News and Blog – Page 55 – DEV – The Umbra Institute – Study Abroad in Italy

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…)

Umbra Professor Antonella Valoroso went on Rai3’s well-known Italian radio show Voci della Città (Voices of the City) recently to speak about The Umbra Institute’s very own “Progetto famiglia italiana.” This experiential learning project, which allows Umbra students to make short, repeated visits to Italian households to provide material for cultural comparisons, has also given Prof. Valoroso a unique perspective into her own culture. She specifically cites a study done by New York Magazine showing that 85% of Italian men didn’t know how to use a washing machine, whereas the vast majority of American teenagers are all too familiar with them.

The Progetto famiglia italiana is an optional experiential learning component of Professor Valoroso’s normal course, Contemporary Italy: Culture, Society, and Trends. The project, which has been running for four years now, is a small part of The Umbra Institute’s larger community engagement plan, which also includes internships, service learning projects, and volunteer opportunities.

You can also hear the interview (only available in Italian) on the Rai website.

Yesterday was Halloween in Perugia, and here, as all over Italy, a small number of children spent the afternoon and the early evening running around in costume looking for candy. Dolcetto o scherzetto! “Trick or treat!” While the holiday is still largely promoted by the costume industry here, the “American” (actually Irish) holiday has taken root perhaps because of the decades of movies showing this October 31st event.

Umbra students wore their hearts on their sleeves, literally, as they dressed up for Halloween. Part of the festivities too was carving a jack-o-lantern for the school’s window. Italians were generally quite curious about the holiday, which comes just before Tutti santi, or All Saint’s Day, when up and down the peninsula people go to cemeteries to place flowers. The connections to the American festival are obvious, but an interesting post from a Tuscan blog writers gives some of the history behind them.

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.