News and Blog

The Università per Stranieri in Perugia (The University for Foreigners) and The Umbra Institute have been academic partners for numerous years.  Next year, this cooperation will intensify to welcome the local Italian students from the University for Foreigners into Umbra courses.

 The Umbra Institute’s most immersive and challenging offerings include Direct Enrollment programs at Perugia’s universities: the University of Perugia (UniPG) and the University for Foreigners (UniStra). For years now, American students have been directly enrolling in courses taught in Italian at the University of Perugia and in intensive Italian-language and culture courses at the University for Foreigners.  Italian students from UniPG have also participated in this exchange by taking Umbra’s courses every semester for transferable credit.

Starting in January 2016, Italian students at UniStra will enjoy the same opportunity! Selected UniStra students currently pursuing a degree in intercultural communication and marketing or promoting Italian language and culture abroad will enroll alongside their American peers at Umbra and transfer the credits to their curricula.

This is another step to fully integrating Umbra’s American undergraduate students with their Italian counterparts in order to promote intercultural competence and community engagement. 

This summer’s Intensive Italian Language and Culture Program students experienced something even more intense than usual: the first intensive SoloItaliano Challenge.  Last week, our courageous students solemnly swore upon holy Italian dictionaries to speak only in Italian for four entire days.  They were in Italy to speak Italian, after all!

Students received a bag with eight “perugini” coins of the Umbra Institute’s currency which worked as points. They kept these perugini with them while participating in Perugia for two days and on the program’s excursion to Tarquinia and Tuscania with their Italian professors.  If they spoke in English, a peer could take a perugino; in this way, points traded hands over the course of the game. 

The three final winners who ended with the most points will be announced at the program’s last dinner, and honor and prizes will be handed out. Congratulations to the Intensive Italian students! 

Eight students from Creighton University, accompanied by professors Maria Teresa Maenza-Vanderboegh and Gregory Bucher, are in Perugia for one week of “Food and Sustainability Studies” at the Umbra Institute. Students are studying the history and culture of food in Italy through direct involvement with producers and food experts in Perugia.

The students visited Agriturismo Le Due Torri, near Spello. Next to an agriturismo, it is also an organic and biodynamic farm.

“Today was very interesting to me because I’ve never heard of biodynamic farming before, but I’m interested in a holistic approach to life and food. It was amazing to see the difference that it made in the barn. I’ve been around a lot of cattle, but the barn here smelled wonderful. I couldn’t believe it, the cattle must be very healthy. The idea that farming is about life and not only machines resonated with me as well. I also find the culture of hospitality to be wonderful. It’s so relaxing to just sit and chat with producers, I learned much more about people than I would have otherwise. The respect everyone has for tradition and history is ever present. It’s such a different environment from the US. Perugia is also the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen.”

– Tessa Fulmer 

Alissa Foster, who is currently taking the History and Culture of Food in Italy class, recently visited the covered market of Perugia together with her classmates. The field lecture was led by prof. Elisa Ascione. 

“It was very interesting visiting the covered market of Perugia and getting an opportunity to see the current state, and hear its rich history, evolution, and future. Interacting with some of the owners and hearing snippets of their stories gave me a real insight into how vital this market was, and is, to their livelihoods. An elderly woman shopping at the meat counter told us of a different time in the past when there were many more market stands that had to compete with each other for business. Now there is a stillness to the market. This is a liminal period foreshadowing a large-scale renovation plan that will forever change the way of life surrounding the marketplace. Modernity will replace antiquity. While some may view this as a positive transition, some stand owners and market goers will miss the traditions that exist in such a vital place to the community. The history of the market is so rich, and will hopefully be preserved in the future changes.”

– Alissa Foster 

Umbra’s Fresco Painting class has ventured outside of their studio! For a few weeks now, Perugia’s inhabitants have been admiring a new fresco painting on one of Borgo Bello’s walls in Via Fiorenzuola. 

This fresco project began at the request of a neighborhood organization called “quartiere Borgo Bello” and Umbra’s Urban Spaces professor Ray Lorenzo. The fresco adds to the atmosphere of the Urban Spaces students’ OrtoBello – the first urban garden of Perugia.

Fresco professor and artist William Pettit and five students from the course volunteered their artistic labors for three days to bring a fresco to light which they hope will endure for two thousand more years. They used slaked lime, marble dust, and river sand, and the finished painting depicts the keys of Saint Peter, the neighborhood’s symbol. The Latin text inscribed above the fresco can be translated as: “Communities that plant together, stay together.” 

Pictures: Molly Davis

What is the difference between a caffè macchiato and a latte macchiato, and why do you get funny looks from the waiter when you order a moka at an Italian bar? The Umbra Summer Food Studies students discovered the answers to these questions during the Coffee Workshop, led by Zachary Nowak. Coffee is a big part of Italian culture, and a basic knowledge of the coffee etiquette helps you blend in easily. 

After learning about the history and the different types of Italy’s favorite beverage, the students were offered the chance to expand their palates.  At the end of the workshop, they witnessed a demonstration on how to make a cappuccino. 

Bye bye American drip, hello delicious homemade cappuccino! 

Professor John C. Hartsock’s course, JCFS 380 Wine Journalism: Telling Stories of Wine, explores the history, tasting, production, sustainability and journalism of wine. The visiting SUNY Cortland professor and wine author started the summer session off right by taking students to a wine-tasting at Énonè.

Students were introduced to the basics of wine with the help of the local enoteca’s owner Flaviano and sommelier Silvia Bartolini (as well as Flaviano’s infant son, the “true owner”). The three experts filled the young wine journalists’ minds and palates with the wisdom necessary to have a cultured summer of writing about Italian wine.

The students tasted three carefully selected local wines (a prosecco, a white, and a red) through a process of visual, olfactory and gustatory examinations. These wines were paired expertly with a delicious plate of Italian appetizers. Students also learned the proper glasses for specific types of alcohol, and were educated on local drinking customs and liquors.

 Some lucky students even had the opportunity to try being a sommelier. Though they discovered that it is more difficult than it seems to open a bottle artfully, they are certain to improve.