Photography and Fine Arts Intensives Get Going

Day 2 proved to be a banner first “formal” day! Students were refreshed after a good night’s sleep and ready to explore the streets of Spoleto with their instructors and peers. After an al fresco morning breakfast at the convent, students split into small groups and tackled a scavenger hunt in the town. Using their printed maps and “cheat sheet” of Italian phrases, each group ventured forth into town to find iconic locations to help with orientation and to build confidence in preparation for their free time in the city. 

Students on their Spoleto Scavenger Hunt

Students then moved into their respective discipline classes where they used the town as text and sketched and photographed architecture and people, based on what resonated with them. After lunch, students were granted time to explore the city on their own in small groups or relax during siesta. At 5:00, they started their afternoon session. Visual arts students had the privilege of sketching from two live models and exploring interpretations under time constraints. The results were amazing!  

As the afternoon drew to a close, students headed to dinner and then celebrated Sophie’s birthday with signature Italian pastries provided by Mr. and Mrs. Muti. After dinner, students were granted free time in the Mercato for conversation and gelato.  

Favorite Part of the Day:

“My favorite part of the day was playing WhatChaMaDrawIt after art class and seeing everyone’s silly drawings”. 

– Hope Gottschling

“I loved drawing from observation in Spoleto, which is the most beautiful environment”.

– Kendra Johnson

“My favorite part of the day was wandering around and finding the Vicolo Della basilica that inspired me to capture the moment in my sketchbook….then following this by enjoying a gelato!”

– Gabriella D’Aquila

“My favorite part of the day was having the freedom to explore the city and take pictures of the aqueduct”.

– Zach Wood

Let the Student Summer Programs Begin!

After a 2 year hiatus, we are so excited to finally have our students back in Spoleto! The Summer Intensive Program began today, and we’re off to a great start. After arriving in Spoleto students enjoyed a delicious lunch at Hotel Clitunno while getting to know one another.

Once everyone settled into their rooms at the convent, Lorenzo Muti provided a walking tour of Spoleto so everyone could learn their way around town and get to know some of the magnificent points from which they can draw their creative inspiration during their stay. Tomorrow begins the Photography and Visual Arts programming and we are so excited to share what everyone is doing over the course of the next 10 days. For now, everyone is settling in for a well-earned night of sleep!

SSA's Board Journeys to Spoleto

On Monday, June 27, the Spoleto Study Abroad Board convened in Spoleto for a week of strategizing, travel, and cultural immersion. This is the first time in twenty-five years that the SSA Board was able to meet in Spoleto. The Board stayed in Palazzo Leti, a historical residence located in the heart of historic Spoleto and owned by SSA.

The first few days of this week-long Board meeting focused on strategy and discussion, but with time for wandering Spoleto and tasting delicious local foods.

The SSA Board in Palazzo Leti on Day 1

For dinner on Tuesday, the Board visited the Napolini family winery and tasted local Umbrian meats and cheeses. Wednesday saw the group heading to Montefalco for dinner, where SSA Alum and Board member Jonathan Cohen planned and hosted the evening.

Dinner in Montefalco

Come Thursday and Friday, it was time for more hands-on excursions, with truffle hunting in Fontanelle and cheese making in Monteleone. “My perspective on truffles and truffle products has completely changed,” said Board Member Tal Mangum.

(Truffle hunting and cheese making are just a couple of the things our Taste of Umbria students will have the opportunity to do during their 10-day program in a couple of weeks!)

We were thrilled to have our Board together to experience first-hand why Spoleto and SSA are so special.

Porchettiamo!

This week, roughly 40 kilometers northwest of Spoleto, the town of San Terenziano will hold its famous Porchettiamo pork festival. This annual festival celebrates the iconic street food of Central Italy: porchetta. Porchetta is a whole pig stuffed with herbs and slow-roasted in a wood-fired oven. Since Umbria is the largest pork producing region in Italy, nearly every market and festival in Central Italy will have vendors selling porchetta.

