October 2011 – DEV – The Umbra Institute – Study Abroad in Italy

As hard as it is to believe, Perugia actually has its own amateur team, Phoenix Perugia Lacrosse (website in Italian). Several Umbra students have been going to play with them two to three times per week to get out in the sun (it’s still surprisingly warm for mid-October), practice their Italian, and get some exercise.

Lacrosse in Italy is still a relatively young, having only been around for two years, so having the Americans around is a huge help to the Italian players’ game, while having the Italians around allows the Americans the chance to go places (restaurants, cafes, and places in Italy) that they might’ve never seen otherwise.

Some of the team members are on the national team, and extra helmets floating around practice make for great photo ops, as with the decidedly non-posed photo of student Matt Pastorius to the right.

Last Thursday evening, Umbra students were invited to watch the film “Chocolat” at the Onaosi dorm for women in Perugia with other Italian students. The film was shown in Italian with English subtitles and was accompanied by a small aperitivo. The Onaosi theatre, where students melted over the actors and/or the delicous chocolate, dates back hundreds of years and is decorated with beautiful frescoes. The film was very fitting seeing last week marked the arrival of Eurochocolate in Perugia. Now Umbra students can enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of chocolate everywhere they go!

food-studies-program-goes-to-rome — Food Studies Program participants Grant Nixon and Molly Cornbrooks in front of exotic veggies at Rome’s Nuovo Esquilino Market.

All roads lead to Rome, though this Saturday Umbra Institute students took the train for their Roman culinary tour. The early-morning departure from Perugia’s train station let the day start relatively early. The first stop was the historic market in Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele. A daily fruit and vegetable market has been held in this square since the end of the 1800s, but the composition of the vendors has changed radically in the last twenty years. From being mostly Italians, the stalls have changed with the rise in immigrant population into the neighborhood. Familes from Jordan, China, and Ecuador (among others) have created a demand for spices, duck, and heritage potatoes, products never before seen in Roman open-air markets.

From here Food Studies Program coordinator and professor Zachary Nowak led students to yet another market in the old city, Campo de’ Fiori. The name means literally “Meadow of Flowers” and had been a meadow and market since the 1600s, when Dominican monk Giordano Bruno was burned there for the heretical idea of the earth rotating around the sun. The market–very much a tourist destination these days–made for an interesting counterpoint to the lively (and more “authentic”) Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele market.

food-studies-program-goes-to-rome-2 — Umbra Institute student Teagan Lehrmann at the Gelateria della Palma in Rome.

Lunch was in the former Jewish Ghetto, near the Tiber River. Students ate typical Roman-Jewish food, including the quintessential fried artichokes as well as tripe in a tomato sauce. The day finished out with a tough assignment: students were obliged to decide which of their two ice cream cones was the best; one cold treat was from “Gelateria Giolitti,” the other from “Gelateria Della Palma,” Rome’s two most famous gelaterias, and both located a stone’s throw from the Pantheon.

A day in the life of students who study abroad in Italy? Or something special to Umbra’s food studies program? Well…

When we drive by a field of grain, we think of how quaint farming is: in reality, though, agriculture and other food-related businesses are a huge part of modern economies. The “business of food” isn’t just food: it’s the restaurant business, food blogging and other publishing, culinary tourism, and many other related industries. The Umbra Institute’s course “The Business of Food: Italy and Beyond”–one of the three Food Studies Program classes–explores these industries in Italy and the rest of the world.

food-and-business-trip-to-spoleto-and-castiglione — “The Business of Food” students from the Umbra Institute at Castiglione del Lago.

Experientia docet (“Learn through experience”) is the Umbra Institute’s motto, and co-curricular field trips are fundamental to reinforcing classroom learning. Last Friday the students taking the course went on a trip first to just outside the Umbrian hilltown of Spoleto. Dottor Giacomo Cinelli, the export director for olive oil producer Costa d’Oro, received the class in the company’s boardroom and gave them a presentation on the company’s global marketing strategy (Costa d’Oro exports to over 70 countries). The next stop was Castiglione del Lago, an Umbrian town perched on a promontory above the lake. Students had lunch with other visitors to Altrocioccolato, a fair trade chocolate festival, and then heard one of the organizers explain the principles behind fair trade. Again, direct experience is important: students tried a bar of chocolate from Ghana before heading back to Perugia, where another chocolate festival was waiting!

