The Program in Italian Studies is a modern, forward-looking program that has found a dignified place in the multicultural and interdisciplinary environment of the college, without losing its own identity and integrity. It has been supported by the notion that the relationship between Italy and its hitherto mostly European literary, cultural, linguistic-philosophical and historical contexts is a horizontal one. In this spirit, and as we cross the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, the Italian program has striven to offer the kinds of courses that reflect Italy as part of the mappa mundi and encourages and integrates course work in other languages and disciplines.