Aperitivo 101

What is an aperitivo? An Italian-English dictionary gives apéritif …which for most Americans doesn’t really explain anything. But last night students got a translation, not of the word (they’re here to learn Italian anyway) but rather of the concept. The aperitivo is a great Italian custom of getting together with friends for a small drink before dinner. The drink is usually a small glass of prosecco (champagne) or vino bianco, or even drinks called bitters, said to stimulate the appetite. The best part of the aperitivo is that the price of a drink includes a buffet, making it a favorite among college students who can, for the price of a drink have a vino out with friends and even have enough food to not have to make pasta.

Pantheon Institute students followed staff member Zach Nowak through narrow streets to Piazza di Montevecchio to the aperitivo bar called Société Lutèce. Students tried the preeminent aperitivo drink, Campari Orange, as well as cool Chardonnays, and then filled their plates with Basmati rice, tomatoes in olive oil, couscous with peas, and cinnamon apples. As Professor Ann Devlin commented, it was nice to get away “from the usual spaghetti and chicken routine.” Getting into Italy through Classroom Rome – that’s what the Pantheon Institute is all about.

Field o' Flowers

Today Pantheon Institute student services coordinator Zach Nowak led a group to Campo de’ Fiori, one of Rome’s most colourful squares. The Campo was originally a meadow (the name means literally “field o' flowers”) because it lay in the low land near the Tiber River. Development began in the fifteen hundreds with several Renaissance palaces, but the piazza retained its plebeian character and became a center of commerce, something to which the cross-streets attest: Via dei Balestrari (crossbow-makers), Via dei Baullari (coffer-makers), Via dei Cappellari (hat-makers), Via dei Chiavari (key-makers) and Via dei Giubbonari (tailors).

The Campo wasn’t all fun and games, though, as it had a permenant gallows for executions. The most famous of these was the philosopher Giordano Bruno. On 17 February 1600 he was burnt alive by the Roman Inquisition because his ideas (such as heliocentrism) were deemed dangerous. Today a tall statue of him stands in the middle of the campo: Bruno stands defiantly facing the Vatican, reinterpreted in the first days of a reunited Italy as a martyr to freedom of speech.

Less gruesome and now more famous, though, is the Campo’s vegetable and flower market. Since 1869 there has been a vegetable and fish market there every morning, which was the reason for today’s outing. Zach pointed out the best places to get arance rosse (blood oranges) and Roman broccoli, described as “broccoli on acid” by Wikipedia. This market is within three minutes of the Navona dorms of the Pantheon Institute, and is another way that the Institute uses all of Rome as a classroom. Arrivederci!

Want to get a better look? Click here for a short video showing Campo de’ Fiori.

A Trip To A Roman Villa

Emperor Hadrian, who governed the entire Roman Empire from 117 to 138 A.D., was just not a city guy. After his accession to the throne, he quickly tired of the stuffy palaces of the Palatine Hill, above the Forum, and began building an enormous villa complex outside of the city. Happily, despite medieval cardinals stealing statues, the villa’s ruins are more or less intact. Professor Romolo Martemucci took the students to the villa and provided them with a nearly three hour long tour. A credit to his tourguiding ability, though, came from a student’s comment: “It was long, but we never got bored!” The students even got to cross the ropes into the bath area of the villa, just long enough to pose, reclining, for a photo. The trip was offered by the Pantheon Institute as part of its co-curricular programming.

Just another historical note: we here at the Pantheon Institute have a particular affection for Emperor Hadrian. The current Pantheon is a rebuilding of the original, and was carried out at Hadrian’s direction.

Photo courtesy Prof. Ann Devlin, Connecticut College.

Hippophagy

Cows are beautiful, gentle animals that chew their cud and lay down in the middle of the filed, splotches of black and white on a green background. And then we eat them. And none of us have any problem with it. Then why don’t we Americans eat horse (technically known as "hippophagy", from the Greek hippo for "horse" plus phagy for "eating")? Cultural anthropologist Marvin Harris, in his book Good To Eat, asks the same question: “Horsemeat is redder than beef, but Americans like red meat. Horsemeat is sweeter than beef, but would that bother people who dump sweetened ketchup and steak sauce on their T-bones and sirloins? […] Horsemeat is also lean and unmarbled, and tender even from an older horse…” But despite the taste and health benefits, we just don’t eat horse.

But Italians sure do. It’s not as widespread as a hundred years ago, but horsemeat is still eaten in many parts of Italy, and is certainly available all over the peninsula. And last night, some brave Pantheon Institute tried it. Six bold students (and their bold professor, Connecticut College’s Ann Devlin) had a whole dinner of salad and horsemeat cooked a cast-iron skillet, and another eight students tried a piece (in some cases, more than one piece). It was a huge cultural leap, leaving cultural taboos back home and trying something radically different, even just once. This is of course, is exactly why one travels, and it’s one of the Pantheon Institute’s goals for students studying abroad!

The Inauguration: Watching from Rome

Last night, millions (even billions?) watched as Barack Obama became the forty-fourth President of the United States. The Pantheon Institute students, as well as a dozen or so friends, crowded into the common room of the fourth floor dorm. A projector, a borrowed laptop, some iPod speakers, and a little techno-savvy on the part of the students got the picture projected on the sixteenth-century wall just in time for the oath of office. Many (though not all) the students had voted for Obama, but even if their votes had not been unanimous, their applause was when Mr.Obama put down his hand, and was President Obama.
There were some glitches in our streaming connection during the inaugural address, though luckily Reverend Lowry’s benediction came through just fine. Try translating “…and the red man can get ahead, man,” into Italian (we tried!). But despite the blips and burbles of the internet, we got the gist, and everyone present – Americans and Italians – seemed to be hopeful that a new era was starting. America had decided to return to its status as friend to the world, partner in global dealings, and we were all proud to be, in some small, representatives abroad.

