Remembering The Sights & Sounds of Spoleto

Close your eyes and imagine that you’re sitting at one of the tables at the “Bar degli artisti.” How many times did you sit there during your stay in Spoleto either working on your computer or having breakfast, sipping a cup of coffee or having a fun conversation with your friends!? Do you remember what was all around you? The beautiful fountain source of fresh water both for thirsty tourists and clouds of pigeons alike. In the morning the vegetable vendors with their little truck filled with luscious fresh tomatoes, peaches, plums. Then the tens of restaurants, pizzerias and bars that have come to crown the entire piazza with their little tables and their wooden chairs. Finally, the noise of the people” living” in the piazza: the usual group of older men who would arrive early in the morning and leave only at lunch time, spending their morning discussing soccer, politics, and gossiping. The ladies with their shopping bags running from one store to the other. The kids running after each other, riding their bikes and filling their mouths with a piece of pastry or some ice cream. Well, everything is still there…with the exception of the people.

The beauty of the place is still stunning, the shining sunlight still covers a golden patina on all of those beautiful buildings. However, the noise is gone and so is the energy, the vitality that was so much a part of the landscape. It reminds me of one of those Renaissance paintings depicting the ”ideal city” - beautiful streets, gorgeous squares, fantastic buildings, but everything empty, muted, silenced by the luck of ordinary life.

What is happening in Piazza del Mercato is no different than what is happening all over town. Piazza Duomo is empty, the Corso has seen more and more shops close because there is no business and lastly the increasing amount of families who now have a terrible time putting food on their table.

Still there is hope. Italian people are resilient and in this case, they have behaved really well. After the initial shock they have observed the “lockdown religiously” and with humor and now there is a general feeling that life is slowly coming back to some sense of normality.

Our biggest surprise was visiting the convent. No students, no pilgrims, no visitors. Just the two Philippine nuns and the “eternal” Suor Chiara. But the garden….! Not having anything else to do besides praying, the nuns dedicated all their free time to their garden! Melons, flowers, lettuce, grapes, it is stunning! A speck of light in a world of grayness and frustration.

Convent Garden

Spoleto Study Abroad is eager to once again share the beauty of central Italy through an immersive experience for students of all ages as soon as it is safe to do so. We cannot wait for you to help fill the streets with life again!

- Lorenzo

Wish you were here!

An update from the streets of Spoleto in the time of COVID-19

For 23 summers, high school students from around the world have filled Spoleto’s streets during our Spoleto Study Abroad program. This summer, for the first time since our start, the streets are a bit quieter.

On one hand, it’s a rare blessing to be able to walk through the once busy tourist attractions and enjoy the art and history without the crowds. But on the other hand, the silence is loud. It’s hard not to acknowledge that many small family-owned businesses that are the life and character of our town have been hit the hardest from the COVID-19 pandemic and have closed their doors for good. Many families now struggle to buy food to last them through the end of the week, and our hearts hurt for them as we seek ways we can help out.

Walking the familiar cobblestones through the Piazza Mercato, passing the bars and gelaterias, life here feels somewhat “normal.” Little by little businesses here have opened their doors and locals have started to get back to their day to day, now with a common accessory - the face mask. The beauty in the landscape here is still as breathtaking as ever. We wish you were here to see it!

As the country that was seen to be hit the hardest at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Italians are showing us a glimmer of hope that we can all breathe a breath of fresh air soon. Life is slowly moving toward a new normal here and it leaves us with a sense that we will all get through this.

We are sad you couldn’t join us this summer, and we cannot wait for the day you can travel to Spoleto once again. As you continue to navigate these strange times, we’ll leave you with these charges to reconnect with yourself, your surroundings and take in the beauty in this world, despite the trying circumstances. 

1. Put your phone and devices away for the day and see where your mind takes you. To disconnect from technology is to allow yourself the space to observe yourself and the world around you. Give yourself the time to lean into the new headspace and creativity that can come from disconnecting.

2. Sit outside and look closely at the tiny details that surround you. Change your perspective and observe the bugs working in the grass below. Sit in a hammock and watch the birds flying above. Listen to the wind blow through the trees. Just stop and observe how we are all connected to the world around us and take in the natural beauty right outside your door.

