Material for students in a Study Abroad course beginning in Ascea, near Velia, in Southern Italy. It begins with the geological evolution of the Mediterranean and moves on to the prehistory of the area, the coming of the Greeks, the settlement of Elea = Velia, the Eleatic philosophers, the area in Roman times, and history up to the present, with special attention to the Consorzio Velia, which provides water to the area.