Photo courtesy Aaron Fisher.

Roman Vacation

Gregory Peck has nothing on the Pantheon Institute students, who took advantage of their first weekend in Rome to see the Eternal City. The Coliseum and the Vatican were among the first choices, though the Campo dei Fiori market attracted some early risers, too. This Friday could see an optional trip (offered by the Institute) to see the Roman emperor Hadrian’s villa outside the city at Tivoli. Details to follow!

Photo courtesy Haley Massey.

A Taste of Home

When Americans abroad have a hunger for a taste of home , they make…Mexican! It was another great group meal last Thursday as resident chefs Matt Addison and Emily Cannarella teamed up with Guest Chef Sofia Ziegler to whip up a Mexican feast. On the menu were burritos and other Mexican goodies. Margheritas finished off the three-hour eat-a-thon. Next week: spaghetti with meatballs?

Photos courtesy Megi Theodhor and Paige Landry.

Seven courses all’italiana

It was a rainy night in Rome and while it made the walk to Trastevere longer (especially when Jesse paused to show everyone the Sixtine Bridge), it made the the restaurant even cosier. Yesterday was the official Pantheon Center welcome dinner and the restauranteur made sure that we all ate our fill, and then some. Rather than gorging quickly, though, the students and staff ate at a leisurely pace, starting with antipasti misti: bruschetta with finely diced tomatoes and basil and drizzled with olive oil, mixed cold cuts (prosciutto and bresaola, a kind of cured cut made with beef), and even mozzarella di bufala in the shape of a braid.The primo (pasta dish) was the classic Roman rigatoni all'amatriciana, a tomato sauce made with bacon and finely cut onions. The secondo (meat dish) was mixed grilled cuts, including sausage, beef, and even some veal. The fuzzy water and excellent red wine, drunk slowly during alternating bites of pasta and conversation (soccer, art, and Italian politics), prepared us all for the dolce. Dessert was a small plate with some tiramisù (literally “pick me up” in Italian) and panna cotta, a sort of crème brule, both lovingly sprinkled with cocoa powder. And then it was ten-thirty, and we realized we’d been at the table for almost three hours, and it was time to go to sleep, as there were classes the next morning. Ahh, Italia!

Photos courtesy Molly McRoskey.

Coffee or Caffè?

Sunday was the first day that the new Pantheon Institute students had a “truce,” as one would say in Italian. Despite the day off between Orientation and the first day of classes, students still piled into the dormitory’s fourth floor lounge for Caffè 101. Student services coordinator Zach Nowak (himself an admitted “foodie”) gave a short “lecture” on the botany, history, and economics of coffee. What’s the difference between arabica and robusta? What does Lloyd’s of London have to do with coffee? What’s the only product, in terms of dollars, more sold than coffee? But the workshop wasn’t only theory: students also saw how to use an Italian coffee maker and went through a long list of different Italian coffees and their Italian meaning, learning that cappuccino is primarily a morning drink, while a caffè in vetro (espresso in a glass cup) is the mark of elegance. The food workshops will continue next week with cheese.

Orientation Italian-Style

A short stack of pancakes, ham and eggs, a glass of milk and a glass of orange juice for Vitamin C...that's what's for breakfast. But not in Italy. Orientation for the Pantheon Institute started today, appropriately, with colazione all'italiana, Italian breakfast. No ham, no eggs, no pancakes, though the milk was piping hot and foamed to perfection in all the cappuccinos and caffe lattes. And students were able to try cornetti (croissant) filled with fruit or cream or even white chocolate.
After the breakfast "lesson," Program Coordinator Jesse Smeal and student services coordinator Zachary Nowak went through all the must-knows for Orientation Spring 2009. This included discussions of safety, of academic policy, of housing dos and donts, and about living in and loving Rome. The afternoon was filled with a housing workshop, cell phone purchases (Parents: Remember we're six hours ahead of EST), and a travel class. And just to wrap it up, famous Roman tourguide Nicoletta Messina took students on a tour of Rome's highlights, both to orient them and to show them the sites. Rome for a semester, four months in Italy. Learn, and carpe diem!

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." — Mark Twain

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." — Martin Buber

"Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by." — Robert Frost

Benvenuti in Italia!

Some missed connections and arrived later, some lost baggage (or rather, had the Italian Airlines lose their baggage), some just got there tired...but everyone arrived. This semester's Pantheon Institute students (who are from seven different colleges and universities in the U.S.) were all ferried back to the dorm building on Piazza Navone that will be their home. On their pillows they found quotes about being abroad and travel and how it feeds the soul and opens horizons. They unpacked, got a brief introduction and welcome from Program Director Jesse Smeal, had some dinner, and went to bed, tired but (we hope) mostly excited about this new adventure. Tomorrow Orientation and a city walk - but first thing in the morning: Italian Breakfast 101.

Ready for your view?

Only one more day before the Pantheon Institute students arrive in Rome. The staff here is busy preparing for their arrival, putting finishing touches on the new dormitory. "New" of course in the relative sense, as students will be housed in a renovated fifteenth century convent that overlooks Rome's main piazza, Piazza Navona. This picture shows the view from the dormitory's hall window. Buon viaggio to all of our students and see you soon - a presto!