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Written by Giorgia Sartorio and translated by Michelle Tarnopolsky

On November 14, 2023, my class and I did a cultural exchange activity at Syracuse University in Florence. The American university offers the possibility of spending a semester abroad, and one of the locations offered is Florence. These semesters are intended to prepare students for a world shaped by globalization by attending various courses including one in Italian.

This is how we came to meet students from a completely different reality from ours, one that we were ready to learn about and appreciate, in the same way American students would appreciate ours. The project, which involved an initial division of my class into pairs, involved starting a dialogue between an American student and a couple of us Italian students. The dialogue took place half in English and half in Italian so we could practice the foreign language on both sides and discover the differences between our culture and that of America.

What made this experience so important to me was the discovery of the various and different points of view with which one can analyze a concept or a habit. The girl with whom I interfaced had a totally different conception of aspects and lifestyles such as the relationship with her parents and the concepts of fun and leisure. Starting from these simple examples, I managed to expand this perspectivism to all fields of my life, even more so when I started studying the philosopher Nietzsche.

Another aspect, which for me was the most important, was the possibility of establishing a conversation with an unknown person who would not judge me. In fact, I have always had a kind of fear in relating to unknown people, even more so in English. This problem, which I call the “fear of making mistakes,” started in my first year of high school, a period of new friendships where the only thing I wanted was to be perfect.

I only managed to overcome this harmful desire in my last year, both because I understood that it was impossible, but also thanks to this project. By establishing a dialogue with a person who, like me, had to learn, she helped me understand how all my paranoia was imaginary: how she did not judge my mistakes, and I did not judge hers. So, I consider this experience essential. Beyond the growth to which it led, it was a pleasant day with my classmates, with whom I lived the most beautiful years of my life.

Professor Tulia Gattone, who teaches Globalization, Development and the Environment, has co-authored an article on cereal production in the BRICS countries. BRICS (which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the original member countries) is an intergovernmental organization of the world’s leading emerging economies.

The paper analyzes how innovations and better land management boost sustainable food production in BRICS countries. It was co-written with Cosimo Magazzino, Muhammad Usman, and Donatella Valente and published in the journal Ecological Indicators, which is part of ScienceDirect, a leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature.

Professor Stefania Berutti, who teaches classes in classical mythology and pre-Roman history, has won the prestigious Zeus Award for the podcast she produces with fellow archeologist Giovina Caldorola. The international prize is awarded to scholars and professionals who help spread the word about Italy’s archeological heritage.

The prize was awarded for the following reasons:

The collaboration between Dr. Giovina Caldorola and Dr. Stefania Berutti resulted in the podcast project FAN- Figlie di un’archeologia narrata (“Daughters of a Narrated Archeology”), a dialogue between two archeologist friends. FAN is a way to discuss books, events, exhibitions and whatever else makes us fans of archaeological news and information. Each episode is dedicated to a topic that they discuss with male and female cultural leaders.

The podcast is a brilliant example of innovation in academic communication. They use engaging, effective language, turning complex topics into applicable, exciting content that brings the public closer to the world of history and archaeology.

Berutti has worked with the National Archeological Museum in Florence and taught archeology to elementary school students. Her popular blog about archeology Memorie dal Mediterraneo is an homage to the book Memory and the Mediterranean by renowned historian Fernand Braudel.

Matthew Barone was a mass communications major from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT, when he came to study in Florence 30 years ago. Fieldtrips to Etruscan sites that he took while he was here ignited a passion that ultimately led him to return this past summer and take part in an archeological dig.

You had a very positive experience with your host family, the Romanelli’s. Please tell us more about that.

Nara and Nello were long-time host families with SU and their students. While they spoke no English, I was really looking to improve my Italian and what better way to do that than by speaking it at dinner and in general conversation. I learned so much, from the foods we ate to the TV shows we watched at night. And living in the Oltrarno gave me a truly residential experience with no tourists to be found. I actually enjoyed getting on a bus and finding my way around the city as a true commuter. Eventually I upgraded to a bike which was a lot of fun.

Everything in the Romanelli household revolved around food. Nara woke very early – maybe 6:30am – to head out to the markets and begin to prepare a spectacular feast. I could not have gotten this experience in a dorm, nor the wonderful relationship we had until her death a few years ago. We kept in touch every year. Today her son [famous food critic] Leonardo is a foodie walking in his mother’s footsteps.

