Off to Florence for School and Art

Head back to school, but in Florence, Italy, to study Italian language and culture, cooking, art history and drawing Sept. 16. Riverside Community College is sponsoring the fall semester trip, which ends Dec. 15. Participants will stay in apartments with four beds and cooking facilities. In addition to classes, members visit museums and galleries, take day trips to Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa and Lucca, and take overnight excursions by train to Venice and Rome.

Cost: $3,900 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare to Italy, transfers, accommodations, daily lunch, museum fees, and hotels and transportation to Rome and Venice. Contact: Karin Russo, Art Department, Riverside Community College, 2001 3rd St., Norco, CA 91760; telephone (909) 372-7031.

More Florence

A 15-day tour of Florence and the Tuscany region of Italy begins Nov. 1. A maximum of 16 guests will stay in a small 19th-Century family owned (three generations) hotel, the Albergo Albion. All rooms have a private bath, hair dryer, telephone, cable TV and a safe for valuables. The hotel restaurant serves Tuscan cuisine cooked with the olive oil produced at the family farm and a Chianti house wine from nearby wineries.

The hotel is a block from the River Arno and within walking distance of all shops, churches and museums in Florence. In addition to viewing the Florence must-sees, participants will take daily walks to explore historic sections of the city and view rarely seen artworks in obscure abbeys, convents and monasteries, the setting for which they were commissioned. Motor-coach tours take guests to Tuscany hill towns, including Siena, Volterra and Arezzo.

Cost: $2,700 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, all breakfasts and dinners, ground transportation and museum fees. Not included: air fare to Italy. Contact: Nancy and Robert Lobdell, 925 Hillside Drive, Long Beach, CA 90815; tel. (310) 430-2833.

Study in China

Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, is offering a 24-day China study tour that departs Sept. 5. Participants will visit Shanghai, Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu, Guilin, Canton and Hong Kong. Travelers will have the opportunity to spend a week in residence at the Southwest Jiaotong University campus and take classes in tai chi, calligraphy, Chinese cooking, and Chinese history and current affairs.

Cost: $3,458 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, lodging, most meals and sightseeing tours. Contact: Bamboo Tours, 703 Market St., Suite 1506, San Francisco, CA 94103; tel. (800) 275-7888.

American History

A weeklong tour of historic sites of the Buffalo Soldiers, black soldiers stationed in the Northern Plains in the late 1880s, will take visitors to the posts occupied longest by the soldiers: Forts Robinson (in Nebraska), D.A. Russell (in Wyoming), Fort Meade (South Dakota), and the remains of forts McKinney and Mackenzie in Wyoming. The motor-coach tour begins Aug. 12 in Denver. Historian-guide Frank Schubert discusses the experiences and activities of the regiments during this tumultuous period, as the American Indian Wars ended and railroads and industry came to the West.

Guests will hear about the murder of a Medal of Honor recipient, 1st Sgt. Emanual Stance of the 9th Cavalry; the Johnson County, Wyo., cattle war; the odyssey of the Utes; the first black chaplain in the Army, and black graduates of West Point.

Cost: $895 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, most meals, sightseeing fees, tips. Not included: air fare to Denver. Contact: HistoryAmerica Tours; P.O. Box 797687, Dallas, TX 75379; tel. (800) 628-8542.

Polar Bear Gathering

An eight-day tour by air and train to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, Oct. 21 focuses on the polar bear migration at Cape Churchill on Hudson Bay, 1,000 miles north of Winnipeg. Tour members venture onto the tundra aboard a tundra buggy, a large all-terrain vehicle. Polar bears, which congregate here at this time of the year, show no fear of humans. Many are curious and often come over to the vehicle to look in the windows.

Cost: $1,445 per person, double occupancy including flight to Winnipeg, sleeping-car accommodations on the train to Churchill, lodging and some meals. Contact: Mountain Outin’ Tours, P.O. Box 70, Irvine, CA 92650; tel. (800) 844-3985.

Fall Colors

Cruise the rugged coast of New England and the Gulf of St. Lawrence to see the fall colors for seven days Oct. 4. Aboard Royal Cruise Lines Royal Odyssey, passengers can learn about photography with Al Sieg, a professional nature and landscape photographer, who will conduct travel photography lectures during the cruise and will act as photo adviser on shore excursions. Departing from New York, ports of call include Newport, R.I.; Boston, Mass.; Bar Harbor, Me.; Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia; Quebec, and Montreal. Shore excursions are available, as are side trips to Maine’s Acadia National Park and the Laurentian Scarp near Montreal.

Cost: from $1,874 per person, double occupancy including round-trip air fare to New York and from Montreal, and transfers to the ship. Contact: Carolyn Edwards, Your Travel Center, 1005 Casitas Pass Road, Carpinteria, CA 93013; tel. (805) 684-6601.

New Mexico

A five-day trip to explore northern New Mexico departs Los Angeles July 13, timed to take advantage of the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Artist and Craftsman Show. Two scenic and historic byways are visited: The Turquoise Trail winds through the scenic high desert of the Sandia Mountains, and stops will be made at old mining towns that have become havens for artisans. The Enchanted Circle is a drive through Carson National Forest, with towns spaced by deep canyons, mountains and alpine meadows.

The tour includes two nights in Santa Fe, where participants will have the option of attending the Santa Fe Opera, and two nights in Espanola. A full day in Santa Fe will include special tours of the Palace of the Governors, as well as the recently installed gallery of paintings by Georgia O’Keefe at the Museum of Fine Arts. Free time will also be available in Taos after a visit to the D.H. Lawrence Shrine. The Anasazi cliff dwellings at Bandelier National Monument will also be visited.

Cost: $995 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, most meals, hotel accommodations, ground transportation, tours, entrance fees and gratuities. Single supplement is $220. Contact: Spectrum Tours, P.O. Box 50608, Santa Barbara, CA 93150; tel. (805) 969-9665.

Baja Cruises

A series of seven-day family adventure cruises in Baja’s Sea of Cortez aboard a 115-foot yacht will sail January through April, 1996, from Loreto, about 150 miles north of Cabo San Lucas. The cruises are designed for families or family groups and include a full crew to sail and cook.

The itinerary on the Rapture is centered around the Sea of Cortez, considered one of the world’s “largest fish traps,” where, according to legend, entire populations of fish have become lost among its caves and caverns. Guests can fish, swim and snorkel from the boat. Rapture’s equipment includes a dive compressor, which is available for certified divers.

Two 20-foot, 150-horsepower boats aboard the vessel provide opportunities for water skiing, surfing, exploring and tubing. Much of the time will be spent kayaking, which is popular in the calm waters off Loreto. Cost: $5,000 per family (up to six members; yacht will hold up to 36 people for family groups), including cabins, all meals and equipment. Not included: transportation to Baja. Contact: Certified Yachting Adventures, 2801 W. Coast Highway, Suite 220, Newport Beach, CA 92663; tel. (714) 675-6240.

The Times is not responsible for changes in prices, dates or itineraries. These should be confirmed with cruise lines, travel agents or tour operators.