June 2012 – DEV – The Umbra Institute – Study Abroad in Italy

The walls of the Umbra Institute’s Via Danzetta Studio radiated inspiration during Wednesday afternoon’s end-of-the-summer art show.

Students enrolled in Pastel Drawing and Photography courses rubbed elbows with their fellow students and Umbra staff and faculty, explaining their artistic choices as they enjoyed appetizers and sipped wine.

“We had a small group this semester, but look how much they’ve done,” said Martha Wakeman, longtime visiting Pastel Drawing professor at the Umbra Institute, as she gestured to the packed studio. “It’s just wonderful. I’m very proud.”

Wakeman’s class this summer ranged from first-time art students to full-time art majors.

“I’ve really enjoyed seeing the newer students’ work develop,” Wakeman said. She turned to Mari Humphreys, an art major from the University of South Carolina who took both Pastel Drawing and Photography. “And you’ve been able to add work to your portfolio, haven’t you?”

“I definitely have!” Humphreys replied.

She continued, “This has been great because I haven’t really had a real show like this in years. … It’s very rewarding.”

Don’t miss the General Studies and Chapman students’ last group activity: Umbra is hosting a farewell aperitivo at 7:30 p.m. Friday at il Birraio. See you there!

This past Saturday Harvard undergrad Teagan Lehrman presented a paper at the annual conference for the Association for the Study of Food and Culture (ASFS). Lehrman’s paper, “Steamed, Sealed, Delivered: How Canning Revolutionized, Unified,and Globalized Italian Cuisine,” grew out of her final paper for her course in Perugia, “The History and Culture of Food in Italy.”

food-studies-program-alumna-presents-at-professional-conference — Lehrman during the Pizza Workshop, one of the experiential learning activities for the Food Studies Program.

Lehrman was one of a small number of students and an even smaller number of graduate students who had papers accepted by the ASFS, the main American professional association for academics interested in food studies. Lehrman commented that everyone “was so nice and interesting and really passionate about what they were doing (and food in general),” and that the conference had made her consider academics as as a possible future career.

This morning, Professors Tom Baker and Tracy Meyer accompanied a group of Clemson marketing student to the headquarters of AC Perugia Calcio, Perugia’s professional soccer team.

They were met by two representatives of the team’s marketing department and given a tour of the players’ area before walking through the tunnel and out onto the field.

From the standpoint of the grass, the Perugia staff members gave an excellent run-down of the various forms and quantities of in-stadium advertising and seating, all while fielding questions about attendance, market difficulties, and plans for the future.

After being walked across the grounds and shown the newly-renovated youth academy fields, they were treated to an explanation of the club’s finances and their efforts to better integrate their marketing efforts with those of their sponsors.

Of course, through, we’re in Italy, so the field trip ended with lunch at a local restaurant. A great pizza antipasto, followed by some legendary mozzarella di bufala and a plate of freshly-made pasta: buon appetito!

After a whirlwind weekend of horseback riding through Tuscan countryside, poolside sunbathing, wine tasting, rich food, and adventures in ancient cities, 35 Umbra Institute students climbed out of the private bus at Piazza Italia Sunday evening, happily exhausted.

Early Friday morning, just days earlier, the students were piling onto the bus, ready for the long-awaited optional trip. The first stop was Siena, where longtime guide Margarita led the group from contrada to contrada (historic neighborhoods that participate in the infamous horse race, il Palio), concluding the tour at the elaborately-decorated Duomo.

A few short hours later, the students checked into their rooms at Fattoria Voltrona, a rustic farmhouse in the Tuscan countryside. The agriturismo welcomed the group with a home-cooked meal of traditional Tuscan dishes with an outdoor dining room served with views of the farm that stretch into the Tuscan hills.

Saturday morning, small groups of students mounted short and stocky Icelandic horses for a ride through the farmland and surrounding hills and villages under the tutelage of Marie, a young Swedish woman who has been riding horses since she was three years old.

The group then spent the afternoon wandering around the nearby San Gimignano, a medieval Tuscan town known for its many towers, free wine tastings, and creative gelato flavors (white wine gelato, anyone?).

The students returned to the agriturismo with time to play in the pool, relax, or explore the farm before reconvening for another delicious dinner. Saturday evening ended with stargazing and wine from Fattoria Voltrona’s own cantina beside a pond surrounded by grape vines and olive trees.

Sunday morning, students packed up their belongings, said their goodbyes to the friendly agriturismo staff, and drove to Cortona, the town featured in the book and film “Under the Tuscan Sun.” The group strolled through the hilly streets, browsing the weekly vintage market, eating good food, and soaking up the last of the Tuscan sun.

On Wednesday morning, Umbra Institute students from Chapman University found a shady place between the olive oil and honey vendors in the weekly market in Piazza Matteoti, “adopting” their handmade dolls to benefit UNICEF, an international children’s rights and relief organization.

The Umbra students have spent the last few weeks alongside Italian students from the University of Perugia and local UNICEF volunteers, designing and sewing the dolls, which are the symbol of the Italian chapter of UNICEF. Called le pigotte, the dolls are “adopted” – sold – typically for about 20 euro. This funds a vaccine kit that will protect a child and his or her mother against diseases in developing countries.

