November 2011 – Page 2 – DEV – The Umbra Institute – Study Abroad in Italy

Prof. John L. Dennis, along with several students of the INIT 350 Academic Internship & Seminar, Psychology, submitted an invited conference submission for a symposium “Inside the Creative Mind” organized by Prof. Alessandro Antonietti (Università del Sacro Cuore Milano) at the annual meeting for the Italian Association for Cognitive Science held at The University of Milan, December 1-2. The submission was on on how Genetic Algorithms can be useful for modeling human creativity. The symposium will include presentations by Mathematicians, Philosophers, and Linguists as well as Psychologists.

Students (using Google Documents) collaborated simultaneously on the article submission, which discusses how Genetic Algorithms, despite following procedures that are not “intelligent,” are able to find solutions that can be recognized as intelligent. The article argues that several principles of Genetic Algorithms – for example, the memorization, storage and retrieval of information as well as the combination and recombination of simple elements within a mechanical procedure of trial and error – can be used to formulate the foundation of a cumulative creative process.

san-martino-in-perugia — Roasted chestnuts are a new experience for most students who study abroad in Italy.

A typical end of summer event in small towns all over Italy is the “sagra,” or town fair. Each sagra is dedicated to one food or another–examples include the “Sagra of the Onion” in nearby Canarra or the “Sagra of Prosciutto”–though oftentimes these sagre are a modern-day invention, more for fun for locals and to draw some tourists than a continuation of an ages-old tradition.

San Martino (Saint Martin’s Day) is different. Rural Italians’ agricultural rhythms were closely tied to a calendar with many days upon which you had to do one thing or another. San Giovanni (Saint John’s Day, June 24th) is the when you have to pick unripe walnuts and make nocino, a walnut liquer. Saint Martin’s Day was when, on the other hand, it was time to decant the mostly-fermented new wine from one cask to another. Italians celebrated by drinking a bit of the new wine (vino novello) and eating roasted chestnuts. This festival falls on November 11th but is celebrated for a whole week in the town named after Saint Martin, San Martino in Colle.

Umbra Institute students participating in the Food Studies Program had the opportunity to visit the sagra held in San Martino this past week. After taking a bus fifteen minutes outside of town, they were met by local resident and chef Michele Brustenghi, who had invited the students to dinner with him, his wife, his daughter and his brother. Students ate a variety of local dishes, including polenta with sausage, pasta with a wild boar sauce, and grilled veggies. After dinner students walked up into the medieval core of the small town and enjoyed jazz music and chestnuts with the locals on the main piazza.

Last week, the Business in Europe and International Marketing students ventured to Gualdo Tadino and Città di Castello. These two charming Umbrian towns are known for their artisan products including traditionally-made ceramics and furniture. Students interviewed the artisans in their workshops and learned everything from how paints are mixed as they were in the 1500’s, to how kiln firing secrets are passed down from generation to generation and sustainability efforts being made to preserve the wood supply in Italy.

Several workshops and a furniture exposition later, students now have the task of assisting the regional Umbrian government in uniting Umbrian artisans under a brand called ‘Umbria Artigianato’. With this brand, the local government hopes to strengthen and promote the local artisan industries both in Italy and abroad. This collaboration brings to life a real case study- helping preserve Umbrian artisan industries by ensuring their growth and success locally and internationally. This service learning project, which combines community work with classroom theory, will continue in the coming semesters at Umbra. Stay tuned!

Umbra Professor and Food Program director Zachary Nowak spoke on October 27th at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. The lecture, titled “The Myth of ‘Eat Local’: The Case of Tuscan Butcher Dario Cecchini,” covers the basic misunderstandings behind the “Eat Local” movement, as explained through the framework of famed butcher (and Food Studies Program field trip host) Dario Cecchini.

Nowak focused on Cecchini’s much-criticized choice to import his meat from Spain. This is seemingly unsustainable, given the energy transportation “costs,” but Nowak pointed out that of a food’s embodied energy, transportation is a small (though still significant, at about 10-12%) part. Indeed, it is the food’s primary production and its cooking that are the energy sinks. Cecchini’s animals in Spain are grass-fed, not needing the ten months of barley and oats (and corn) that local Chianti cows need. Because grain production is so intensive, and because grain in Italy is often imported from Canada and Argentina, it actually saves energy to grass-feed far away and then bring the meat to Cecchini’s restaurants.

