News and Blog

The Spring 2007 semester is underway! Students from colleges and universities from across the United States arrived last week. Since their arrival students have been attending orientation sessions, acclimating themselves to life in one of Italy’s greatest cities, and preparing for a semester of coursework. Today, students began a week-long period of intensive Italian language courses. Italian courses will continue throughout the semester but this intensive program was created to help students in the first few weeks of living in Perugia.

After this week of intensive language courses, students will attend courses as part of the General Studies Program at Umbra while others will take advantage of Umbra’s Full Immersion program. For more information on the academic offerings at Umbra, please visit our website: www.umbra.org.

In photos: a group photo of the Spring 2007 class on the steps of Perugia’s duomo; students follow a local guide on a practical walking tour of the city to acclimate them to the city of Perugia.

We’ve always said that Perugia, known as Italy’s “university town,” is an eclectic and cosmopolitan city – and offers a great home for students wishing to study abroad in Italy.

But we’re not the only ones saying this! The recent release of MTV’s guidebook for travelers and students abroad gives Perugia some high honors. MTV Italy calls Perugia one of the “Best College Towns,” citing the “young, international vibe that reigns on the medieval streets of Perugia.”

In addition to that accolade, a Perugia landmark was included among the “Best Piazzas for Hanging Out.” Sure, everyone heads to St. Mark’s square in Venice, the Campo de Fiori in Rome, but MTV has included Perugia’s Piazza IV Novembre among the best places to observe Italian life.

“Perugia is a wonderful little world where cultures and countries collide and coexist in an enchanting city whose roots go back to Etruscan times.” We agree – and the city of Perugia provides the perfect backdrop to a semester of immersion into Italian culture.

To learn more about studying at the Umbra Institute in Perugia, visit our website or email us for more information, [email protected].

In photo, Italians relax on the steps leading to Perugia’s duomo, facing Piazza IV Novembre. Le scalette, as Perugians refer to them, are a central meeting point for students.

Every semester Umbra students protest that they have no talents, and yet every semester we of the staff are shocked at just how gifted they are. Last Thursday’s Spettacolo di Fine Corso (End of Semester Show, the talent show) was no different. Leading off the bill were Jen Dirviankis and Richella Hankins; the latter sang “The Light in the Piazza” while the former provided a beautiful musical accompaniment on the piano. After that was a riotous dance that had students cheering, featuring Jen Cacace, Caroline Hughes, Sam Patalano, and Mallory Miller. John Turns, Umbra’s own Eddie Vedder, was up next and wowed the crowd as he belted out a love song medley. Turns was followed by Melissa Smith Mallery, Lizzie Raymer, and Julia Behar, who sang a song to one of the friends they had made during the program.

The show wound up with some more institutional “acts,” which included awards for students in the Italian classes, as well as some staff-awarded “superlatives.” The show closed with a lively round of “Mauro The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” lead by staff member Mauro Renna (whose last name means “reindeer” in Italian).

Yesterday evening, December 5th, was the Umbra Institute’s thrice-annual Student Art Exposition. Refreshments were served while student artists talked about their pieces with other students, faculty, staff and (a pleasant surprise!) a respectable number of visitors from the community.
One room was dedicated to photography where the students explained the variety of techniques they had learned this semester (contact printing, sepia toning, hand-coloring).
The other large aula, on the other hand, was dedicated to painting and drawing, and had the standard still-lifes as well as a number of landscapes and other Perugia scenes. There was the cheery atmosphere of a Parisian vernissage inside, a perfect end to an enjoyable and artistic semester.

Paintings of Italian landscapes, of raw meat, and of abstractions; poems of love lost and laughs had; songs about living on Venus and cold beer at five; homemade wine and an olive orchard in the backyard. It’s Umbra Institute’s own Bill Pettit. Professor Pettit is known here in Perugia as the affable and patient painting and drawing teacher who spends long hours with his students in Umbra’s art studio in Via Danzetta. A quick look at Pettit’s website, however, shows that this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

An American living for the last five years in Italy, Pettit graduated with an MFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art, but after a long period of residences in various artistic locales like New York City, Martha’s Vineyard, and Rome, he has now settled in a small town in the north of the region of Lazio, just across the border with Umbria. Bill has been a professor with Umbra for the last six years, teaching at various times both drawing and photography in addition to painting. While he’s having an opening next month at a prestigious Parisian (Parisian, not Perugian!) gallery, Pettit’s latest accolade is becoming a father – congratulazioni e auguri!

