In the summers of 2007 and 2008 St. John's University's faculty arrived in Rome and spent two weeks working together at the university's campus in the Prati section of Rome as participants in a program that was half faculty writing retreat and half writing across the curriculum faculty development workshop. The focus of the St. John's University Summer Faculty Writing Institute--writing and the teaching of writing--may not be academically connected to the locale, the city of Rome, in the ways some study abroad programs connect disciplinary content and geographical location. And yet to see St. John's University's ulterior motives for supporting this program as based only in Catholicism--or worse, conversion--is to miss that where an institution sends its faculty and why it decides to support faculty study abroad to certain locales--or certain cities--may make more subtle aspects of institutional mission, goals and values visible to faculty in important, tangible ways that can later inform faculty and students' teaching and learning. Also, as other research studies reveal, creating a scholarly, reflective space for faculty to build a learning community far from their daily lives on a campus in the United States, whether it's a research community, or a writing community, may be one of the best investments in faculty development and global education an institution can make. In this article, the author discusses why St. John's has invested in Rome as one of its premiere study abroad sites and describes the Summer Faculty Writing Institute. (Contains 6 endnotes.)