Roads to Appalachia through Italy
June 11 - June 25, 2007

The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center at Fairmont State University, in collaboration with FSU Student Affairs, Pierpont Community & Technical College and GEAR-UP, is proud to make available this exciting excursion to Italy. Our journey will be hosted by the WV Folkife Center's Director, Dr. Judy Prozzillo Byers, and the Center's Cultural Specialist, Mr. Noel W. Tenney. They will help us understand the unique similarities between Appalachia and Italia, especially "Mezzo Giorno" (Southern Italy). While in Italy, we will travel to various regions, explore famous cities and visit small villages, see magnificent architecture and fabulous works of art, enjoy wonderful food, attend an Italian festival, meet folk artisans and experience history at every turn. This travel abroad was designed as part of a year-long intensive study of Italian traditions and Appalachian influences, especially for participants to experience every aspect of Italian culture, combining education with the enjoyment of discovery along the way....

To see the Italy Website go to: www.Roads2Appalachia.com

Roads to Appalachia Through Scotland and Ireland
July 5 - July 21, 2005

The excitement of fifteen days of learning about the "Roads to Appalachia" by traveling those roads themselves was without equal in a true understanding of the historical context of the Appalachian culture base. The experience began in Scotland and explored historical, folkloric, and societal elements of both Lowland and Highland Scottish culture. Travels to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Loch Ness, and the Isle of Skye explored these issues through visits to castles and museums, such as the Angus Folk Museum, the Highland Folk Museum, Culloden Visitor Center, and the Museum of the Isles/Clan Donald Center (the largest of centers for studying Scottish family history). Included in these days was also traditional celebrations of Scottish life and foods with a Scottish Evening including the "Ceremony of the Haggis," and the historic "get together" of the "caelie." The route of the Scotch-Irish (Lowland Scots) as they move across to Northern Ireland was studied.

The move to Ireland began in Northern Ireland and Belfast/Omagh where a visit to the Ulster American Folk Park fully explored the role of the Scotch-Irish in both British Isle and early American and Appalachian history. Of course, famous geological and historical sites were included. The move to the Republic of Ireland was our only encounter with the newly instituted monetary notion of the Euro. Most importantly the group had the opportunity to explore the area, historics, and tragedies that were created with the potato famine of the mid 1840's. A visit to County Roscommon and the Strokestown House/1840's Famine Museum not only reviewed that dark time in Irish history but established the base of understanding for the large immigration from that area to the United States and especially to central West Virginia state that the individuals were born in County Roscommon, Cork, Galway, or even Strokestown itself. What a wonderful way of understanding the arrival of the Irish Catholics in our area. Many other stops in Ireland and ending in Dublin illustrated the Appalachian background whether it be song, dance, legend, folklore, or geology.