Besties Andrew Leone and Ashley Ouderkirk marked 20 years of friendship last fall when they reunited at the Villa Rossa where they met in Spring 2023. They were both Syracuse students but had not met before their semester abroad. The trip was also to celebrate Andrew’s recovery from a heart transplant five years ago, since they promised each other they would return to Florence together once he was healthy.
We showed them around the Villa as they reminisced. “This is where we got adopted!” said Ashley when we stopped in Room 13, referring to the introductory meeting with their host families, with whom they both had amazing experiences.
Andrew now works as a psychologist and Ashley is a freelance art curator. They told us how their semester abroad impacted their lives.
Andrew Leone
Being of Italian descent, as my father is Sicilian, Italy had always had a special place in my heart. I’ve traveled there many times over the last 30 years, including to our family home in Sicily. But Florence, surrounded by the art, history, culture, and just incredible energy of the city has always left a lasting impression on my heart, and now my new heart.
It’s the place where I met one of my dearest friends, who stood by my side, quite literally, throughout my whole heart ordeal. It has always been a special, sacred place to me that represents the crossroads of youth and now gratitude and wisdom that supposedly comes with age. Hopefully it won’t be another 19 years before I return! That I promise.
Ashley Ouderkirk
It’s difficult to distill into a few sentences how much the experience changed me, but I will say it was probably one of the fastest emotional and philosophical growth periods of my young life. I took huge risks and decided to completely leave my comfort zone. I went knowing no one (leaving a boyfriend and great friends behind), was extremely shy, had a minimal grasp of the language, overextended my budget, and unknowingly risked my GPA (all of my art history classes counted towards my major).
From that I was rewarded with experiencing life from a very different cultural perspective; fully immersed in the cradle of art history with the benefit of examining the actual objects — that most students only see on slides — with my own eye; and really understanding this distinction between travel — where you are immersed in a culture’s food, art, people, etc. — and vacation where you seek an escape from your life and are looking to sample the highlights. And of course I met quite a few life long friends!
In terms of concrete examples, working as a tour guide for the Opera del Duomo Museum for my internship is probably the easiest line to draw. It was the first time I was the teacher and my students were regular people of all ages with limited background on art, so I had quite the challenge. How do you summarize all the important history in the museum, without overwhelming them, and keep them engaged?
What I discovered was making the tour more interactive, telling stories about the pieces rather than just listing off facts, and making it more “macro” art history — connecting historical timeline/era or important artists or techniques to things they might have already seen in Rome or Venice or even around Florence.
In my career to this day, whether I’m curating a show or writing articles or helping an artist write their artist statement, I’m always thinking in the back of my mind — how can I open this up to a larger audience and find a way for them to feel welcomed, curious, and engaged?