Rosie has extensive experience in arts education. She has been Assistant Curator of Education at the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa and
Manager of Public Education Programs at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In addition to offering courses and lectures at both museums, Rosie has taught
classes for the Herron School of Art and the University of Indianapolis.
Rosie is the coordinator of our forthcoming program of Online City Courses.
Dr. Carolyn Valone
Carolyn Valone is professor emerita of the Department of Art History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
A long-time resident of Rome, Carolyn has a vast knowledge of the city, past and
present. She is considered by many to be the source of information on topics that range from bus routes to Renaissance urban
development.
For the past twenty years, Carolyn has been engaged in research and publication
on issues related to women as patrons of architecture in early modern Rome. With her City Course, Soul Sisters, Carolyn shares her extensive knowledge of Renaissance women and the social
history surrounding their ground-breaking architectural endeavors.
Giovanni Musella
Giovanni Musella is Vice President of Operations and a professional advisor of
the Institute of Design and Culture.
Giovanni, born in Naples, has lived in Rome since he was a child. Between 1982 and 1994, he was a Communications Officer of the UN Multinational
Peacekeeping Force, a post which took him from Rome to Norfolk, Virginia and
from the Sinai Desert to Tel Aviv.
Upon retirement from the UN Forces, Giovanni decided to use his communications
skills and excellent English in a new way. He founded an exclusive limousine service in Rome, and became a student of Rome’s art and history. Giovani’s profession as drriver-guide makes him an expert on Rome’s roads, ancient to modern.
institute of design + culture
Eric De Sena
Eric De Sena is Vice President of Academic Programs and a founding member of the
Institute of Design and Culture.
Eric is a classical archaeologist with training in both archaeological science and
art history. He received a BA from SUNY in Albany in Mediterranean Archaeology, an MA from the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Classical Art and Archaeology, and is currently
finishing his PhD in Archaeological Science at the University of Bradford in
the UK.
Eric is involved in archaeological excavations in Pompeii, Rome, and Ostia Antica. He is director of the excavation of Porolissum, a Roman city in ancient Dacia: His archaeological interests mean that he's on top of new developments in the
exploration of the antiquity and offers a view of these in his City Course, Junk Bonds in the Ancient World.
James Varah
James Varah holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Music from Northwestern University and did post-graduate work at the International
Cello Center in Scotland. James has played in the Wichita Symphony and the San Antonio Symphony and worked extensively as a free-lance musician in
Chicago and Los Angeles.
A resident of Italy since 1982, James played for four years with the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese in L'Aquila
and taught music for seven years at St. George's English School in Rome.
James is also a vocalist. He was a member of the Kammerton Vocal Ensemble. In 2000 he was part of a live television broadcast of Verdi's "La Traviata"
conducted by Zubin Mehta. In his City Course, Tosca Tumbles, James never misses
a beat as he ties the music and the history of the opera to its architectural
settings.
Rosie May
Rosie May is a founding member and professional advisor to the Institute of
Design and Culture.
Rosie is a native of Oklahoma City and holds a BA in literature from the
University of Oklahoma. She received an MA in Renaissance Art History from the University of Illinois
and is working towards her PhD in Italian Renaissance Art History at Temple
University.
Bill Guion
Bill is our food market guru.
Appropriately, he lives right around the corner from Rome’s most scintillating source of fruits and vegetables, Campo dei Fiori, so he
knows the Campo and its market inside out. Like any good cook, Bill’s on a first-name basis with the market vendors that supply the best fresh foods
that Rome has to offer and he happily shares that familiarity when teaching his
City Course, The Cook, the Cheese, the Wine, and Their Lovers.
Though he’s a native of Texas, Bill has lived in Rome for 30 years, and has dedicated his
life to the study and preparation of fabulous food. He’s served dinner to the likes of Gianni Agnelli, architect Richard Meier, and
numerous Roman Catholic Cardinals. He’s also a renown cooking teacher and runs his own company, Creative Catering.
Hande Leimer
Hande Leimer is the founder of Vino Roma, a certified sommelier from the Wine & Spirits Education Trust, and a member of the Italian Sommelier Association.
Hande was born in Istanbul where her palate was trained from early on, first with food and later with wine.
She has lived in the US, Italy and Germany, but has now returned to Italy and
settled in Rome.
Hande loves food and believes wine to be the perfect accompaniment to almost any
dish. As Italian wines are made to go with food, it was only natural that she
chose to live in Italy, the land of good food and accessible wine.
In her City Course, called In Vino Vertias, Hande establishes some basic guidelines for tasting wine. She provides an overview of Italian wine and defines the various characteristics
of wines from each geographical region. Her course will help you learn to
detect different aromas and so will develop your ‘nose’ - allowing you to decide which wines you most prefer and why.
Besides running Vino Roma, Hande is the wine editor for the German food-portal Küchengötter, where she also blogs about wine. You can also check out her food blog Food Vagabond, where she muses, in English, about anything food- related anywhere in the
world.
It was at Rome, on the 15th October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of
the Capitol, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first
started in my mind.
--Edward Gibbon
