Syracuse Florence Students Join 44,000 in Pink for Corri la Vita
By Aurora Santangelo, Syracuse University On September 27, 2026, bright pink shirts flooded the streets of Florence, an unstoppable force on a dedicated march to raise money for victims of breast cancer. Over 44,000 people from all over Italy participated in Corri la Vita wearing cyclamen-pink t-shirts, including some our own Syracuse Florence students through…
Before Florence, Students Followed the Mediterranean Through Italy
For some students, the semester abroad began before they even reached Florence. An 11-day traveling seminar took them from Ravenna to Venice and into Italy’s northeastern borderlands, where mosaics, monuments, and centuries of cultural exchange became the starting point for their semester. From August 22 to September 1, students joining Syracuse Florence for Fall 2026…
From Florence to the Front of the Classroom: Lauren’s Full-Circle Journey
When Lauren arrived in Florence in 2008 as a Syracuse University Italian major, she couldn’t have imagined that nearly two decades later she’d be back — not as a student, but as a professor helping shape the very program that changed her life. Lauren’s path to Italian started early. Growing up in eastern Pennsylvania with…
From Curva Fiesole to Viola Park: Alessandro Pugliese’s Florence Story Never Really Ended
Some students study abroad for a semester and go home with good memories. Alessandro Pugliese studied abroad for a semester — then came back twice more, landed an internship with ACF Fiorentina, and eventually went to work for the club’s owner, Rocco Commisso, back in the United States. Today he’s Manager of Public Relations for…
Professor Francesca Parotti Presents on Space Terraforming Materials at Conference in China
Francesca Parotti presented her paper, “ARCUAS: A 3D Printing of Regolith and Bio-based Material for Terraforming,” at NEFES 2026, the 11th International Conference on New Energy and Future Energy Systems, held July 7–10 in Macao, China. The conference brought together 40 delegates from 16 countries and regions to foster communication across fields connected to new…
Alumni Stories: Bruce Siska, Matt Lysne, and Ed Muehlberg, Fall ’95 and Spring ’96
When Bruce Siska, Jason Halter, Matt Lysne, Ed Muehlberg, and Ernesto Teran arrived in Florence for the one-year Master of Architecture program in the fall of 1994, they were five strangers among a class of eleven. By the time they left the following spring, they were something closer to brothers. Thirty years later, that bond…
Alumni Stories: Griffin Conner and Will Hewitt, Fall 2019
Griffin and Will met by accident — a last-minute plane seat, a roommate’s invitation, an apartment near Villa Rossa with room for one more — and turned it into something that’s lasted years past the semester that started it. What began over shared taste in music and art became weekend trips across Italy, late nights…