Porchetta sandwiches are probably the most popular Central Italian street food

In San Terenziano, their annual Porchettiamo will be held from June 17-19 this year. Porchettiamo means “Let’s eat pork,” so of course, the festival features porchetta in abundance, but also pork-inspired treats and unique craft beers. As the official Porchettiamo website states, “Porchettiamo is more than a festival. It is a real love declaration!”

Since eating copious amounts of pork does not appeal to everyone, there are also alternative events like a “pork-run” 10-kilometer race, concerts, food education workshops for kids, and guided tours of the medieval town of San Terenziano.

Porchetta is a whole pig stuffed with herbs and slow-roasted in a wood-fired oven

If you can’t make it to San Terenziano this weekend for Porchettiamo, don’t worry. Porchetta is popular across Italy, and Italian immigrants brought this delicious meat to the U.S. nearly 100 years ago. So, if you’re lucky, your local Italian sandwich shop might just sell porchetta.

San Pietro extra moenia

Just a quick walk from the Spoleto convent, on the southern edge of the city, lies the Church of San Pietro Extra Moenia, one of Umbria’s most important churches. Built between the 12th and 13th centuries, the church features a façade of Romanesque sculptures, including animals, figures, and reliefs. Some sources say that the church is built on the site of a temple that housed the chains used to bind St. Peter himself. Spoleto Study Abroad students often visit this church, since—along with being a beautiful example of Spoleto’s rich architectural history—it is perfectly situated south of the city to provide breathtaking views looking back up towards the aqueduct and La Rocca in Old Spoleto.

Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy

Thanks to Italy’s diverse and historic food culture, nearly every show about travel and food makes a stop in some part of the country. One highly popular and acclaimed show that is airing right now is Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. Nominated for two Emmys, the series follows Italian-American actor Stanley Tucci as he travels all across Italy, exploring the culture, food, and history of each region. Tucci stops in family kitchens, local hangouts, and Michelin-starred restaurants to get the full picture of Italian cuisine.

Season 1 of this show covered Naples, the Amalfi Coast, Bologna, Milan, Tuscany, Sicily, and Rome. Season 2, which premiered on May 1, has already covered Venice, Piedmont, and Spoleto’s region of Umbria. From unique buckwheat noodles in northern Italy to San Marzano tomatoes from the volcanic soil beneath Mount Vesuvius, Searching for Italy is a foodie’s dream show, combining mouth-watering dishes with a deep exploration of the history and culture that makes Italian food so unique.

Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy airs on CNN every Sunday, and is also available on Hulu, Sling TV, or YouTube TV.

Italian Strawberry Festivals

Did you know Italy is one of the world’s largest exporters of strawberries? All throughout the country, these delicious fruits grown in abundance during late spring and early summer. During this strawberry season, numerous cities and towns hold festivals dedicated to the fruit. Most strawberry festivals take place in late May or early June, and each is unique to its city or region.

The town of Nemi, just southeast of Rome, is considered the strawberry capital of Italy, and it holds the most famous strawberry festival: Sagra delle Fragole. This festival features numerous attractions, including tours, live music, historical costumes, and hundreds of dishes made with strawberries—tarts, jams, ice creams, even pizzas!

Strawberry pizza, with jam instead of tomato sauce

Artichoke and Orange Salad Recipe

The end of spring in Umbria is prime artichoke season, with tender varieties of this vegetable being found all over the region. Locals often thinly slice the artichokes raw and eat them in various fresh, spring salad. While we may not be able to get these exact, soft artichokes here in the U.S. right now, you can still easily make a traditional Umbrian artichoke salad with boiled artichokes. The bright color of the orange and the green of the artichoke make this dish a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach.

Ingredients:

•  4 small artichokes

• Toasted almonds

•  Olive oil

•  2 tsp honey

•  1 orange, peeled and diced

• Juice of 1 lemon

•  Parsley or mint to garnish

• Dark salad greens, like arugula or spinach (optional)

Wash and trim the artichokes, then boil them until tender, roughly 16 minutes. Drain, and discard any of the tougher outer leaves of the artichokes. Roughly chop them, and then combine with the diced orange. Season with salt and pepper. Mix the honey, lemon juice, and about 2 tbsp of olive oil. Drizzle the dressing over the artichokes and oranges (and greens if using), top with toasted almonds and herbs, and enjoy!