What did you like about the Syracuse Florence program?

I really enjoyed getting to know the students who came from other university programs from across the country. They had such diverse interests and something about Florence brought us together. The flexibility for long weekends gave us a chance to explore the region. I went to Innsbruck, Austria, with a number of new friends where we skied and dined on German food. We traveled east to Prague and then Budapest which still felt dark with its very recent separation from the USSR. A group of us American students decided to experience the carnival in Viareggio prior to Lent – a big education and beautiful beaches.

And when the exploring was done I returned for classes with some dedicated faculty – one in particular that I remember taught us British or American literature. [Professor Dorothea Barrett]. She pointed out how this experience would be life-changing and that if we didn’t write it down in journals we ran the risk of losing it forever. I shared some great stories with my class that semester: one about learning the etiquette of riding the local busses the hard way; and another about having a picnic with good friend and SU program peer Katie Vaile at Forte Belvedere where a beautiful dog ambitiously tried – but failed – to chase a frisbee off the tall walls and instead fell into the Boboli Gardens.

Please tell us more about how our fieldtrip program led to you return to Italy

Most weekends SU had organized fieldtrips going all over the region. Not only was it an incredible way to learn more about a subject outside my comfort zone but it forced me to meet a new group of students and bond with them. I loved these trips so much. In particular I was deeply fascinated by the Etruscan Field Trip Series offered by Prof. Judith Barragli.

I went to Tarquinia, Vulci, and other fascinating locations and soaked up knowledge and history far outside my usual studies back home. One time we had to pretend we were graduate students in archeology to get special permission to walk down into the Etruscan tombs.

Being exposed to this pre-Roman civilization inspired my lifelong learning of the subject. This summer I returned through the organization Earthwatch to join an archeological team digging nearby along the coastline in Populonia. The learning just never ends and I loved coming full circle with the discovery of a passion on a field trip, never forgetting it, and finding a way to return and contribute to a modern dig. Both experiences were once-in-a-lifetime.

How does today’s Florence compare to when you were here as a student?

I think today’s Florence is much cleaner thanks to new technology in cars and mopeds along with some stricter environmental laws. The Duomo was actually white marble, and when I was a student it was a black, tar-like color, and I recall always having to blow my nose. The city in most ways has stayed the same. I found many of the same restaurants still bustling with patrons, and the quality of the food was never an issue.

Seeing the Villa Rossa again was a special treat because the building itself felt the same. Dozens of memories rushed through my head, and the garden area was expanded, but it was the same beautiful space I’d remembered as a lost American student leaving home for the first time and finding myself and my own identity after the program ended.

What advice would you have for current students?

The best advice I got previously was to document your experience for the future. I still have my beautiful journal of memories to remind me of my youth, naivete, and yearning to explore. The other would be to never stay in your room except to sleep. Study outdoors in a café, or a piazza…go on fieldtrips with people you don’t know and explore subjects like I did that had no impact on my career but forever warmed my soul. In addition you may just meet friends for life. I’ve been lucky to keep in touch with several friends from this program and am a better person for it.

Today Kathy Berardi works in public relations as a consultant and writer-producer in entertainment from Los Angeles, CA and visits Italy as often as she can.

What was your major and home school when you came to Syracuse Florence?

Kathy: I attended Canisius College in Buffalo, New York and I was a communication studies major. Being able to transfer for a semester to another New York State institution with the Syracuse program in Florence was a perfect choice for my cultural interests and streamlined for my academic credits to easily transfer. 

Do you have any anecdotes about adjusting to the culture?

Kathy:  My own family is Italian-American, so the family experience of living with my host mom who I met through Syracuse in Florence, Paola Marotta, felt totally natural. For whatever cultural adjustment I had to make the first few weeks I was there, the fact that I had such a nurturing experience in my new home made everything much easier. I do remember being jet lagged the first few weeks, and sometimes feeling like I had woken up in a dream just because everything in the city felt like I was walking on a movie set of Renaissance Florence. It felt surreal at times for sure in the beginning. 

You have stayed close to your host family. How did staying with them influence your experience?

