To live and work in today's global community, adults need to develop an intercultural responsiveness and flexibility in order to interact sensitively in situations involving international cultural contexts, practices, beliefs, understandings, and communications. One way to support this development in adult and higher education is to offer opportunities to study abroad. These experiences can present adult learners with a setting in which to learn about global diversity and the interrelationships of issues across the world's population today. There is very little evidence, however, about adult learning in study abroad. Therefore, the author conducted an extensive investigation that examined adult learning within the context of a short-term program in Italy. In this paper, the author first offers further clarification of the adult learning theory that frames this study and provides an overview of the relevant literature. She then explains the research methodology, followed by a description of the short-term study abroad program under investigation. Finally, she presents the findings of the research and the implications on what the data suggest about the nature of adult learning and communities of practice in study abroad experiences. (Contains 1 table and 1 note.)