Taking trips to Rome to improve one's Latin

SENATVS POPVLVSQVE·ROMANVS DIVO·TITO·DIVI·VESPASIANI·F[ILIO] VESPASIANO·AVGVSTO

There's an article here on that subject. Latin has an advantage over IALs in that it not only has a ton of history but also a number of locations one can visit that almost feel like an immersive experience. I think the closest thing the IAL community has to that is Neutral Moresnet. I'm not the biggest fan of Esperanto but I still think they should have been allowed to have at least a tiny strip of land of their own there. It's tough being an IAL.

Back to the article - first of all, the trip is dirt cheap:

But not every student can go because of financial reasons. The trip costs about $1,900, but Mulholland is hoping the price will go down to $1,700 because of the Euro lessening since the credit crash. Ideally, Mulholland would like to raise a total of $12,000. Right now, the group only has about $6,000. They hold various fundraisers throughout the year including selling popcorn at First Night, selling raffle tickets outside of Stop and Shop for various items and a car wash.

$1,900 for a trip from the USA to Rome?

The other interesting part is that about students trying to use Latin to communicate with the locals at times:

There are many reasons Mulholland travels to the historic city of Rome each year, but it’s certain experiences he has had with students that make him go back. He recalled a year when a student went who was struggling with the Latin language. They were visiting the Coliseum when this student struck up a conversation with an Italian student also visiting the site. The Italian student didn’t speak English, so the Chatham student formed a sentence in Latin.

“He was just so excited to try and use the language,” said Mulholland.

I suppose you could do that by switching the word order around a bit and maybe altering the pronunciation somewhat, pronouncing the c as ch in front of i and e, and turning the v into the modern English sound. Then again, I would venture to guess that Latino sine Flexione would do a better job at that aside from verb conjugation. This proverb for example:

Vox populi, vox Dei.

is easier to understand as the LsF:

Voce de populo, voce de Deo.

Especially if it's pronounced 'voche' instead of 'woke'.