News and Blog – Page 79 – DEV – The Umbra Institute – Study Abroad in Italy

While most often associated with Florence, the city at the center of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci spent 17 years early in his career working for the Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. This past weekend Umbra Students taking the Special Topics in Art History: Leonardo Da Vinci course left Perugia for a field trip to see some of da Vinci’s most celebrated works in Italy. When Da Vinci left Florence in 1482 to go to Milan, he left behind his unfinished first commission, the Adoration of the Magi. Students visited the Uffizi Gallery in Florence Friday to see this piece, and then hopped back on the bus for a sunset drive past the rolling landscapes of Italy’s breadbasket, the Po River Valley. First thing Saturday morning, students had a chance to see one of da Vinci’s most precious works, the Last Supper at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

As one of the great innovators of his time, da Vinci had a habit of constantly inventing and trying out new methods for fresco painting. Unfortunately, the technique da Vinci used to paint the Last Supper for his patron Duke Ludovico Sforza was not one of his great successes, and the fresco has undergone numerous restorations over the years in an effort to preserve what little remains. Visitors may only enter in groups of 15 at a time, and must enter the room through a serious of vaccuum-sealed glass doorways to maintain a precise level of humidity in the former dining room of the convent. Despite the tight security, the Last Supper remains a truly impressive piece, and students all agreed it was worth the early wake-up on a Saturday morning.

After leaving Santa Maria delle Grazie, the class spent the rest of the first day of spring under a perfect sunny sky day taking in the Milan Cathedral, the Sforza Castle, and the first gorgeous day of spring in Milan.

Da Vinci students posing with Professor Adrian Hoch in front of the fountain at the Sforza Castle in Milan.

Louis Daguerre announced the perfection of the “daguerreotype,” the first photograph, on 7 January 1839, and as he recounted the procedure, notes about it were relayed by people in the hall of the French Academy of Sciences to those outside and people were making their own daguerrotypes by that night. For years the Umbra Institute had its own darkroom in Via Danzetta, where students would transfer photographic paper from one tray of chemicals to another, in a process not too radically different from Daguerre’s.

But the Millenium and its technological wonders have caught up with this. The daguerrotype gave way to the cyanotype, the cyanotype was replaced the wet plate process, and in 1884 George Eastman (the founder of Kodak), developed film…and that’s where we’ve been ever since. Until Fall 2008, when the Umbra Institute made the switch to digital photography. Professor Philippa Stannard now teaches two courses, beginner and advanced, and instead of dodging and burning under an enlarger, students use these tools in Photoshop. The result? We think you’ll agree that it’s spectacular.

1. Louis Daguerre 1844. 2. “Boulevard du Temple”, taken by Daguerre in late 1838 in Paris, was the first photograph of a person. The image shows a busy street, but because exposure time was over ten minutes, the traffic was moving too much to appear. The exception is the man at the bottom left, who stood still getting his boots polished long enough to show. 3. “Untitled” photo by Umbra Alumni Jennifer Dirvianskis.

The Steps. Even in Italian, a language hesitant to capitalize anything but the first letter of the first proper noun in a long name (e.g. “A farewell to arms” instead of “A Farewell To Arms”), you can hear that capital S. The capital S in “le Scalette,” the Steps…which mean the beautiful steps on the long side of Perugia’s cathedral that faces the piazza. During the winter the Steps are mostly empty but like the wild asparagus popping up all over Umbria, people were popping up on the Steps this weekend. Spring has arrived in Umbria and clear skies and mild temperatures filled up Perugia’s outdoor living room, Piazza IV Novembre.

“Perugia doesn’t have the sea. But the Steps are Perugia’s beach, and the people in the piazza, the waves.” An old Perugian cobbler once whispered that, as if it were a secret. The cathedral’s Steps are the city’s social center, the fulcrum around which the city rotates. If you sit there long enough, the Perugians say, you’ll see everyone you know. Umbra students may not see everyone they know if they sit out there, but they did sit and chat with Italian friends this weekend. And that’s exactly what we’re shooting for, getting more into Italian life. A presto!

Last week Mary Danahy, Linda Moore, and Bethany O’Connell took a mini-bus down to the Perugia airport (one terminal, two check-in desks) and flew to London’s Stanstead airport (three terminals, about seventy check-in desks). Like Grand Tourists of centuries past, the ladies saw all there was to see: Big Ben, the London Eye, the Big Red Bus tour, and of course some of the City’s best pubs and best fish and chips. Yum. But that happy journey had to come to an end and, like all the rest of the Umbra Institute’s students, they have come back to Perugia to hit the books again. A consolation, though, is that the chilly weather has broken and Spring, if not quite upon us, seems around the corner. Sunny days on the cathedral’s Steps aren’t too far away!

Congratulations to Christine Mallia from Elon University for her photo of “Love Locks.” Christine will enjoy a free meal from Quattro Passi Pizzeria. Auguri!

As tired eyes and sore feet descend back “home” to Perugia, stories fill small Italian kitchens over boiling pots of pasta. Umbra Institute’s Spring Break 2009 has come and gone, leaving little undiscovered and even smaller amounts in our bank accounts [eek!].

