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.
This spring, students in upper-level Italian classes took part in a special tandem language exchange, which is a required part of their course: their partners were Italians enrolled in university courses as part of their ‘third act’.
Italians use the expression terza età (“third age”) to refer to people 65+, and there are many options for those who want to make higher learning part of their golden age. There is even an association for Italian terza età universities (Associazione Nazionale delle Università della Terza Età). In their mission statement here, they explain that volunteer instructors make it all possible, donating their teaching time in the spirit of the medieval universitas and the belief that learning is a gift.
The terza età learners who came to converse with our students were enrolled in a L2-level English class at the Università della terza età in the coastal Tuscan town of Livorno.
This is what some of our students had to say about the experience:
During the class, Hollen and I spoke with five elderly women who attend a third-generation university. They explained their school to us and the courses they find intriguing. … One of the ladies mentioned it was her dream to visit New York.
We all share a love for music and movies—we were especially connected through our enjoyment of the movie A Star Is Born, featuring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. We agreed that the soundtrack is incredible and that Bradley Cooper is very handsome. The experience was very heart-warming for us because it bridged a gap between language and age. Seeing these elderly women driven to acquire new knowledge and be involved in a community that fosters connection was incredible.
Hollen Spain, Kelly Troop, Bridget Gardella (ITA325)
I really enjoyed the conversation I had with the two women. They’re from Livorno and we talked about their experiences living there, as well as doing a comparison between life in Livorno and life in New York City, which is where I am from. Afterwards, we spoke about the differences between Italian food and American food. One of them is vegetarian and we spoke about life without eating meat. She told me that there are many elderly Italians that don’t eat meat. I said that I can’t live without eating meat.
Afterwards we spoke about Giorgia Meloni and Donald Trump. I learned a lot about Italian politics. They told me that they don’t support Meloni and I told them that I’m not a fan of Trump either. Then we talked about American politics. They told me that they’re worried about a scenario in which Trump wins and they hope that he doesn’t.
We then spoke about why they chose to learn English. They told me that they did it to stay busy in old age. They then asked why I chose to study Italian. I told them that I took an introduction to Italian when I was a freshman in college out of interest, and I really enjoyed it. I decided to continue my studies in Italian. This was a great experience for me and I would like to do it again sometime soon.
Oliver Polsky (ITA325)
Last week, my Italian class talked to women who go to a free-age university. This experience was very interesting because we don’t have these universities in the United States. My friend and I talked to two women who were learning English! We talked about their courses and the university in general. They were from Pisa, where their university is. During this conversation, one woman told us that she was a nurse which interested us because my friend and I want to become doctors! So, we talked about the differences between medicine in the United States and in Italy. It was a great conversation and their English skills completely surprised me! I am so happy that I had this opportunity to speak with these women!
Kay Di Salvo (ITA325)
During this event, we had the opportunity to have conversations with people of the third age who attend the University of the Free Age and practice our Italian language, and for them to practice their English. We talked about many aspects of our lives such as what plans we have for our future careers and what career they did when they were young. One of them when she was young was a nurse who studied in the city of Pisa, Italy. Before that she studied at the University of Bologna Psychology. The other older woman was a teacher for students in the intermediate school, she was an Archeologist teacher. Still, when she has time she gives lessons to students through Zoom and online. Their English was very good, they said that they had been studying English for 2-5 years and also explained to us that the reason for them studying a language and taking courses such as Art History in English was because it was better learning something new than being at home and doing nothing. For them doing this was a “hobby” that they always looked forward to doing during the week. They were nice people to have conversations with and were very patient with us when it came to talking in Italian. I think that was a nice idea to have this event and I hope this event remains in our university for future students from this course.
On Sunday, May 12, Florence Mayor Dario Nardella gave the commencement speech at Syracuse University. In addition to mentioning great Italian writers like Dante and Calvino he encouraged the graduating class to “be like the Mud Angels” (the foreign students who helped Florence recover from the terrible flood of 1966). He also stressed the importance of listening and paying attention to your surroundings, and of being passionate and compassionate in the pursuit of your dreams.
