Paris and Barcelona are the most popular destinations for this semester’s spring break.
At 5 p.m., the last of the mid-term exams will be handed in, and spring break will officially start for all General Studies students. Look out, Europe: You’re about to get a taste of our temporary Perugini.
Don’t forget to fill out an independent travel form either online or at the front desk!
Direct Enrollment students will stick around Perugia; the University for Foreigners and the University of Perugia are on the Italian system. Umbra will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. next week (Monday through Friday).
Students will be back in the classroom Monday, March 4.
Buona vacanza from the Umbra staff!
Students enjoying milk and cookies in the Umbra Library.
Mid-term exams are well under way at the Umbra Institute! Students have been busy this week balancing studying, taking exams, and packing for Spring Vacation.
On Tuesday evening, Umbra providing a tasty study break by providing milk and cookies in the Library. Students enjoyed the diversion, coming back for seconds and thirds, before hitting the books again.
How did Corso Vannucci get its name?
When he wasn’t decorating the walls of the Sistine Chapel, Pietro Vannucci — better known as the Renaissance painter Perugino — spent his time in Perugia.
Perugino was born in Citta’ della Pieve, a small Umbrian town about an hour’s drive from Perugia.
Read more about the city and Perugino’s life here.
“Sono Dario Cecchini, e ho 250 anni (I’m Dario Cecchini, and I’m 250 years old),” joked Dario Cecchini, whom the LA Times calls “the most famous butcher in the world.”
Students pose after a hike through the Tuscan foothills during a field trip Saturday.
Umbra’s Sustainability students visited Cecchini’s butcher shop in Panzano in Chianti, a small Tuscan town, on a field trip Saturday afternoon. After a hike through the foothills, students learned about real-life sustainability while they ate a meal composed of parts from an entire cow.
“The field trip was a great opportunity to reinforce themes we’ve talked about in the classroom,” said Professor Zach Nowak, the Food Studies Program director. “Local food will not always have the least embodied energy, meat can be ‘green’ if it’s grass-fed, and tradition should help us with current problems, not shackle us to an idealized past.”
Cecchini provided a real-world example of Nowak’s lessons, though he does not fit the stereotype of a small-town Tuscan butcher. Sporting spiked hair, a bandana, and crocks, he is just as likely to play AC/DC or Led Zeppelin on his stereo as Vivaldi.
Dressed in white and red (right), world-famous butcher Dario Cecchini poses with Umbra’s Sustainability class outside his shop and restaurant.
Using a modern take on yesterday’s traditions, Cecchini’s philosophy focuses on “the whole cow approach.”
“My father was a butcher, but I never had a steak until I was 18,” Cecchini explained. “We ate what was left over from the butcher shop, and my parents used peasant recipes to turn these cuts into tasty dishes, instead of throwing them away like most butchers do now. The whole cow menu: That’s conservation, that’s sustainability, that’s delicious, and that’s what we need to do.”
Cecchini’s comments coincide with the Food Studies Program curriculum, which encourages students to consider the basic questions about what people eat. What are the food’s origins? Is it important that it be “local” or “organic?” What do these labels mean?
The students agreed Friday’s field trip changed the way they perceived food.
“Dario serves cuts of meat that I wouldn’t have thought to eat, but it all tasted great,” Gabriella Gobiel said. “Dario says if you’re going to be a carnivore, be one responsibly and use everything you can from the animal that was killed.”
“It made eating animals more meaningful,” agreed Kelly Miliano. “We got to hear where the cows came from, how they lived, and how they were butchered.”
One scenic bus ride later, the students were back in Perugia.
Two Umbra Institute classes took to the road on academic field trips this weekend.
Two Umbra classes visited the celebrated Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi on academic field trips this weekend.
Friday morning, Professor Adrian Hoch’s art history course, Saints, Sinners, and Harlots, traveled to nearby Assisi, where they toured the city’s many cathedrals, including those of San Damiano, Santa Chiara, San Rufino, and the well-known Basilica of Saint Francis.
On Saturday, Professor Alessandro Celani’s Pagans and Christians course also visited St. Francis’ Basilica in Assisi. The class then moved on to Spoleto, where they walked through the duomo and the Church of San Salvatore.
The weekend’s field trips were timely: Mid-terms begin Monday, and spring break starts Friday.
Umbra and local Italian students celebrated Valentine’s Day on the court.
Thursday evening, Umbra and local Italian students convened at the Onaosi campus to play a Valentine’s Day basketball game. The first of several of the semester, the games offer students the opportunity to share language and culture in an informal setting.
Although basketball was born in America, the Italian team took the game.
“We’ll get them next time,” a student was overheard saying as he walked off the court.
Almost 100 costumed Umbra students, staff, and faculty packed La Botte Tuesday night for Umbra Pizza Night: Carnevale Edition.
Robin Hood, formally known as Umbra staff member Marco Bagli, draws an arrow at the Carnevale-themed Pizza Night Tuesday night as Giuliano Agamennoni as a blonde, masked figure looks on.
