Lodging Included Option: Istituto San Lodovico
If you choose our lodging included option, you will be staying in the Istituto San Lodovico, a former convent with its own grounds on the town’s southwestern wall. San Lodovico hosts several creative seminars and workshops every year. San Lodovico is managed by the Sisters of the Company of Mary Our Lady, a religious order founded in 1607 by Saint Joanne of Lestonac. The main purpose of the order was to educate women, and it did so in Orvieto for many generations, beginning in 1834. The school closed in 1998 and since 2024 nuns are no longer in residence, but the order still runs the preschool and offers year-round hospitality and lodging to guests.
The history of the convent itself is difficult to reconstruct due to the loss of historical records. The convent already existed in 1300, but the building’s origins date to the 3rd or 4th century BC—under the grounds of the convent are Etruscan wells and caves excavated in the rock. From 1300 to 1800 the convent was occupied by different religious orders until it passed to the Sisters. The grounds of the convent today are fairly modern by Italian standards, with the entrance hall probably built around 1800. The annex to the convent is the Church of San Lodovico, dating back to 1350 and restored in 1746.
Read the 2008 Chicago Tribune article about San Lodovico: “In Italy, a Room for the Soul” (Note: The rates quoted in the article are very out of date.)
Accommodations
Single rooms are available, or two students may request to share a room, which are all en suite. The single beds in most double rooms can be made up as a double bed. Check out the pictures below to get a sense of the rooms, or visit San Lodovico’s website. See registration information for The Ladies Room for our rates.
San Lodovico provides a continental breakfast every day, and offers complimentary wireless internet, although you may find service is more reliable in the local cafes.
