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News and Blog

In a riff on the traditional “open cellars” celebrations, Umbrian olive oil producers will be opening up their workshops for tastings the weekend of the 7th-8th of November. The “open cellars” weekends started as a marketing technique of the wine business and quickly became a traditional Fall activity for many Italians. Olive oil, Italy’s green gold, has picked up on the idea.

 

As in the past, visitors to the region over this particular weekend in November will be able to taste Umbria’s extraordinary wealth of different and much-prized olive oils and take part in the many other promotional events scheduled, both directly at specially opened olive presses and in the main olive oil producing towns. Some of the highlights will be in nearby Spello, which is considered by many to produce the best oil in the region. For more details, click here. MMMMMMmmmmmm!


Mid-terms are over (hooray!) and students are cashing in their hard earned reward–a week off for Fall Break. Some students will spend it with their visiting families while others will travel around Europe. Paris to Prague, Alicante to Amsterdam, Umbra students will be dispersed all across the continent! Happy and safe travels to all! Buona vacanza!

A new study has shown that the combination of lactose in milk and the gluten-chocolate complex in chocolate chip cookies produces a synergistic reaction which increases brainpower and raises concentration levels more than 23%. Nope, we’re just kidding, actually, but we’re putting out milk and cookies here in the library today anyway. This coming week the students have midterms so we thought we’d make it just a little bit easier for them.

Last night was the last in a series of different workshops offered to Umbra students. Umbra students partook in a Pizza Workshop at local pizzeria Pizza e Musica. Students learned from owner, Felice, what goes into making the pizza dough, how to successfully create pizza’s circular form, how to top

 the pizza and then… how to put the pizza in the oven and rotate it without burning. Everyone was successful and the enjoyed a slice of each pizza made. Just when they thought they couldn’t eat any more, we sat down for another pizza (of our choice) made by masterpizziaolo, Marco.

(At left, Ian Glass from UC Boulder puts his pizza in the oven to cook, at right, Elizabeth Miller, also a UC Boulder student, poses with pizziaolo, Marco and her pizza)

 
 

Last Friday, Professor Bill Pettit took students from Umbra’s Fresco Painting courses out of the studio and down to Rome on search of inspiration from antiquity. Students started out at the Basilica of San Clemente where they saw the evolution of mosaics and fresco painting from pagan times through Christianity and the Byzantine empire. After a stop at Santi Quattro Coronati, students visited the Scuderia at the Quirinale to see the exhibition running only through January, Rome: The Painting of an Empire. Students gained a new level of appreciation for frescos from antiquity, which were not only produced for their beauty but also as a practical mode of communication and story-telling during the Golden Age of the Roman Empire.

The first shops have already been set up in Corso Vannucci and the three piazzas that will host this year’s edition of the Eurochocolate Festival. Starting this coming Friday the festival kicks off, with a melee of chocolate crunching and munching (and a little drinking, with hot chocolate) and hundreds of thousands of

 tourists during the nine-day event. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, and a whole lot of cocoa! The festival’s location is a nod to Perugia’s sweet past, as it was the (and still is) the home of the Perugina, the world-famous chocolate company that makes the “bacio” sweets. Hopefully Umbra students will have the opportunity to pop out and get some a piece of the chocolate sculptures to help them study for midterms!

The Hotel Club Travel Blog, a subsidiary of the popular online travel engine Orbitz, has named Perugia the number 2 top European travel destination for the fall! First and foremost the blog mentioned the upcoming EuroChocolate festival, during which Perugia is completely taken over by chocolate in all its delectable forms. Described as a “well preserved medievel town” and “a major academic center,” the writers call Perugia “one of the most welcoming places in Italy.” Che onore!
Other places included in the top five fall destinations for their fabulous weather and local festivals are Parma, Italy; Sitges, Spain; Galway, Ireland; and the Beaujolais region in France. 
 

Last night students gathered for the bi-monthly pizza night on Umbra. It was held at local pizzeria, Il Paiolo, where they make pizza the traditional way–cooked to delicious perfection in a wood-burning oven. 

Pizza night is a chance for students to gather as a group every two weeks and share their experience abroad with other students, talk about their classes, travel plans and maybe even make a new friend.

Thanks to everyone for a great night!

Where does the name “mokka” come from, and what does it mean in Italian? Until what time can you drink a cappuccino in Italy without Italians finding it strange? Who drinks caffe’ in vetro? These were some of the themes of yesterday’s Coffee Workshop, one of a series of workshops sponsored by the Umbra Institute not only to give students hands- (and mouths-) on experience with various Italian foods, but also to teach their “cultural significance.” And heck, who doesn’t like a good cup o’ Joe? The workshops continue next week with cheese!

 


This month’s winner of Photo of the Month is Elisa Richardson from Depauw University. Elisa’s photo is entitled “Rocca Contra il Mare.” She will enjoy a free meal from Quattro Passi Pizzeria.