Liberation Day

Today, Monday, April 25, is Liberation Day in Italy. Liberation Day is a national holiday to commemorate the victory of the Italian resistance and Allied troops against Nazi occupiers and Mussolini’s Fascist Party during World War II. Every year on this date since 1946—when the day was first recognized—marches and parades have occurred across Italy. Liberation Day’s festivities also involve singing a popular folk song, “Bella Ciao,” which was sung by Italian resistance fighters during the war. Many Italians lay wreaths at various World War II cemeteries across the country to honor all those who died for the country’s freedom, from Allied troops to Italian resistance fighters.

Students Return to Italy with Ashley Hall's Amalthea Program!

After a two-year hiatus, we were finally able to welcome students back to Italy! Twenty-two students from Ashley Hall in Charleston, SC, one of Spoleto Study Abroad's Signature Schools, have just returned home from Spoleto after taking part in the travel component of their Amalthea program. Amalthea is an interdisciplinary program at Ashley Hall open to 8-10th grade students. Over the course of about a year, those accepted research and study an object or place of their choosing to better understand its history, function, and significance. Students could choose anything from a machine from da Vinci to a fresco from the chapel in Orvieto to a Roman monument to natural caves.

At the end of their year of research, students travel to Italy for 10-days, where they use the Palazzo Leti as their home base and travel to each person's selected topic to see it in person. While there, students report their findings to the rest of the group. Upon returning home, the students write a paper and present the culmination of their findings in a science-fair-style presentation to parents back at school. This allows them to hone in on their public speaking skills and answer questions about the topic.

Amalthea is a combination of researching to learn something new, listening to peers, traveling to a new country and culture, and a final project that emphasizes presentation public speaking skills. Ashley Hall's Amalthea program is just one example of how our partner schools are bringing Italy into their humanities programming through a partnership with Spoleto Study Abroad.

The possibilities are endless though. If your school is interested in partnering with Spoleto Study Abroad, learn more about each level of commitment here. We'd love to help you create an ideal program for your students to learn valuable interdisciplinary skills that facilitates intellectual and personal growth and experiential learning.

Holy Week in Italy

With the majority of Italians being Roman Catholic, Holy Week is one of the most important weeks of the year in the country. Beginning with Palm Sunday—on April 10 this year—and concluding with Easter Sunday one week later, Holy Week honors the week leading up to the arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

On Palm Sunday, Italians will often observe or participate in processions that re-enact Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. Many will take palm fronds or olive branches and carry them around, or place them at the entrance to their homes. The Vatican, in particular, draws tens of thousands to its recreation.

The rest of the week often involves numerous church services and many towns and cities have their own special way of honoring Holy Week. Castelsardo in Sardinia, for example, is famous for its Brotherhood of the Holy Cross, a group that dresses in hooded white robes and processes around the town from sunup to sundown on Holy Monday, chanting medieval songs. On Thursday—known as either Holy or Maundy Thursday—church bells are silenced and not rung until Easter Sunday, and many churches recreate the Last Supper through ceremonial foot washing.

Holy Week’s most somber day—recognized as a national holiday—is Good Friday, the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. Churches will cover their crosses with black cloth in a sign of mourning, and many Italians will fast. Many cities reenact the crucifixion, and the Pope himself traditionally leads a somber procession through Rome called the Via Crucis, or Way of the Cross, from the city center to the Colosseum. 

Finally, Holy Week culminates in Easter Sunday, a holiday that is celebrated by both Christian and non-Christian Italians. It is a day of celebration and feasting, often featuring lamb and cookies and cakes in the shape of doves or lambs. Easter eggs are common in Italy as well, sometimes hollow chocolate with toys inside, and sometimes hardboiled and painted vibrant colors. 

Along with Christmas, Easter is the most important and most celebrated holiday in Italy, so if you travel to Italy during Holy Week, be ready to watch Italians go all out in honoring this special time.

