Travel with historian Professor Tomas Dandelet, while staying in distinctive lodgings and experience the rich history of Portugal and Spain during this 15-day Iberian sojourn. 

Beginning in Lisbon, tour the capital city’s highlights and take an excursion to the National Palace of Queluz.  Travel through picturesque Alentejo, a region of olive groves, vineyards and wheat fields, to one of Portugal’s finest pousadas set in a former 15^th-century convent.  Explore Evora, a treasure-trove of Portuguese history and architecture, and a UNESCO World Heritage site reflecting its Roman and Moorish heritage.  Discover the beauty and romance of Seville, Andalucia’s Spanish capital and the place that inspired Carmen and Don Giovanni.  Spend two nights in tiny Ronda, one of Spain’s oldest, charming, and most aristocratic towns.  Travel to Granada, former stronghold of Moorish Spain romantically set in the Sierra Nevada. Tour the Alhambra, one of the most remarkable fortresses anywhere. Visit Toledo, capital of medieval Spain and a tour highlight. 

End your journey in Madrid, Spain’s urbane capital, whose wealth of attractions includes the imposing 18^th-century Royal Palace and the world-renowned Prado museum.  Extend your stay in Spain with an optional “On Your Own” extension in Barcelona for 4 days and 3 nights.

Study Leader:
Professor Thomas Dandelet teaches early modern European history at UC Berkeley with a focus on Renaissance Italy, the Spanish Empire, and Renaissance Europe. He is the author of "Spanish Rome, 1500-1700" (Yale, 2001) and "The Renaissance of Empire in Early Modern Europe,"  forthcoming in April, 2014 with Cambridge University Press. His first book won the Sixteenth Century Studies Association Roland Bainton Prize for best book in history. He is a fellow of the American Academy in Rome where he won the Rome prize in 1999-2000, and was also the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship in 2007.