Kathy: It really did make all the difference in the world. I was the first person in my US family to travel abroad. I was the only person from my college in the US to come to this program. I really did take a leap of faith to come alone to Italy, via the Syracuse program, with the trust that I would make friends. What I did not anticipate is that I would connect so closely with someone like Paola in a way that made us like family for the rest of our lives, as shown by the fact that 20+ years later, we still visit each other and even my daughter who’s 14 calls Paola her Italian grandmother! I made many other close friends at Syracuse that semester with whom I also traveled and explored the rest of Italy and Europe.

Paola made Florence feel like home, and to a larger extent – Italy to also feel like a place I could always return to. I returned for a few months after graduating college the following year before coming back to the US to begin my professional career. After that I returned in January 2023 and she graciously hosted my daughter and I in her downtown Florence VRBO so that we could experience the city like residents and most recently we stayed this past June 2024 with her and her husband in their countryside residence in the hills outside of Florence. I am returning this Christmas to conduct a language study program and technology conference and I am looking forward to spending the holidays with them! 

So in answer to the original question – by literally feeling like she was adopting me as a parent here in Italy – being way more than just a “host” – Paola reconnected me with my Italian heritage and became a part of my life forever, just like family! And I feel I can always return to reconnect with her and Italy because of our bond and the way she really opened up her home and heart to me some 20+ years ago! 

 What did you enjoy the most about the program?

Kathy: I really appreciated the fact that the entire opportunity for this life changing experience came by way of the fact that one day while I was walking down the hall at Canisius College I passed by the International Studies office and saw a poster on the wall for “Study Abroad in Florence”. From that moment onward, Syracuse University in Florence was my bridge from studying just in the US to becoming an internationally educated student, a more well-rounded citizen of the world, and truly open-minded human being. Thanks to the opportunity Syracuse presented to me, I experienced the shift in perspective that I found for me only came from immersing myself in a new culture for a long period of time and experiencing something completely foreign. The lasting effects touch me still to this day when I connect with people of other cultures and languages here in the US and in my yearning to travel to see new places as a lifelong pursuit. 

How did your time in Florence affect your life and/or career?

Kathy:  My time in Florence gave me confidence. I was a junior in college when I studied in Florence. Within one year, I would be out in the job market, interviewing for new jobs in a challenging post 9/11 (2001) economy and relocating to a major US city hundreds of miles from home (having moved for my first job from near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Atlanta, Georgia) to pursue career opportunities. The move within the same country and where everyone spoke the same language seemed like an easy step after living abroad and having to speak a foreign language on a daily basis to communicate like when I lived in Florence. My experience in Florence, in the trusted community provided by Syracuse, for the first time in 2000 gave me the courage and confidence to go anywhere and pursue anything for pretty much the rest of my life. In 2006 I had the opportunity to relocate again – this time from Atlanta to Los Angeles for a Masters in Film from UCLA – and I jumped at the chance with complete ease, once again emboldened in a good way thanks to the personal growth I experienced in Florence. Today I continue to reside in Los Angeles (with frequent trips back to Italy!), and credit my experience in Florence with giving me the confidence to know I will find my way, wherever I am. 

How has Florence and the Villa Rossa changed since you studied here?

Kathy: The gardens in the back I think have expanded and the library building has changed and is now bigger and I think the engineering building in the back is also new. The main Villa does look and feel the same though. And the spirit of the school remains the same: welcoming, nurturing, and supportive. When I walked in, the vibe I felt was the same as when I was a student. As a city, Florence remains timeless for me – I do not think it has changed at all, to be honest! 

What advice would you give current students?

Kathy: Trust that it will feel “weird” for the first few weeks and that that experience is totally normal and totally temporary. But also trust that Florence will come to feel like home, your surroundings and new living space will come to feel like home. Time during your study abroad semester will seem slow in the beginning but will fly at exponential pace towards the middle and before you know it – you will be headed back to the US after an incredible semester and you will be incredibly sad, most likely, to leave.  So while you are there, find the time to live like a resident, engage with the community and people in Florence like they are your neighbors, and enjoy the museums, night life, restaurants, train rides to other cities and every opportunity the Syracuse program offers you to explore. Because when you get back to the US and graduate college, you will likely start working and getting back to Italy for a prolonged period of time may take a while as your career journey, and life unfolds in your 20s and 30s. 