3. Breathe. The busy world has slowed down a lot these days because of the pandemic, but the chaos can still be there in our minds and in our bodies. Take a few minutes to breathe deeply with your eyes closed, fill your lungs with fresh life, let out the rest, and repeat.

4. Create! Whether you are a painter, singer, photographer or just someone interested in any art form, give yourself time and space to play, practice and create just for the fun of it. Creativity does wonders for the human spirit.

5. Daydream about your study abroad experience in Spoleto with us. Follow us on social media as we bring some of the sights and sounds to you since you can’t be here in person just yet. 

We wish you all good health as we make our way to the new normal everywhere, and we can’t wait to see you in Spoleto again soon!

A presto!
Jill & Lorenzo Muti

---

““If the sight of the blue sky fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive” ”

— Eleanora Duse

Final Day!

Saturday, we had a full day of culminating performances for each of the respective artistic areas. We began with voice and strings in the morning at the chapel, continued with photography and visual art in the afternoon at the school, and creative writing at Palazzo Leti. It was so wonderful for everyone to get to hear and see all of the different pieces and elements of the program that the students have been working on throughout these past few weeks!

It was sad to see them go so early this morning, but safe travels to all!!

Grazie mille.

Spotlight: Music

Our Spoleto Study Abroad music students enjoying the view from Monteluco before an evening concert for a very appreciative crowd, where the choir sang “Va, pensiero” from Verdi’s opera Nabucco.

This coming Saturday marks the culmination of three weeks of preparation: the final concert! Ainslee and Sarah have shown remarkable dedication to their craft, and both have achieved significant milestones in their playing. The students will be playing movements of their solo concerti, along with a selection of chamber pieces. It will be a thrilling performance. Bravi tutti!

Our Spoleto Study Abroad choir made huge strides this week. Singing in a small choir is an incredibly daunting task, because the singers feel much more exposed than they would in a large choir. Each musician is critical to the learning process and the group sound as a whole. The choir has learned some difficult and widely-varied repertoire in a short amount of time, and their group sound and confidence has developed dramatically during this final week.

In the final week, the voice students moved into the polishing phase with their repertoire. Although they continued to have some one-on-one lessons with Terry and Laura, they spent much more of their time together performing for one another. It has been wonderful to watch the opera and musical theater scenes come to life this week, from the early stages of trying to remember words, notes, and blocking to the final stages of fully embodying the different characters and connecting with their duet partners. Today’s dress rehearsal bodes well for a beautiful final performance tomorrow morning.

Creative Writing Blog

Since last week’s update, the creative writing students have focused their energy on their final

projects. First drafts were due early this week, and students will spend much of their remaining

time producing a heavily revised second draft.

The title of Friday morning’s essay brilliantly sums up the excruciatingly difficult but necessary

nature of revision: Surgery without Anesthesia. We spoke about the need to put aside one’s ego

in order to revise effectively, to let go of our attachments to our original ideas so that new,

exciting and surprising ideas can present themselves in the next draft. We discussed the necessity

of time, something we have so little of now in Spoleto, and the usefulness of workshop in

gaining an objective perspective on one’s own writing. To illustrate these points, we read two

versions of what is essentially the same story at its core: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birthmark,

and Miranda July’s contemporary remix simply titled Birthmark. 150+ years separate the

publications of these two stories, as well as a mountain of personal, generational and cultural

differences.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week we workshopped each other’s drafts as a group. The

workshop environment is crucial not only for the external feedback the students receive, but also

for the practice students obtain in turning a writer’s critical eye toward works-in-progress. The

hope is that with enough of this practice, students will then be ready to turn that same objective,

critical eye toward their own work during revision.

Today students are once again meeting with me individually to discuss their second drafts, and

tomorrow we’ll be wrapping everything up in anticipation of Saturday’s final reading.

To Mai Ly, Maddie, Drew, Ruby, Wickie, Sasha, Riley and Leo – thank you for your focus,

effort and participation in class these past 3 weeks. It’s been an absolute pleasure teaching this

group, and I wish everyone the best of luck in their future projects!

- AJ

A Day at the Beach and a Pizza Dinner!