Wild Asparagus Foraging

After the long winter months in Italy, countryside trails become filled with hikers, bikers, and foragers in search of wild herbs and vegetables. The most notable and sought-after vegetable for foraging in spring is asparagus. Called sparasine in Italian, wild asparagus has a stronger, more intense taste than its cultivated kin, and can be found all across the country. Though tricky to find at first, sparasine hide under feathery green “mother” bushes, and if foragers keep an eye out for these bushes, they’ll have an easy time finding their quarry.

Wild asparagus, or sparasine, grow beneath feathery green “mother” bushes.

Italians put sparasine into all sorts of spring dishes, including risotto, salad, omlettes and frittatas, and soups. But most importantly, these dishes make the sparasine the star of the show. A simple online search will yield dozens of spring Italian recipes that feature wild asparagus. One recipe we recommend is a simple pasta dish with spaghetti—or Umbrian stringozzi if you have it—and asparagus sauteed in garlic and olive oil, topped with parmesan and lemon zest.

Spring in Italy

Spring has arrived to Spoleto! As March gets into full swing, the temperatures across Umbria start to rise, and the flowers and trees that cover this beautiful region begin to bud and bloom. Many consider spring to be the perfect time to travel to Italy, as tourist crowds are not as big as in the summer, and the weather is more comfortable than in the winter. Spring temperatures hit the high 50s (F) in March, mid-60s in April, and low 70s in May.

An Italian spring is also filled with festivals. From Easter celebrations to flower fairs to Italian Liberation Day to even festivals for asparagus, spring is the perfect time to see Italians do some of what they do best: throw large parties with incredible food!

Spring also means we are just one season away from summer and welcoming our Spoleto Study Abroad students back after two long years. We can’t wait!

If you’d like to plan your spring vacation to Italy, visit our MITCI Adventures website and we can share more about all the amazing activities you can do while you’re there.

Submit Your Spoleto Study Abroad Alumni Stories

Over the next couple of weeks, Spoleto Study Abroad will be surveying alumni and former faculty about their experiences during and post-SSA. If you’re an alum or former faculty, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a moment to answer the following questions. You can send your answers to admin@spoletostudyabroad.org with the subject line “Spoleto Study Abroad Study Stories.”

Question 1:

What is your favorite memory of Spoleto Study Abroad?

Question 2:

What did you enjoy most about working with the faculty?

Question 3:

What would you say to someone who is considering participating in a Spoleto Study Abroad program?

Question 4:

What was something you learned about your art in Spoleto that you still use today?

We will be sharing a few of these alumni stories on our social media pages. If you’d like to be tagged, please include your Instagram handle in the email. Also, if you have photos from your time in Spoleto, please send those as well.

Thank you!

Valentine’s Day in Italy

Happy Valentine’s Day! Did you know this romantic holiday began in Italy? Long before Americans were celebrating Valentine’s Day with heart-shaped chocolates, colorful cards, and Hallmark movie marathons, Italians celebrated La Festa Degli Innamorati in honor of the Roman goddess Juno, goddess of women and marriage. Nowadays, Italians honor the martyred Saint Valentine, who (according to legend) was a priest in 3rd century Rome who married young men and women in secret, after the Roman Emperor Claudius outlawed marriage for young men. Saint Valentine was martyred on February 14, and the old Roman festival for Juno also used to be held on February 14…this is where we get the date for Valentine’s Day.

Heart-shaped lanterns often decorate street lamps throughout Italy on Valentine’s Day

True or just legend, the story of Saint Valentine has made him the patron saint of love, which is why Valentine’s Day is known as the holiday of romance. The holiday is less commercialized that in the United States, as it is mostly only celebrated by couples—there’s no Galentine’s Day or innocent valentines given by school children to their classmates. Many Italian couples get engaged on Valentine’s Day, or say their first “I love you.” But one thing is just like it is in the U.S…chocolate! Chocolate is the most popular gift on Valentine’s Day, whether in the form of biscotti, Baci chocolate candies, or some other sweet treat. 

We wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day, or rather, “Buon San Valentino!”