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On Wednesday, December 11, the Syracuse Florence campus was abuzz with excitement as students, faculty, and guests gathered for the Final Art and Architecture Show. The event showcased the incredible talent and hard work of our students, who have spent the semester creating a diverse array of artistic and architectural pieces.

The exhibition featured a stunning variety of works, from beautiful handmade metal jewelry to intricate architectural sketches. One of the highlights was a wall fresco, crafted using traditional techniques. The creativity and dedication of our students were evident in every piece on display.

This event was also a poignant moment for the Syracuse Florence community as we bid farewell to our beloved restoration professors, Diane Kunzelman and Ezio Buzzegoli. Both have made significant contributions to our program, and their retirement marks the end of an era. Director Sasha Perugini shared heartfelt comments, expressing gratitude for their years of dedication and impact on countless students.

Adding to the evening’s significance, renowned art collector Christian Levitt attended the show, engaging with students and discussing their work before the exhibition opened to the public. His presence was a great honor and provided valuable insights and encouragement to our budding artists.

The turnout was fantastic, with attendees marveling at the brilliant work on display. The atmosphere was filled with pride and celebration, a fitting end to a semester of hard work and creativity. For more photos capturing the essence of the evening, be sure to check out the stunning images taken by our talented staff photographer, Francesco Guazzelli.

We look forward to seeing what our students will create next and wish Diane and Ezio all the best in their retirement. Thank you to everyone who made this event a memorable success!

On December 6, Syracuse Florence hosted the 38^th edition of the annual Florence Graduate Symposium in Italian Renaissance Art History. Six art history Master’s candidates presented their individual capstone research projects to a standing-room-only audience in Villa Rossa Room 13 on topics that ranged from the impact of French manuscript illuminations on Simone Martini’s 14^th-century frescoes in Assisi to the relationship between time and magic in Salvator Rosa’s early 17^th-century depictions of witchcraft.

Because 2024 marks the 60^th anniversary of Syracuse University’s Florence Graduate Program, we were honored to have a number of special guests with us to celebrate that milestone, including Dr. Behzad Mortazavi, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, and Dr. Erika Wilkens, Assistant Provost and Executive Director of Syracuse Abroad. In addition, nearly thirty program alumni attended the event, including program supporters Nicole Squires Marca (’90) and Peter Weller (’01), both of whom traveled from the West coast to be there. 

In January 2025 we will welcome a record-breaking new cohort of 12 MA candidates to the Villa Rossa, yet another sign that our prestigious graduate program is alive and well.

Pheonix, Arizona native Puja Pradhan, who is currently studying at Syracuse Florence, recently travelled back to the US to present at a conference in Houston, Texas. The Northwestern biology major tells us about the experience and how it came about.

This past weekend,  I had the honor of presenting my research poster at the Society of Neuro-Oncology (SNO) conference. This poster is a summary of all the work I’ve been doing in the lab in the past two years. Our lab studies an aggressive brain tumor called glioblastoma and we’re trying to understand the mechanisms behind its radioresistance and recurrence after radiation. My project specifically focuses on understanding what cell subpopulation is primarily responsible for tumor recurrence. 

I began working in the lab in 2023 and have been contributing to experiments, research papers, and discussions ever since. My Principal Investigator (PI), a renowned neuropathologist and regular attendee of the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) conference, recognized my contributions and invited me to present my work this year! 

Last week our students had the pleasure of chatting informally with Lorenzo Zazzeri, who won silver for Italy at the 2020 Summer Olympics and bronze this past summer in Paris.

Lorenzo spoke about the ups and downs of his exciting career as a pro swimmer, as well as his work as a painter and the book he recently published, Laurearsi Campioni (“Graduating as Champions”).

The students in the Italian class of Professor Francesca Bea, who organized the event along with Italian Department Coordinator Loredana Tarini, had this to say about it:

Many of us in that room would have never imagined that we would get the opportunity to be able to meet and talk with an Olympic athlete, especially as part of learning Italian. This is one of the unique experiences of studying abroad and becoming immersed in the culture and achievements of a country. It helped us realize that we could understand more than we thought and the open Q&A helped break the hesitation of having a normal conversation in Italian. Even in a more advanced conversation, practicing using context clues to piece together certain parts of the lecture was highly beneficial. I don’t think we could have gotten a better immersive experience as we got to know about the life of an Italian athlete and how it differs from the US.

The students in Antonella Salvia’s advanced language class wrote their comments about Lorenzo’s talk in Italian:

Penso che sia stato generoso da parte di Lorenzo condividere la sua esperienza con noi…Sono rimasto stupito dall’umiltà di Lorenzo. Si presentava come una persona umile e amichevole. Non c’era arroganza o freddezza in lui.

Robert Salvato

La cosa che mi ha colpito durante questo incontro sono stati i commenti di lorenzo sulla salute mentale nello sport. ….Ho imparato che la famiglia e la comunità sono molto importanti nello sport e nella vita. Penso che sia importante avere un’attività diversa da una professione. Per Lorenzo, questa è l’arte.

Alexandra Meier

Alla mia domanda “come gestisci lo stress quando hai una gara”, ha risposto che usa la tecnica della visualizzazione, dove immagini ogni parte della gara che va perfettamente. Voglio provare a utilizzare questa tecnica nella mia vita.

Lucas Catilina-Rebucci

Mi piace come Lorenzo usa l’arte per calmare la mente. Penso che l’equilibrio mentale sia una parte importante del successo nello sport. Lorenzo è un uomo intelligente.

Robby Cooney

“It’s a dinosaur!” says Syracuse Florence gardener Gelso Sassonia. The city of Florence has officially registered our beloved, centuries-old pino, which has towered over generations of U.S. students from the back of the Villa Rossa Garden, as a monumental tree.

That means, among other things, it is now a crime to damage it, with a fine of up to 100,000 Euro. It also means we cannot make any changes to it with approval from the Florence municipality.

A plaque has now been placed beneath the tree, which reads:

On April 10, 2024, this specimen was designated as a monumental domestic Pinus Pinea – Pino.

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.