Celebrating Martedi Grasso (Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, etc.: the traditionally “sin-filled” day before today’s start of Lent) and enjoying another Pizza Night in one fell swoop, the event was a success. Approximately one third of students arrived in costume; 100 percent of the attending staff and faculty were transformed. The pizzeria staff served Phantoms of the Opera, 1940s pin-up girls, and clowns without the blink of an eye (well, there were maybe a few raised eyebrows).
After the last slice of pizza disappeared, Umbra voted on the best student and staff/faculty costumes.
Unrecognizable (from the neck up), Umbra student Camilo Lopez won a pizza from Mediterranea for his rendition of a unicorn.
His bow and arrows a plastic threat to all, Umbra staff member Marco Bagli claimed the honor of best staff/faculty costume as Robin Hood.
Mark your calendar for the next and final Umbra Pizza Night at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 19, at La Botte!
On Saturday, Contemporary Italy students visited Siena, where they learned about the world-famous Palio.
Two Umbra Institute professors took their lesson on the road this weekend.
On Friday, Giordana Pulcini’s Politics and Economics of the European Union students traveled to Rome to visit the in-depth Italian history museum.
Antonella Valorosa’s Contemporary Italy students visited Siena Saturday to learn about the still-active contrade (neighborhoods with strict borders and stricter cultural traditions) that participate in the annual Palio (horse race: see image) in the Campo.
Pulcini and Valorosa said the invaluable field trips allow students to see and experience the facts and ideas they learn in the classroom.
Andy Steves, son of well-known travel writer Rick Steves, gave a travel workshop at the Umbra Institute Thursday evening. Drawing on his lifetime of travel experience, Steves provided students with tips on how to travel around Italy and the rest of Europe on a student budget. Along with logistical suggestions about budget airlines and inexpensive lodging, he emphasized the importance of traveling with cultural awareness, interacting with locals, and planning a balanced itinerary that leaves room for spontaneity.
Steves developed the workshop after studying abroad in Rome in 2008.
“By the time I was 20, I’d been to Europe 21 times,” Steves admitted. “But when I studied abroad, it was a different experience entirely. My dad writes a great travel book, but when you’re only spending two-to-three days in Paris, 600 pages of suggestions won’t do you much good. There was a lack of information geared towards the student abroad.”
After graduating from Notre Dame in 2010, Steves created Weekend Student Adventures, a travel organization that, as the name suggests, offers weekend-long trips to well-known European cities. The packages balance sight-seeing, interactions with locals, and free time for independent exploration.
At the conclusion of the workshop, Umbra students crowded around Steves, sharing Ryanair travel woes and asking about everything from Parisian bike tours to spelunking in Budapest.
If you missed the workshop, stop by Marco and Addy’s office to pick up a WSA Almost All You Need To Know While Abroad Pocketbook.
“There’s an old peasant proverb: ‘Leave the land a little better than you found it,’” said Stefano Cantelmo, head engineer for Castello Montevibiano Vecchio Winery in Italy.
Umbra’s International Marketing students stand in the Montevibiano wine cellar after a tour around the eco-winery on a field trip Friday.
Standing 20 feet below ground level, Umbra Institute students listened carefully as Cantelmo leaned on one of the 200 oak barrels full of new wine on Friday. Two Umbra classes visited the winery in the hills above the Tiber Valley on Jan. 25 and Feb. 1 for Business of Food in Italy and International Marketing, respectively.
After showing the classes the barrels in the winery’s cantina, Cantelmo described his work.
“I designed the sustainability project for the winery,” he explained. “We use both high-tech [solar cells, biodiesel] and low-tech [passive cooling, roofs painted white] to reduce our carbon footprint. And in 2010 we were certified zero emissions.”
Montevibiano has since won a Slow Food award for sustainable winemaking and an award for wine quality – a great combination for the winery, according to CEO Lorenzo Fasola Bologna.
Students, Stefano Cantelmo, listen as Montevibiano CEO Lorenzo Bologna (standing) explains the winery’s marketing strategy on Friday’s field trip.
“We started the project because zero emissions was the right thing to do for the environment, and it was the right thing for the winery in terms of visibility,” he explained.
Bologna and Cantelmo are interested in the possibility of selling the eco-wine in the U.S. market.
After the past two Fridays’ field trips, the Umbra students will build on service learning projects for each course. The project was started by Food Studies Program Coordinator and Professor Zach Nowak during the spring 2012 semester. This year, Nowak’s Business of Food class will be focus on helping Montevibiano Winery write a pitch for an American wine importer, including how to market the “green” wine in the U.S.
“‘Green’ isn’t the typical color you think of when you think wine, but we think it’s an even more important color than red or white, in the long run,” Nowak joked. “Montevibiano’s wine is the perfect marriage of tradition — their castle is over 1000 years old — and innovation. The students’ proposals will be focused on how to make eco-wine popular in the U.S., to promote responsible consumption that helps the earth.
The International Marketing students’ projects will focus on how to improve the marketing strategies already in place.
“I decided to enroll in International Marketing to broaden my view on how business works around the world and to help understand how to market products to other areas of the world outside of the U.S., specifically in Italy,” said Umbra student Michael Durfee. “This field trip helped get a true international perspective on marketing; speaking to the head of marketing at Montevibiano gave me a new insight on how the European market works.”
“Today felt like a true Italian experience,” Durfee concluded.
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