Today I had one of the best experiences of my Italian adventure. We didn’t take a train anywhere. In fact, our destination was about a twenty minute walk from our school. There were no famous pieces of art or history where we ended up. It was an Italian elementary school, where we had an hour to observe and talk to the students.

I love working with kids. I did a bit of student teaching fall semester last year in a kindergarten classroom, volunteered in a third grade room all last year, and spent last May in Chicago in a high school. (Not to mention working with children all summer long at camp!) Needless to say, I was really missing that part of my life over here.

However, this morning we had the opportunity to go in to talk to third graders about schools in America and ask them questions about their own. Talk about overwhelming! Kids at that age are stressful enough. Add in the fact that they’re talking a mile a minute in a language you’re far from fluent in and that discipline is FAR more lax in Italy…all six of us were immediately wondering what our professor had gotten us into as soon as we arrived. But as we stood there in the doorway, debating what in the world to do, all of the kids turned around and greeted us, with huge smiles, “GOOD MORNING!” It was adorable.

We situated ourselves in front of the class, and the teacher, who spoke a fair amount of English, explained that they wanted to introduce themselves. So they went around the room, saying their names, then, with a slightly hesitant (but excited) glance at each other, all chimed out at the same time, “What’s YOUR name?” It was obvious they had been taught a few key phrases before we arrived and were eager to try them out with REAL Americans.

The six of us introduced ourselves and then performed a short skit demonstrating a typical day in an American elementary school. Our plan was then to ask if the students had any questions, have the “maestra” translate, and then ask the question back to get an idea about the Italian school day. However, as soon as we had finished, about five hands shot up and waved eagerly in our faces, another handful of kids simply started shouting out questions, and yet another bunch jumped out of their seats to go talk to a friend across the room or come right up to us with their question. We quickly looked at the teacher, who looked completely nonplussed by the behavior, and nodded at us to go walk around the room to talk to individuals. I’m sure it was the most amusing thing in the world for these nine year olds to hear students in their 20s stumbling over asking basic questions in Italian like, “How do you get to school?” They were absolutely adorable though, and completely in awe of us and everything we said or did.

After our skit, the students were so excited; they wanted to put on their OWN skit for us about their own school day. So they did just that.

The kids were incredibly animated. The stereotype that Italians are overly enthusiastic when it comes to gesturing and using their hands while talking is completely true–even in children. When the teacher explained we would be doing a skit, one little boy, Filippo, clapped his hands together and shouted, “Oh, BELLO!” When we finished, he kissed his fingers dramatically and cried out, “Elision, bellissimo!”

Our hour flew by, much to our disappointment. We all wanted to stay for much longer. The teacher told us that the class is putting on a school play in December and we’re invited. We can’t wait. As we waved ciao to the class, they all eagerly called out “goodbye!” to us. Is there really any better way to start a day? I didn’t think so.

Chocolate lovers from all over Italy and Europe descended on Perugia this weekend as the thirteenth annual Eurochocolate festival began on Saturday. Eurochocolate is a ten day chocolate festival where vendors from all over Europe exhibit their newest chocolate creations as well as classic favorites. Many companies from Switzerland and Holland as well as local companies such as Perugina and Augusta Perusia display their chocolates as tens of thousands of people crowd the center.

Exhibits include chocolate sculptures, a six-foot wall made of chocolate, as well as panels and discussions with chocolate makers. Perugina unveiled their new Bacio chocolate, flavored with cherry to go along with their classic hazelnut flavored Bacio. Needless to say, students are enjoying hot chocolate, churros con cioccolato, even chocolate with Habanero peppers.