Author: Lizzie Floeck | Major: Communication Sciences and Disorders | Semester: May Intersession 2024
When people used to ask me the question “If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?”, my first answer was always Italy. Something about Italy’s beautiful scenery and the food has always fascinated me. My friend and I were reflecting on our time in college and realized we only had so much time left in undergrad, that we had to study abroad if possible. When looking into programs, I was looking for something fun but more importantly, something that I could apply to my future career and life outside my career. I am pursuing a career in speech-language pathology. I am particularly interested in becoming a feeding therapist. I knew that gaining nutritional knowledge from another country would only further my future career. Another reason this program sparked my interest was my love for making foods from scratch. I love to cook and bake things, bread in particular. It sounded like an absolute dream to me to learn about food in the place I have been hoping to go for as long as I can remember. I have to say, this trip far surpassed all of my expectations!
Pasta, pizza, and gelato… The only three things I associated with Italy before taking a trip there myself. While those did makeup about 90% of what I consumed on the trip, there was so much more to Italy than these delicious foods! My academic experience in Italy truly immersed me in the rich diet, history, and culture of Italy. The title of our trip, “The Food and Culture of the Italian Mediterranean” is the perfect title for all of the knowledge I gained in Italy.
Visiting the Trevi Fountain
We started our adventure off in Rome. Here we were guided by locals through the various famous landmarks in the very historically rich city. During our time in Rome, we took a food tour through the city, saw the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Vatican. Every single tour guide we had was so knowledgeable and we could tell how much they cared about what they were teaching us. Another part of our academic experience in Rome was learning about the Slow Food Movement that originated in Italy. We had a lecture with an expert, and she taught us about how they seek to bring back “good, clean, and fair” foods. Restaurants that follow the guidelines of this movement can be “Slow Food Approved” and we were able to experience a meal at a Slow Food Approved restaurant, Spirito Divino.
Learning to Hand Make Pasta in the Heart of Tuscany
The second leg of our trip was spent in Florence. In Florence, our academic focus was on Farm to Table. We had a guest lecture with a private chef who was also well-versed on this topic. Something that stood out to me in this lecture was the importance of food freshness in Italy. It is something that I wish we had more of in the US. Following our lecture, we visited the bustling local farmers market. It was an amazing experience, we got to sample cheeses, fruits, meats, and more! Another favorite experience I had that was near Florence was our cooking class. We got to hand-make pasta and tiramisu. I hope that I can use my new cooking knowledge back home in the US.
My favorite aspect of this trip outside of our academic schedule, was meals with friends. On the nights that we didn’t have a meal scheduled, my friends and I would venture deep into the city to try out a new restaurant each night. We asked locals to give us their favorite restaurants and it paid off when we seemed to be the only tourists in the restaurants that we visited. In Italy, long dinners are the norm. We embraced this at the various restaurants we tried. Some nights, we wouldn’t get done with dinner until 11:00 pm. This is something I could never have imagined myself doing until visiting Italy. Some of my most treasured moments from this trip are from those long, late-night dinners I spent trying new foods with my close friends.