Arcadia Italy

All of our orientation programs are now complete and students are settling into their adopted neighborhoods, their new surroundings and their courses in Florence, Perugia and Rome.

The Arcadia in Rome program got the ball rolling, arriving on the last day of August. Their orientation program culminated with a day on the lake at Martignano. There they visited the working farm, took part in sporting activities on the lake and ate a full-course Sunday dinner in the traditional, family, farm-to-table style.

In Florence, I had the pleasure of joining our students on a hilltop walk in Settignano, overlooking the magical "music box" of the Florence below. We talked about the rich connection between countryside and city dwelling as we looked out on to the olive groves and vineyards as far as the eye could see. The students were overwhelmed by the beauty of the Tuscan hills and ecstatic to sit down for a beautifully prepared and presented full-course meal of fresh, homemade delights in a tiny, tucked away, Florentine enoteca where the wine and olive oil served was organically produced just 600 meters away. Conversation flowed as students gathered ideas to better spend their time in Florence: where to volunteer and serve the community, where to get involved with a classical orchestra, how to see a professional soccer match, what the best Tuscan towns are to visit, and so on and so forth. There seemed so much to talk about that the evening continued well after dinner, much in the Italian way, with a long walk around Firenze, culminating in a group picture on the beautiful Ponte Vecchio.

In Perugia, students spent a day, as always, on the famed Flavio Orsini Farm where they gathered and stomped grapes, learned about the fagiolina di Trasimeno and took part in all sorts of farm activities, including "whacking" the shells of the fagiolina open according to ancient tradition.
Here, too, the conversation flowed as we helped students devise ways to get the very most out of their time in Perugia. Flavio and his family never disappoint with their amazing farm fresh cooking and trays and trays of food come out of the kitchen until we burst. Pretty soon students at The Umbra Institute will volunteer to go back at the Orsini Farm, taking part in the vendemmia or olive harvest, becoming one with the land and their adopted context.

In all of our programs, students have chosen their courses and co-curricular learning activities: in each city we will have students serving hot meals and bringing warm, social contact to the homeless, to refugees and migrants; they'll be tutoring and interacting with young Italian students in homes and schools; they'll be planting gardens, making music, creating art projects and much more as they learn to become part of an international context not as tourists, visitors or outsiders but as integral parts of their communities.

Stay tuned for more updates on our students' activities in Italy,
Tina