We spent today at the lovely beach club, Rivabella, in San Benedetto del Tronto. Students took advantage of swimming in the beautiful Adriatic Sea, reading under a beach umbrella, eating at the club’s restaurant, playing beach volleyball and ping pong, and soaking up the sun!

From the beach we went directly to Il Caminetto, a pizzeria in the country of Spoleto. We enjoyed an amazing dinner of pizza, french fries, and Nutella!

Students played on trampolines and had balloon sword fights throughout the evening!

Visual Art - Blog 3

Our final week and we are making the most of our time here!

Monday we experimented with egg yolk, using it as medium for pigment in the same way that Giotto painted during the early Renaissance. Students completed a small painting using a clay board panel to absorb and support the paint.

Naomi making her tempera painting! (self-portrait foreground)

Elinka with her small egg tempera painting + starting a new idea working with oil bars

Students have continued to make their painted diaries/ or reflection after each trip. So they each have completed a painting representing, Assisi, Sienna, Tivoli, Orvieto / Todi and Florence.

The class has experienced the issues of working out in the landscape and on site, such as carrying materials, selecting a good spot, setting up the painting or drawing, dealing with the heat, mosquitos, traffic and on lookers!

Landscape painting at Ponte del Torre!

This past week the students have sketched in the streets of Spoleto and on a beautiful Monday evening class time was spent on location, making oil pastels at the Ponte de Torre.

On Thursday we made a visit to the The Museum of Palazzo Collicola Arti Visive, where the visual art students enjoyed viewing The Collection Carandente, which includes Italian and international artists of worldwide fame, such as Calder, Henry Moore and Sol le Witt.

Individual portraits are completed and the students are now focused on their final pieces.

Students are asked to consider all that they are drawn to here in Spoleto, be it urban or landscape and to select their appropriate medium and surface to work on while developing an art piece of personal meaning, representative of their time spent in Spoleto.

They are asked to consider, the development of their individual idea, the medium, composition, use and relationship of color, scale, depth of field (if necessary) and the quality of execution.

Spotlight: Photography

Sara Kerr, Photography Instructor:

“Photographers have had a very busy week!

After working on their street photography assignment (and photographing the market and the street life of Spoleto) they moved on to their next mini-project: portraiture. The portrait project was aimed to get each photographer out of their comfort zone. They had to talk to someone they didn't know in the SSA program and ask them a variety of questions. They then had to make a series of portraits of that person using the rules of composition that we learnt about in class. We talked about cropping, framing and ways to make portraits more interesting. We also finished exploring how to organize and edit photos using Adobe Bridge, Camera Raw and Photoshop.

As if that wasn't enough, photographers had to come up with a pitch for their final portfolio project! They will be asked to make a series of 10-15 images on a topic of their choice. On Friday we had one-on-one meetings about each pitch; the students were given ideas and recommendations about the best way to photograph their final project. Today, photographers have been hard at work shooting and editing in preparation for their final exhibition!

Here are a couple of images from the collection!”

Abby (Portrait)

Grayson (Reflections)

Olivia (Street Life)

Student Focus: Photography and Visual Arts

Due to the rainstorm this morning the weather has really cooled off, making for an enjoyable and relaxing Sunday. Today we are going to focus on the Photography and the Visual Art students and ask them a few questions : 1) What has inspired you in Italy?
2) What artist are you interested in?

3) What has been the most tasty dessert/food you’ve had in Italy?

NAOMI -VISUAL ART

1) What has inspired you in Italy? “The colors and shapes in the environment and how they make you feel”

2) What artist are you interested in right now? “Degas (painter)”

3) Whats your favorite dessert? “Dark chocolate gelato in a cone!”

OLIVIA- Photography

What has inspired you here in Italy? “The Scenery”

What artist are you interested in? “Wes Anderson, movie director.”

Whats your favorite dessert? “Pistachio gelato”

RAUL- VISUAL ART

1) What has inspired you here in Italy? “The Scenery: the Vegetation is lush.”

2) What artist are you interested in right now? “Chuck Close (Painter and drawer- hyper realism)”

3) What’s your favorite dessert? “All flavors of gelato!”

Ellie- Photography

1) What has inspired you in Italy? “The culture. How the Italians eat together and take time to enjoy and appreciate the things around them.”