The students found the opportunity to give back during their short summer study abroad experience in Perugia, Italy, through the Umbra Institute’s Community Engagement program. With the help of Umbra’s partnerships with local businesses, nonprofits, and schools, the initiative offers students the opportunity to learn through immersion into the Perugian culture.

Check out our new UmbraViews video! We took this one at the truffle hunting on Saturday (see post below). What do you guys think?

“Sole, dov’è il tartufo (Sun, where’s the truffle)?” called Matteo Bartolini after his dog.

Picking their way carefully over the uneven ground, two Umbra Institute food studies classes followed Bartolini – and the truffle-hunting Sole – as the farmer showed the students around the woods and meadows of his farm, nestled in the Tiber River Valley in northern Umbria.

As Sole sniffed out truffle after truffle, Bartolini demonstrated how to use a medieval-looking shovel to carefully dig the fungus from the ground.

“We think of truffles as elite food,” said Bartolini, scrubbing a truffle with a toothbrush after the tour. “But it was the hungry farmer who first tried the food on his pasta centuries ago.”

Thirty-six-year-old Bartolini is not only a truffle hunter and farmer but one of Italy’s representatives to the European Union agricultural committee in Brussels.

Umbra Institute Professor Zach Nowak and Marymount University Professor Peter Naccarato deemed Bartolini’s tour ideal for the courses they are teaching through the Umbra Institute’s Food Studies Program (FSP) this summer. Nowak teaches “The History and Politics of Food in Italy,” while Naccarato heads up “Mangiamo: Food in Italian and Italian-American Literature and Film.”

“I think today’s truffle hunt offered the opportunity to teach students about a food product that they were perhaps unfamiliar with – from the ground to the plate,” Naccarato said after the classes enjoyed a four-course meal made complete with pork cutlets and a rich pasta dish, both cooked with the same truffles students had dug from the ground earlier that day.

“We’ve been spending time talking about Italian food history, and it was just perfect to see Matteo (Bartolini), who has figured out a way to preserve this tradition and also maintain it for the future through agritourism,” Naccarato continued. “Agritourism allows him the opportunity to practice his family’s work … and educate people about where the food actually comes from.”

“The field trip was a great opportunity to reinforce themes we’ve talked about in the classroom: foraging for wild foods as an integral part of the Italian diet, as well as the rural economy,” agreed Nowak.

Nowak and Naccarato’s courses fulfill the Umbra FSP’s goal to encourage students to think about how, while we eat three times a day, we rarely consider the basic questions of how or what we put in our mouths. Where does the food come from? Is it important that it be “local” or “organic?” What do the labels really mean?

These questions are fundamental to life in our globalized world, Nowak explained.

According to students, Saturday’s excursion provided some answers.

“I could not ask for a better field trip that shows a tradition in Italy and how it is integrated into the culture,” said Connecticut College student Caroline Knoblock, one of Nowak’s students. “Everything about the day was beautiful, including the food. I also have never seen a better, more passionate team than Sole and Matteo.”

“The chance to be on a real truffle farm was priceless,” added Marymount University student Emil Lendof. “This was an amazing memory and experience.”

Note from the Umbra Institute: To see more photos from Saturday’s truffle hunting field trip, click here.

Monday evening, Umbra Institute students wandered twisting streets to find Pizza e Musica, a hidden Perugia pizzeria that once served as a convent, and participate in the famous Umbra Pizza Workshop.

Students then explored the art of pizza, guided by Austrian pizzaiolo (pizza-maker) David. His audience ooh-ed and ahh-ed as David tossed the dough in the air and easily painted on olive oil and fresh tomato sauce and sprinkled mozzarella and basil, the makings of a classic margarita pizza.

“But here’s the tricky part,” David said as he reached for his padella, or pizza shovel (yes, that’s actually what it’s called), deftly scooped up his creation, and slid it deep into the recesses of the wood-fired oven. With the right wood (oak is popular, though olive is preferred) and amount of flame, the perfect pizza may be cooked between 90 seconds and three minutes.

Umbra student Brittany Cole was first to step behind the counter and stretch, dress, and cook her own pizza.

“It was so fun — and really rewarding!” she exclaimed before she took a bite of her piping hot creation.

After several of Cole’s classmates tried their hand at becoming pizzaioli, students gave the expert David their orders and enjoyed authentic Italian pizza, drinks, and a grand finale of Nutella pizza on Pizza e Musica’s vine-encased veranda.

This week the Intensive Italian through Culture Summer Program kicked off its Monday lunches at the La Piazzetta. The restaurant, with its Etruscan walls and modern twist on classic Umbrian dishes, sets the stage for these social gatherings. Each Monday, professor Dr. Proctor accompanies small groups of studenti to chat, only in Italian of course, over a delicious meal. An Italian university student also joins in the fun to get to know students and share their language. Other culture events this summer include guided city and museum tours, winery visits, a day trip to Assisi, and much more. What better way to explore the Italian language, history, and culture!

Everybody knows that Italians love soccer, but this love is at its peak when watching the Italian national team play, especially during tournaments like the World Cup.

Luckily for Umbra students, Perugian residents feel the same way, so during this years UEFA Euro 2012 soccer tournament, all restaurants are putting flatscreen TVs outside underneath their big white umbrellas so that people can both relax outside and scream their heads off as Pirlo chips a perfect ball to Di Natale to put Italy up 1-0 over World Cup champion Spain. Forza Italia!