The mayor’s invitation to serve as the 2024 Syracuse commencement speaker drives home the special relationship that has developed between Florence and Syracuse since our program was founded in 1959. As Nardella told Syracuse University News here, “thanks to the relentless commitment of its leadership, the Florence program has been able to convey a deep understanding of our cultural heritage so that students can make the values it embodies their own.”
Mayor Nardella with Dr. Perugini
“His emphasis on peace and community engagement left a lasting impact,” remarked Syracuse Florence Director Sasha Perugini, who joined the mayor on the home campus for the exciting event. You can watch Mayor Nardella’s commencement speech here.
Last summer, Lisa Evans (Spring 1982) revisited Syracuse Florence with her son and recounted seeing the funeral of Countess Bona Gigliucci, the daughter of Count Mario Gigliucci who designed the Villa Rossa for his family, in Piazza Savonarola (seen behind her in the photo above). Lisa kindly shared some photos and memories with us.
On Returning to the Villa Rossa
For decades a return visit was interrupted by a busy life. In August I finally made a trip to Florence, along with my son. I was excited to share the city that my semester at Syracuse taught me so much about. On our last day in Florence, we visited Villa Rossa. When I walked into the building, I was transported back 40 years. Much has changed, but the feeling of being in that beautiful building was so familiar. In one room I recalled my Italian Literature class, and reading Dante’s Inferno.
The wooden mailboxes are still hanging on the wall in the foyer! Before email and text, finding a letter addressed to you in your slot, was a great day. Lastly, the spiral staircase holds a memory. When we arrived for the semester, we were assigned a local family to live with. We all lined the spiral staircase and looked down upon the families, waiting for our name to be called , and a family to go home with. It was so stressful and exciting. Standing at the top of the stairs and looking down, I was taken right back to that time.
On the Funeral of Countess Gigliucci
I don’t ever recall being introduced to the director, or of running into him at the school. So when I was sitting in the piazza in front of the school, and I saw him walking solemnly behind a group of what obviously were mourners, I knew that something important was happening. The event really stuck out to me ( I can remember it 22 years later). Here were about 20 people, dressed in black, walking in a group very slowly in the road around the entire piazza. No one talked to each other, and there was no music of any kind, which I remember struck me because the group all seemed to be in step with each other. They were gone and out of sight as somberly as they arrived.
On Italian Class in the Garden
As soon as the weather warmed up that winter ’82 semester, we all spent a lot of time in the back garden. Lunch picnics were daily. I found the photo of our beloved Italian language teacher (this was a required class, and no one complained. We all wanted to be able to speak Italian in our “adopted” country). I don’t remember her name, sadly. She was beautiful, fun and taught us very enthusiastically! She would hold class outside in the garden as much as she could. I had forgotten about the beautiful bougainvillea!
On Field Trips
The other photo [below] is of classmates enjoying a rest stop, during a school day trip. We all loved the school organized trips, either day or overnight. No one would think of skipping one. We had some amazing experiences, which we got to share together as new friends, and learn from the professors who organized the itinerary.
The assignment is very open. You can do anything you like, so long as it is an original analytical engagement with something we read. Jesse’s project was about postmodernism. He writes in the style of Italo Calvino in If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, using the second person. The script is a reworking of the postmodern film Being John Malkovich, which I used as an example of postmodernism when explaining it to the class. In the film, people line up by a little Alice-in-Wonderland-type door. The door leads to a slide; you go down the slide and end up in the mind of the American film star John Malkovich. Malkovich may be doing anything at the time you enter his mind – making love, eating a sandwich, you name it. Fifteen minutes later (and this is my favorite bit), you are ejected from the mind of John Malkovich and dumped on the hard shoulder of the New Jersey Turnpike. Jesse wrote a scene that wasn’t in the film but could have been.
Dr. Dorothea Barrett
Calvino’s “Being John Malkovich” not by Calvino, by Jesse Shapiro
If you chose to be here and not anywhere else at this specific moment in your life, I am very concerned for you. In fact, there might even be something wrong with you. You wonder what it is like to be someone else, which is normal. You never won an Oscar. You have never been on Broadway. People do not recognize you on the street. Odds are, you probably do not think you are “good enough” as it is. I mean, if you did, that would probably be a bad thing. People who think they are good enough are typically the worst kind of people.