Lungarotti Winery, a partner of the Umbra Institute, recently presented its wines at the Girl and Fig restaurant in Sonoma County in the Bay Area. Lungarotti, a leader in Umbrian winemaking since 1961, has been recognized in the American press not only as a maker of high-quality wines, but also (with an article in the New York Times) for its Wine Museum and Oil Museum in the historic hilltown of Torgiano, just a few miles from Perugia.

Starting in May 2012, students who participate in the Umbra Institute’s Food Studies Program will be able to do an internship at Lungarotti, helping the winery with its website and communications.

Last Thursday, twenty-two Umbra students and a staff member trouped across town to énonè, a chic wine bar in Corso Cavour, an up-and-coming section of Perugia. They were met there by Sylvia Bartolini, a sommelier and wine connoisseur who has worked in the wine industry for nearly a decade and has a wealth of knowledge about Umbrian and Tuscan vineyards, grapes, production methods — and, of course, wine. After a brief introduction to wine basics, or Wine 101, the bottles came out and the students learned how to take store and take care of wine and what the difference is between old wine and aged wine.

And then there was the tasting. It started off with a dry prosecco (a variety of Italian sparkling wine), and moved on to an Umbrian grechetto, a white. The last touch was a 2005 Goretti Arringatore, a fantastically full-bodied wine with fruits hints of the ciliegiolo grapes that it contains. While tasting the wines and learning about their properties (alcohol content, grapes, acidity, coloring, and so on), students were asked to try to pair them with some of the food on the sampling plate in front of them based on what they knew. As wine tastings go, you can’t get much better: good food, good wine, good company.

Last Tuesday, students were welcomed at the local, hidden pizzeria ‘Pizza e Musica’ for yet another infamous Umbra’s Pizza Workshop. Pizzaiolo (pizza-maker) Gerry and pizzeria owner Felice were ready to share the art of pizza making with students, showing off a few cool dough tossing tricks and spins. After hearing about the history of pizza, the mechanics of the oven and the cooking process, students worked one-on-one with the pizzaiolo to create their very own pizza masterpiece. Did you know it takes only 90 seconds to three minutes to cook a pizza in a wood fire oven? This means students didn’t wait long to enjoy their hard work. The favorite of the night was by far the Nutella pizza! A sweet way to end the night.

It was a special event the other evening at Tandem—Italian karaoke night! Our American students studying abroad here in Italy were divided into groups and mixed with Italian students, and then had a fun competition. In the past month our students had learned some of the most famous Italian songs in class and this was the perfect occasion to show off their skills.

Third Place: Veni, Vidi Vici group with “Tuca Tuca” by Raffaella Carrà.
The “venduti” (sellouts!) sign is for the judges; it’s what Italian soccer fans yell at referees when they feel that too many fouls have been called against their team.

Second Place: Le più belle ragazze group with “La Canzone del Sole”

First Place: The Foley Cinque group with “Still Believe” by Britney Spears (ok, we know this isn’t an Italian song… but they won because they used a strong Italian accent when singing).

On Thursday, Umbra students laced up their soccer shoes to play calcio, the national sport of Italy. They brought their Umbra spirit all the way to victory playing with the home team, the ONAOSI Institute. Mixing up the teams with guys and girls, Umbra and ONAOSI players, the score wasn’t important. The name of this game was cheering each other on and having a good time. Afterwards, everyone celebrated the games with cake and refreshments in the ONAOSI cafeteria. Next, Umbra students will try their hand at basketball!

It’s hard to believe it, but one month has already passed since the Fall 2011 student first arrived in Perugia. Since then, they’ve traveled to Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Cinque Terre, and many other places; those who spoke Italian before arriving are finding that it comes easier to them, and those who never spoke it are finding their vocabulary and ordering cornetti and cappuccino with abandon. It really is an impressive transformation.

So what’s the next step? Integrating yourself further by finding new things to do! Two students are playing with and helping the local lacrosse team, one is DJing at a major venue, and another – an aspiring opera singer – is auditing an opera-related course (in Italian!) at a local university. Staff member Julie Falk is also helping students to find volunteeer opportunities while abroad; many are helping out with a UNICEF project! There is no shortage of ways to truly apply your knowledge of Italian language and culture when you come to study abroad in Perugia.