We ventured everywhere, you name it, we saw it – London, Paris, Dublin, Croatia, Istanbul, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Sicily, Greece, Portugal, and our beloved Italy…. but aside from all the adventures [and the list above just touches the surface] what we gained was more than cultural experience and a new found appreciation for a decent cheap hostel, what we found most was in ourselves.

If Spring Break was anything it was a wakeup call in the best way possible. WAKE UP EVERYONE! This experience is half way over, its funny – I feel like just yesterday all of us were bleary eyed and overly sensitive barely uttering things like “ciao.” Now, not a day passes where I don’t see Umbra students fully immersed in true Perugian culture- lunch on the steps, strolling at night, cappuccino’s and conversation with locals, and no one is still wondering if this whole “la pausa” thing is a joke. We’ve acclimated and learned, taught one another and more importantly allowed Italy to change each of us.

Half way there, after this week it’ll be officially more than half, while some may be eager to head home and see loved ones, I know that undoubtedly most of us will be sad to say goodbye to the city that we fell in love with, the country that stole our hearts, and the continent that changed us.

We’ve made new friends, been new places, spoken new languages, and done things that most will never be able to say they had the opportunity to try – and while ‘half way there’ may surprise you, above all else I hope it wakes you up tomorrow morning with a little pep in your step, a little bit more Italian accent in your voice, because after all… the Italian compositions, business presentations, the papers and flashcards won’t be what we remember most, what we remember most about what we learn, is how we learned it, used it, and ultimately – where it all happened.

So make the most of your final weeks in Perugia everyone, and to our loved one’s back home- we miss you, but we will always have you – we won’t always have Perugia.

Written by Kalin Franks of Columbia College in Chicago

With mid-terms coming to an end, (HOORAY!) and spring break fast approaching (HIP-HIP HOORAY!) we know that many of you Umbra students will leave your text books behind for the week and head out of Italy on an adventure across Europe.

As you’ve probably already had the opportunity to experience this semester, Italy’s central European location makes jetting off to popular destinations like Paris and Prague pretty easy. From Perugia, you’ll take a two-hour bus or train ride to Rome where you’ll hop on a low-cost airline which will take you to your chosen destination.

Depending on where you’re going, you’ll probably experience even more means of transportation once you arrive. If you’re going to Paris, you’ll hop on the metro. If you’re in London, you’ll “mind the gap” and get on the tube. If you’re going to be in Amsterdam, you’ll see that bicycles are a popular choice for getting around. And if you go to Greece or Croatia, you’ve probably got a few ferries to catch.

Wherever this break may take you, from Croatia or the Canary Islands, happy trails and safe travel to you!

Thursday night, after a long day of Italian mid-terms, seventeen Umbra Students (as well as two staff members, Paul Schiller and Zach Nowak) headed to the soothing waters of the hot springs in San Casciano. The event was just what the doctor ordered after the stress of studying and bitter cold weather (not to mention snow) in Perugia, the relaxing hours in the hot thermals was the reward for the student’s hard work and definitely the week’s high point. The hot springs, nestled in a valley below the medieval town of San Casciano, are free and open to the public. The hot water bubbles up and is channeled into two large pools where bathers can sit back, relax, and see all the sky’s stars.

Umbra students are constantly on the move. Visiting cities and sites all over Italy and adventuring through Europe as well. With Spring Break just around the corner, students have already began to get their feet wet by traveling to some popular destinations. Below is an excerpt from Umbra students Erin Costello and Chris Smith about their time spent in London:

If you have at all thought about going to London, we highly recommend it.

We know this is something that’s always said, but there are so many interesting sights in London and there’s something for everyone to do. We saw Big Ben, Parliament, The London Eye, Platform 9 3/4 (oh yes), the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, the Rosetta stone at the British Museum, the Tower Bridge, Kensington Gardens, Notting Hill, and other things that would make this sentence even harder to get through. Oh, we should mention that all of this was for free.

We also ran into a parade complete with children on stilts and double-decker buses filled with elderly ladies from the Red Hat Society. In Notting Hill we came across the most delicious hot chocolate we’ve ever had. One night we were even able to ride the swings in a carnival which we stumbled upon in Covent Garden.

London is a fantastic city to visit. It was amazing to get to see so many things that are so well known throughout the world.

Text and photos contributed by Erin Costello and Chris Smith of Northeastern University.

Do you have what it takes to throw a pizza into a 400°C oven, spin it three times without burning it, then setting it, with the end of a long pole, perfectly in the center of a plate? That was the test that Umbra students were set to yesterday at a local pizzeria. The students were participating in the Umbra Institute’s pizza workshop, one in a series that includes cheese, coffee, and bread. Where does pizza come from? Why is a Margherita called a Margherita, and what does it have to do with Italian nationalism? And how long does a pizza have to cook before it’s ready? That and other questions were answered last night, and some students even got the chance to roll out pizzas with master pizzaiolo (pizza maker) David. The workshop will repeat in two weeks (signups in Bartolo with Zach and Paul).