2) What artist are you interested in? “Joel Meyerowitz - (Street photographer) and Henry Cartier-bresson

3) Whats your favorite dessert? Strawberry Gelato

GRAYSON- PHOTOGRAPHY

1) What has inspired you in Italy? “The Mountains”

2)What artist are you interested in? “Luigi Ghirri”

3) Whats your favorite food/dessert in Italy? “Strawberry and Lemon Gelato”

HOLDEN- holding a redbull! -PHOTOGRAPHY

1) What has inspired you during your trip to Italy? “The interactions between people, the narrow streets, and the walkways.

2) What artist are you interested in at this time? “Erick Rubes and Parker Wallbeck “

3) What has been your favorite food in Italy? “Pizza in Florence”

Elinka- Visual Arts

1) How have you been inspired here in Italy? “The churches and the way the colors accentuate different parts of the portraits.”

2) What artist are you interested in as of now? “Willem Dekooning.”

3) What is your favorite food/pasta here in Italy? “Pizza.”

ABBY- PHOTOGRAPHY
1) What inspires you here in Italy? “The friendly people.”

2) What artist are you interested in right now? “Cartier-bresson”

3) What is your favorite dessert/food in Italy? Nutella and Strawberry Gelato.”

The day was filled with fun and joy. Before dinner we had a thrilling staff performance and after dinner we finished the night with a talent show! Thank you so very much for the staff art performances, it was truly an experience to see the artists glowing and doing passionately the things that they love!

-Brant

Follow Lorenzo to... Firenze!

What a fantastic day in Florence!

Our first stop was the Convent of San Marco, where the preacher Savonarola lived, and where there are many frescos by Fra Angelico. We were even able to see the very small rooms in which the monks lived, as well as a room full of Savonarola’s possessions (clothes, desk, etc.).

After some free time, we headed to Santa Maria Novella, where we saw the Strozzi Chapel, the Tornabuoni Chapel, and Masaccio’s Holy Trinity, which was a masterpiece of perspective, launching us into a new age of art.

Even though we were rained on, Florence’s beauty shone through!

Spotlight: Music

Vocal Music

Terry arrived at the beginning of this week, so the vocal music students have been especially busy this week. On Monday, all of the singers performed a solo piece and their scenes in progress for Terry, which was a great way to check in on their progress thus far. Now, at the end of the second week, all of their music is memorized for scenes, and we’ve added staging to the mix. This week, we really dug into character work, particularly focusing on the word-for-word translations of the Italian texts so that all of the singers are able to express the meanings fully as they perform. We have an absolutely fantastic group of singers this year, and it has been wonderful to observe them working together beautifully in their duet pairings. Each singer brings something unique to their performances, and those unique qualities are then shared with their duet partners, so that each singer is inspired by their partner to stretch in new ways. This evening, two of our singers will present solo pieces in Italian on our student showcase, sharing what they have been working on with students from other disciplines.

This week, all of our musicians had the chance to learn about the history of opera from Lorenzo and continue their movement classes (including a challenging yoga practice Monday morning!). They also continue daily choir rehearsals, and they are beginning to develop a lovely sound as a group. In the first week, we did lots of sight-singing of new pieces, so this second week has involved more polishing work as we prepare for the final performance.

The string players have been spending their second week in Spoleto exploring the many technical aspects of playing, such as standing with healthful posture, addressing tension and how it effects expressivity, and practicing with mindfulness, i.e. maintaining an impartial evaluation of their progress. We have also been working to construct a beneficial practice regimen. Time spent in the practice room is precious and fleeting, and a player must constantly push herself to approach concepts from different angles, in order to avoid mindless repetition. Patience is essential when practicing, as the brain needs time to organize this new information, and pervasive negative criticism will only hinder the process.

We have been considering the idea that the instrument is our means of calling upon our innermost thoughts, and to not shy away from sounds or gestures that are conventionally ugly or distasteful. By embracing the grotesque quality of nature that coexists alongside beauty, we can come to a more complete sense of who we are, and how we can find that identity through music. 