Read the full article on the website for The College Voice, Connecticut College’s student newspaper.

Francesco Gardenghi’s Racconto Italiano class visted Perugia’s main library last afternoon, Biblioteca Augusta. You might not think a library is exciting but this library is more like a museum. Its archives include parchment rolls that date back to 800 A.C. and maps from the 1500s. There are also books which contain business codes of conduct from medieval times as well as the first biographies of Saint Francis of Assisi. This is just one of the many advantages of studying abroad in Italy: you can see history books that you probably didn’t even study or read about in your history books! And if that’s not enough to impress you, all you have to do is step outside of the library to see one of the most stunning views of the Umbrian hillside that will surely boggle your mind.

Study abroad in Italy means learning both inside and outside the classroom walls. Yesterday night Professors Simon Young and Zachary Nowak took students participating in the Umbra’s Institute’s Food Studies Program to the cleverly-named Osteria a Priori (located in Via dei Priori). Their hosts, Alessandro and Maurizio, delved into not only how to correctly evaluate the quality of olive oil, but also how to have an “olive oil culture” not just an “olive oil habit, which means while shopping you spend the same amount of time choosing you olive oil as you spend buying toilet paper,” Maurizio said.

olive-oil-workshop — Jamie, Kristin, and Teagan at Osteria A Priori. (Photo by Ian MacDonald)

Seated on simple wooden stools around a huge table, students compared a more “industrial” (“Good only for painting wood,” chimed in Maurizio.) oil to an extra-virgin Umbrian oil from 2010, and one that had just been pressed. “This was olives on a tree five days ago”: again, Maurizio. The Olive Oil Workshop is one in a series of food practica designed to teach students the biochemistry, history, and culture of various important Italian food products.

For the handout for the workshop, click here: Olive Workshop

Last week, the Business in Europe and Int’l Marketing students ventured outside of Perugia to Gualdo Tadino and Città di Castello. These two charming Umbrian towns are known for their skillfully crafted artisan products including traditionally-made ceramics and furniture. Students interviewed the artisans in their workshops and learned everything from how paints are mixed using the same techniques from the 1500’s, how kiln secrets are passed down from generation to generation, to the sustainability efforts being made to preserve the wood supply in Italy.

After visiting several workshops and a furniture exposition, students now have the task of assisting the regional Umbrian government in uniting Umbrian artisans under a new brand called ‘Umbria Artigianato’. With this brand, the local government hopes to strengthen and promote their high-quality artisan industries both in Italy and abroad. Equipped with the knowledge of how Umbrian artisan workshops operate and the history and passion behind them, students will design group presentations for the regional government. For these formal presentations, students will research and discuss different strategies, obstacles, and opportunities that exist to successfully market this brand to the United States.

This collaboration brings to life a real case study- helping preserve Umbrian artisan industries in a time of economic difficulty where quality over quantity continues to be the golden rule. This service learning project, which integrates community work with classroom theory, will continue in the coming semesters at Umbra. Stay tuned!

Download the latest version of the Umbra Newsletter here!

Check out the latest edition of the Umbra Institute’s for the solution to this and any other Thanksgiving-related questions. The Umbra Staff also have recommendations for the best local concerts in and around Perugia for November, including Negramaro — famous all across Italy — and the Amici della Musica classical series. And congratulations to Alyssa Boden, our newest Photo of the Month winner!

If you study abroad in Italy – Perugia at the Umbra Institute you have the opportunity to visit all the city’s museums for free. The museum pass is valid for groups up to four students and you can ask for it at the front desk or get it directly from the academic director, Dr. Burzacca. Here is the list of, and links to, the museums you can visit. Have fun!

MUSEUM OF THE CITY WALLS AND GATES
PALAZZO DELLA PENNA PALACE
NATIONAL GALLERY OF UMBRIA
NOBILE COLLEGIO DEL CAMBIO (EXCHANGE GUILD)
HYPOGEUM OF THE VOLUMNUS FAMILY
ETRUSCAN WELL
NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF UMBRIA
NOBILE COLLEGIO DELLA MERCANZIA (MERCHANT’S GUILD)
SAN SEVERO CHAPEL
CAPITULAR MUSEUM
PALAZZO BALDESCHI AL CORSO PALACE
ROCCA PAOLINA MUSEUM CENTRE

Umbra Professor Antonella Valoroso went on Rai’s well-known Italian radio show Voci della Città (Voices of the City) recently. (more…)