In my case it was a very long while – 22 years between the last time I left and when I returned. So enjoy it while you can with the deep appreciation that for this phase of your journey it is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. The day before I left Florence the first time in June 2000, I remember looking over the Arno River on a last nighttime stroll and I saw a church illuminated that I did not yet know. And I remember feeling regret that I did not take the time to cross the river to check out that church while I had the chance in the days, weeks or even months before. And it was at that moment that I decided I would have to return some day, somehow. So definitely – take it all in, study hard, but be a student of culture and study by interacting, experiencing and immersing yourself in the world of the Renaissance around you. 

Professor Leonardo Lastilla, who teaches Vine to Table: Italian Wines in Context at Syracuse Florence, has published a new book of poetry with Nonsolopoesie Edizioni. According to the blurb, Il Dolore della Cognizione (“The Pain of Cognition”):

unveils a feeling that has belonged to each of us at least once in our lives. The poetic narrative draws a line, a basic concept. Where there is love, there is pain. Where there is life, there is pain. We are not exempt from experiencing it personally. It seems to be a toll we have to pay, a duty, to become and be within life. The verses seem to be written in the immediacy of feeling, of experiencing suffering. They are also measured and forged by irony, resentment, knowing how to laugh at oneself, and holding on to one’s ego. Such instinctive feelings contain themselves by giving meaning to existence. The verses have a studied rhythmic quality and include catchphrases that make this poetic sylloge an experiential journey of lived life and what surrounds it.

Queens, NY native Hana Gordon was an art history major at Syracuse when she came to the Florence program in the fall of 1966. She recently returned to the Villa Rossa with her husband Chet and chatted with us about what it was like to be here on November 4 when the calamitous flood overtook the Renaissance city and changed it forever.

“I remember waking up that morning to the sound of someone saying ‘aiuto!’ and it took a minute for me to translate it,” Hana recalls. She was living with her host family near Santa Croce on Corso Tintori. This was back when our students would live with two different families, switching halfway through the semester, but Hana didn’t do that because of the flood.

From her bedroom window she could see the Volta dei Tintori, an archway over the street. “But by the middle of the day, you couldn’t see the arch anymore!” As the waters rose, they knocked down the main door of her building, where her family lived on the second floor. “We went up to the third floor family to eat together and panic together, and my host dad would run out to see where the water was, and it was closing in. Then it started to recede. So that was really something!”

Hana tells us that Syracuse officials contemplated sending students home, but instead they got them vaccines. Hana had to pack up all her things and transfer to a villa/pension in the hills above the city with a few other girls while the city recovered.

She and her fellow students eventually went back to their host families where they finished out the semester. “I was really happy to go back to the same family. My mom was a good cook!”

Once the waters had receded, she started walking around the city. “It was still a little messy, and if you dropped something nine out of ten times, you’d be dropping it into mud.” She also remembers shopping and getting some great post-flood deals. “A lot of the shopkeepers salvaged what they could. Everything was deeply discounted. We were looking at bags for something like $2.” She and her classmates were also sent to Bologna to use the public showers there.

A lot has changed in the decades since Hana’s semester abroad. She’s disappointed by how many tourists there are in Florence now. One positive change is the growth of the Syracuse program. “All we saw [of the Villa Rossa] was one classroom and a bathroom!” Countess Bona Gigliucci still lived upstairs, and students had to make do with Piazza Savonarola for their outdoor space. “We met some fellas there, and one girl was going steady throughout the whole thing with one of them,” Hana laughs.

She and her classmates would go home for lunch each day, many of them dozing off in their afternoon classes after the big meal complete with wine. They also hitchhiked to visit other cities on the weekends. “One time an elderly gentleman took us back to our apartment but took us out to dinner first and said that his daughter was in the U.S. and he hoped someone was doing that for her.”

Hana also remembers a couple who worked as caretakers for the program. They were the beloved Sergio and Elia Landi, who later ran our coffeeshop for many years and whose children, Silvia and Fabio, still work at Syracuse Florence today.

After her time in Florence, Hana worked in art galleries, went back to school for library science, and became a high school librarian. After retiring 20 years ago, she began painting in watercolor and pastel and has exhibited widely throughout the Hudson Valley, where she lives. Florence remains a subject of inspiration for her.