Whatever the reason may be for your experience today, whether it be insecurity, desire, hatred, depression, sex, I will not judge you. If these feelings are common, I guess you are common as well. Is this bad? Well, that is not for me to say. I am simply the facilitator of questions. I am neither here nor there. Whatever you do, do not look at me like a salesman of any kind.
The fact of the matter is you are here right now. You are on the 7 and a ½ floor of an office building at a filing company, have waited in line for 8 hours with your head cranked to the side because the ceiling is 5 feet tall, and the time has arrived for you to step into the portal. The portal is a secret, but pretty much everyone knows about it. So, crouch down. Lower! Fling yourself inside the man that interests you more than you are interested in yourself. A sad thought truly.
To tell you the truth, which is a dangerous subject, most people waste their time there. 15 minutes. That is all you get. Baffles me that you are shocked that you got what you signed up for. You are inside the head of John Malkovich. He could be on the toilet, on the phone with his mother, having passionate sexual relations, or taking a nap. If you came without a plan, that is a waste of $250. Are you serious? Again, it baffles me. Maybe you will be different. This is what I tell myself. Most people are the same, though.
As I stare at you across the desk, I see someone who saw the ad to “Be John Malkovich for 15 Minutes” and thought to themselves, “wowwww, that sounds incredible.” Again, interesting. Most people do not even look at the ads in the newspaper. It is only out of some sort of desperation that they would take any sort of action.
To be John Malkovich is like being inside of a movie. Most of the people that come to my office claim to love movies. They love to talk about all the movies they have been planning to watch for ages, the movies they have been hunting for without success, the movies dealing with something they have been working on at the moment, the movies they want to own so they will be handy just in case, the movies they could put aside maybe to watch this summer, the movies they need to go with other movies, the movies that fill them with sudden, inexplicable curiosity, not easily justified.
Do people even get pleasure out of movies anymore? I find that all the movies today just get more and more and more screwed up in the head. Someone gets brutally murdered on screen and people laugh. Is this funny to you?
You look down and think that you do think that brutal murder is funny. Don’t you worry, it has already been established that you have a screw loose. Again, this is completely normal and there are no refunds here at the John Malkovich experience.
So you are looking at this portal that takes you into a man that has accomplished more than you have or will ever accomplish in your life. The wind shakes you to your core. The nervous energy is building up a little bit inside of you. Please do not be alarmed. Everyone experiences this feeling. You are not special. It almost feels like a slip and slide.
I see on the sign up sheet that you never wrote your name down, sir. “Why would I sign up? I mean, it seems like we are all the main attraction anyways.”
I ask the man again. “Sir, I need your name for tax purposes and in case you make a mad dash for it. We have a non-refundable policy.”
“My name… you want to know MY NAME!”
This man needs to calm down. You are always calm. “I am the art. I am the vision. I am the entertainment that everyone waits in line to see. You see, Craig, you really, really messed up.”
This guy is a classic lunatic that we get all the time at the John Malkovich Experience.
Nothing to worry about. Do not be alarmed in the slightest.
Syracuse student Emma Wachtel, who minors in food studies and writing, was a smashing success as the social media marketing intern for Pino’s Sandwiches this Spring semester.
The video above, which she created for his socials, went viral, garnering 448 new followers; 87k views (93% new viewers, 99% non-followers); 7,006 likes; and 158 comments.
Overall, Emma helped Pino grow his followers by 5.9%.
Emma (2nd from left) with Pino and his team
Emma said this about her experience:
It truly completed my time in Florence. I was immediately embraced by Pino and his entire family, and they treated me as one of their own. I got to see all the action that goes on in this iconic shop and create personal connections. In my opinion, this was the best way to immerse myself in Italian culture and live like a local. I will cherish this experience and the relationships I have formed for the rest of my life. Thank you Pino, Martina, and the rest of the family for making me feel at home.
Ashley and Andrew, then and now (with friend above and Ashley’s fiancé below)
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.
Ashley with host family Carla and Loris Fintoni and roommate Adriana DeRice.
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.
AshleyOuderkirk
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).
Me (front left) with my American Artists in Italy class taught by Professor MaryAnn Calo. One of the highlights of my studies there, as I STILL apply things I learned to my current writing and curatorial practice.