Spotlight: Creative Writing

AJ Fitzgerald, Creative Writing Instructor:

“Since last week’s update, the creative writing students have dived deeper into additional elements of storytelling: namely place, narration and time. On Monday we studied different modes of narration, and the ways in which narrators can be classified beyond the usual categories of first, second or third person. We talked especially about the term aesthetic distance, and how an author can create varying degrees of physical, intellectual, moral, emotional or cultural distance between characters, narrators, readers, and the author’s own crafted persona.

To punctuate this lesson on distance and point of view, the creative writers took a trip up to the Rocca, a medieval fortress that sits upon Spoleto’s highest point. The entire valley is visible in 360 degrees from the foot of the Rocca, and so the students were able to get a unique perspective on the town they’ve called home for the past 2 weeks. Before the end of the lesson I asked students to look west, toward the United States, and reflect upon how distance from home can help develop a fresh perspective on the places most familiar to them.

On Tuesday we studied time: how time gives our stories stakes and therefore meaning, how to effectively characterize the passage of time, and how to juggle multiple timelines in a single story. As an example of artful time management, we read It’s Bad Luck to Die by Elizabeth McCracken, a story that spans a 20+ year marriage from start to finish in only 20 pages.

Today I will be meeting with each student individually to discuss the direction of their final projects. They’ll have through the weekend to produce a rough draft, and while that’s a tight schedule, deadlines are often the student writer’s greatest muse!”

Travel Day to Orvieto!

Change of plans! Originally the plan was to visit Florence, but due to transit trikes we moved the Florence travel day to Saturday and the trip to Orvieto for today. The ancient city of Orvieto is located in the southwest part of Umbria, Italy on the summit of a large volcanic tuff. Like most ancient cities in Italy, Orvieto was built high up on the mountaintops to protect themselves from invaders. So you can imagine the ride up was quite arduous for the bus driver, but it made for a terrific view when we arrived to the top! The first stop was the archeological museum. This museum offers an exhibition of Etruscan pieces, which was an ancient Greek civilization that once lived in this region. Professor Lorenzo walked us around showing various different clay artifacts, statues, and a recreation of an ancient tomb. Really painting a picture of the life in the region before the Romans invaded. After the museum the students took some free time and had the chance to walk around, get gelato, and see the everyday life in Orvieto. The next stop was the cathedral of Orvieto. This was a 14 Century Italian gothic Cathedral dedicated to the assumtion of the Virgin Mary, and known as one of the most important Cathedrals in Central Italy. It is overwhelmingly beautiful, some may say a masterpiece of the post middle ages. It has one of the most magnificent facades in the world, and when you walk inside you are taken over by the vast spacious beauty. Lorenzo walked the students around, explaining the architecture and the biblical stories that were painted on the walls. The trip to Orvieta was wonderful, and after the tour through the Church we made our way back home.

Visual Art - Blog #2

This week visual art students are focused on one of their major projects, the development of their self-portrait drawings and how they see themselves situated in Spoleto. Working in their medium of choice, they are considering composition, personal character, the use of color and it’s meaning, depth of field, and issues of abstraction where appropriate. Raul is working on a realistic portrait using oil on canvas, Naomi is working with pastels for the first time and Orlinka is developing an abstract self-portrait using acrylics and then oils.

During an evening class we also walked around Spoleto stopping at various sites to make on the spot pencil sketches of street or landscape views.

Professor Riding asked Naomi, Raul and Orlinka what they are enjoying in Spoleto.

Naomi

“I am enjoying learning new skills and experimenting with different media.”

Orlinka

“I am enjoying time for thought, away from the chaos of Miami.”

Raul.

“Spoleto is a great environment for visual art.”

Spotlight: Photography

Spotlight: Photography “Street Life”

Sara Kerr, Photography Instructor:

“Photographers have spent the last few lessons learning about the rules of composition and putting these rules to use. Today we started our first big project: street photography. We started with a lecture that covered seminal figures in the history of photography that photographed street life. Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helen Levitt and Paul Strand, to name just a few. We then spent the afternoon practicing. How can we capture a scene, the characters and the dynamic nature of life in a photograph? How do we make sure that the image is also well exposed and well composed? We talked through ways to observe the street and notice the background, middle ground and foreground. And we covered a few tricks for blending in and making photographs in public space. We will continue working on this project in Florence.”