Longtime friends Jean Telljohann (née Amabile) and Presley Schwinn (née Neithammer) met while studying at Syracuse Florence in the Fall of 1979. Jean was a comparative lit major from Princeton and Presley was an art history major from Sweet Briar College. Here are some of their reflections on that life-changing semester.

Syracuse Florence classes

Jean: I studied Italian language and literature, art history, and a wonderful English class on literature set in Italy.  I remember reading Hawthorne’s The Marble Faun, Henry James’s The Golden Bowl, and Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.  I wish I could remember the rest of the syllabus!  It was an excellent course.

Presley: The professors were marvelous, especially the opportunity to speak to the class in front of an important piece of art. The sweet fellow who had the café stand was essential, especially for Bacis.

The most vivid memory

Jean: When I began to dream in Italian.

The host family experience

Presley: My signora’s apartment was quite grand and centrally located. Unfortunately, she was quite difficult and so I eliminated meals.

The impact of studying in Florence

Presley: I continued to study art history and ended up being the senior grants writer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Jean: Studying abroad in Florence helped me to develop fluency in Italian, which led to further travel throughout Italy, a love of singing and attending performances of Italian opera, and reading Dante and other Italian authors in the original.  I wish I could say that I am still fluent, but I do gather with friends to practice Italian conversation and see Italian films.  I am still in contact with several of my friends from our days in Florence.

A fieldtrip to Rome

Jean: I remember a day trip to Arezzo and a longer trip to Rome, where my friends and I saw The Graduate dubbed in Italian and then stayed to see it again.  It’s funny that that’s the memory that sticks!  One funny coincidence related to the field trips is that in 2000 I returned to Florence and met my friend Presley for lunch and a photo op outside the school at Piazza Savonarola.  Presley was traveling in Italy the same week I was.  When the driver I hired for the day saw the school, he recalled that he had been the bus driver who had taken us on the field trip to Rome!

Meeting the locals

Jean: In 1979, most of the students were girls.  Our group was invited by the Italian Air Force Academy to a dance.  They sent a bus to pick us up at the school and return us at the end of the evening.  We met a very nice group of Italian young men and palled around a bit with them on the weekends afterward.  We were all just friends, no romances, but I think that at least one person from our semester did marry a local Italian man.  The memories from that semester are very strong, so incredibly I can still remember the names of the young men we met, Giacinto, Filippo, Alfio, Pino.  They had come from all over Italy for their required military service.

Impressions of Florence on return trips

Presley: Florence upon return seemed much more crowded but still heavenly. Even found the best gelato store!

Jean: My Syracuse-Florence semester was my first trip to Italy, but I have returned several times since, including for Syracuse Florence’s 50th anniversary celebration.  I used the coincidence of my own 50th birthday as an excuse to attend. In general, Florence seemed busier, but the area near the Duomo, closed to auto traffic, was quieter.

Where they are now

Presley: I work part time at the Chanticleer garden in Wayne as I am passionate about gardening, the landscape, and environmental concerns.

Jean: I am retired from my second career as a museum administrator and am now busy with family, volunteer work, and travel. I also serve on Princeton University’s Advisory Council to the Department of French and Italian.

On May 16, drama history professor Eric Nicholson and communications professor Elia Nichols, both professional actors, performed two lovers’ debates from Isabella Andreini’s Lovers’ Debates for the Stage at the University of Verona.

The performance accompanied a book presentation of this text co-translated and co-edited by Dr. Nicholson with Pamela Allen Brown ​and Julie D. Campbell and published by the University of Chicago/ITER Press in 2023.

Isabella Andreini was a successful theater actress, writer and poet in the late 16th century, even performing with her husband for the 1589 wedding of Ferdinand I de Medici to Christina of Lorraine.

On May 10, the Villa Rossa’s historic aula magna was packed with study abroad professionals gathering to discuss the mental health of students, staff, and faculty. The event was co-organized by Syracuse Florence and the Forum on Education Abroad and the speakers covered everything from U.S. politics to coping strategies.

The seminar was a great success with participants making invaluable connections with counterparts in their industry and gaining helpful insight into challenges facing study abroad professionals.