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!
Me at the Opera Del Duomo Museo for my internship as a museum tour guide.
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?
Text by Michelle Tarnopolsky. Photos by Francesco Guazzelli.
Syracuse Florence studio art students capped off their spring semester with a once-in-a-lifetime event: to have their work critiqued by world-renowned multi-disciplinary artist Carrie Mae Weems.
Weems is currently Artist in Residence at Syracuse University and came to Italy to participate in the Black Portraitures conference being held during the opening weekend of the 60th Venice Biennale, arguably the world’s top showcase for contemporary art.
Weems stopped in Florence first to pay a special visit to our art studios in Piazza Donatello before presenting her work to a rapt audience in the Villa Rossa.
“She reviewed our students’ works and shared her thoughts and her own works in a very touching and powerful lecture,” said Syracuse Florence Director Sasha Perugini. “I got teary during her lecture. She emanates a powerful energy and I am so grateful that the students had this unique learning opportunity.”
Thompson and Syracuse Florence Professor Jonathan Nelson joined Weems for the Venice conference where they presented on “radical curricula” about incorporating Black history and culture in academia.
As part of his talk, Professor Nelson mentioned a project by art history student Madeline Goewey, who created a map for scholars identifying all the Black figures depicted in the Uffizi Museum as part of her internship with The Recovery Plan.
Also joining them in Venice was a lucky group of 14 Syracuse Florence art students accompanied by Painting Professor Jamie Morris and Director Perugini. This incredible opportunity was gifted by Syracuse University, with invaluable guidance by Associate Provosts Marcelle Haddix and Miranda Traudt.
See our Flickr page for more photos of Carrie Mae Weems’ critique and talk at Syracuse Florence.
The “looking assignment” is a typical way to evaluate students enrolled in our art history classes, which take full advantage of our presence in the Birthplace of the Renaissance.
This is one particularly creative example by Colby College English major (and art history minor) Kate Evans for her Italian Renaissance Art class this past spring semester with Professor Brown-Hedjazi.
Elena Tittel, an English and Psychology major from Skidmore College, did an internship this past semester with Franky in New York, an online platform that celebrates the bridge between Italians and Americans.
Elena’s interview with Italian-American student Sam Fortunato about reconnecting with his roots while studying in Florence was published in Franky’s newsletter and is reposted here with the kind permission of Editor-in-Chief Elena Frigenti.
The Spring of Sam, Back to the Roots by Elena Tittel
Meet Sam Fortunato, an intern at Syracuse University in Florence. Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Fortunato is a junior mathematics major at Syracuse University with aspirations of pursuing a teaching career.
One of the main reasons Fortunato wanted to study abroad in Florence was to connect with his Italian heritage. “My father’s side (of the family) is Italian, and my mother’s side not, but I would still call myself an Italian American,” he said. “I actually don’t really have that much conversation with my father’s side of the family. My father’s father passed when he was 22 years old, and his mom isn’t really a big part of our lives. Because of that, I’m able to come here and really connect with that side of the family.”
For Fortunato, his favorite part about being in Florence has been living with his Italian host family. “I didn’t know much Italian at all coming to Florence, and I did not expect to be able to speak or be learning (Italian). In order to communicate with (my host family), I had to learn Italian, and now my Italian is really good,” he said. “I get to eat the best food; my host father is a very, very good cook. We have a great time together and really enjoy each other. Being with them has been the experience of a lifetime.”
Other than living with a host family, another way Fortunato has been able to immerse himself into the Italian culture in Florence is through his internship. “I had the opportunity to teach some Italian kids English and some math because I’m a math major. Teaching them English has helped my Italian because I have to translate all the time,” he said. “I went there after class two days a week, and sometimes on Fridays when I was in Florence.”
Overall, Fortunato has really found himself embracing the Italian lifestyle – something he wishes he could integrate into his life back in the United States. “It’s sort of hard to do, but I really like the lifestyle in Florence, like going to the café and being able to hang out there. I really like being able to pick up some cheap food and just walk anywhere,” he said. “I do live in the city of Philadelphia, so I’m able to walk, but not like I can here.”
