shoes, etc etc.
To see exactly how the John Hall Venice Course runs, hour by hour, day by day, go to The Programme
To see the quality of the Faculty, go to The Faculty
To get the feel of the Course first hand, view the various videos at Gallery