FREDERICKSBURG -- The University of Mary Washington has decided against plans to buy an Italian bed-and-breakfast for study-abroad programs because administrators say it would be too expensive.

Executive Vice President Rick Hurley says the Fredericksburg school stopped negotiating the $5 million, 15-acre property's purchase two weeks ago.

Hurley says it would've cost students $17,000 per semester to attend classes at Villa Cicolina, which has a swimming pool with a Jacuzzi that overlooks the Tuscan countryside.

The school's most expensive study-abroad program, in England, costs $15,500 per semester and attracts only one to five students per year.

-- The Associated Press