What if studying Classical Mythology meant racing through the Uffizi in search of a sarcophagus, or taking a selfie with a mythological statue at the Pitti Palace? That’s the premise behind the #100Myths Project — a semester-long adventure designed by Stefania Berutti that turns Florence itself into a classroom.
The project grew out of a practical challenge: museum visits are too short to cover everything. Rather than rush students past the artwork, Berutti designed a series of scavenger hunts that sent them exploring on their own — identifying mythological characters in vases, statues, and paintings, and photographing themselves alongside the finds. The results were immediate: students who seemed disengaged in the classroom lit up in the galleries, racing up staircases and debating details on ancient vases.
The final assignment pushed things further: each team had to write an original story featuring mythological characters from Florence’s museums, then turn it into a scavenger hunt for their classmates to play. Both teams set their stories in contemporary Florence — no AI, just their own creativity. One team even ventured into the Boboli Gardens; a site never covered in class. They had made the city their own.
A scavenger hunt may sound frivolous, but Berutti sees it as a way to drive students to slow down, read captions, and look carefully at works of art they might otherwise walk past. Creative writing does something similar: over eight years of leading writing labs tied to archaeology and ancient history, she has watched students use storytelling to forge a genuine connection with ancient cultures — feeling the responsibility of giving old myths new meaning.
The #100Myths Project was made possible thanks to a Syracuse Teaching Innovation Fellowship, with support from Director Sasha Perugini and Assistant Director Rachael Smith. In September, Berutti will host a webinar to share her tools with colleagues — because whether the lens is Art History, Mythology, Fashion History, or Ancient History, Florence’s museums have something to offer every discipline. The #100Myths Project could become a model for interdisciplinary teaching across the Syracuse faculty.