Introduction

In its most fundamental, unadorned form, Italian 203 represents an organic confluence of the many experiential and pedagogical threads woven around my life upon my return to Duke from an unforgettable spring semester abroad in Florence. Absent any weightier calling, it promised to enhance the language skills I first acquired on campus and subsequently endeavored to expand in the classrooms and on the streets of Italy, a valuable influence unto itself. To my immense pleasure, however, the course from the outset claimed a more meditative mission in which the study of language would map a thematic journey across the cross-cultural network that has joined Italy and the United States for some three centuries. Having so recently negotiated the eastern terminus of this transatlantic tightrope, I could not imagine a more perfect opportunity to not only make some sense of my dizzying spring months in Firenze, but to do so in a meaningful way that, by improving my language proficiency and culture literacy, leaves me all the more prepared and excited for my next encounter with Italy.

The first unit of the course, a survey of food cultures in Italy and the United States, culminated in a research-based poster presentation concerning one of the many nuanced topics unfolded within this dynamic. From this early juncture, I was encouraged to derive inspiration from my own catalogue of experiences in Italy: When Eataly was mentioned during an in-class discussion of the Slow Food movement, the memory of my accidentally discovering the original store en route to Torino’s famous Museo dell’Automobile inspired me to make it the thrust of this project. As a native New Yorker, that delightful coincidence was by no means my first contact with the famous store, which opened its first American branch to universal acclaim in 2010; after traveling to the brand’s birthplace last spring and studying associated culinary trends this fall, I began to question the qualities that had so promptly and emphatically endeared Eataly to the United States, where it now will soon add three flagship stores to the two presently in operation. This curiosity fueled the basic premise of my poster research, which would find me consulting sources as varied as The New York Times and The International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management. Ultimately, I suggested in my poster presentation that Eataly’s holistic commitment to and embodiment of the principle of fairness as a business ideology essentially inoculated it against the effects of American consumerism, which enjoys amplified power in New York. As discussed further in the unit tesina, the store’s surviving and thriving under the caustic glare of New York, that historic disseminator of Italian heritage, would seem to mark a new chapter in the relationship between Italian culture and American culture. Never could I have envisioned that a mosaic of cultural studies, personal anecdotes, academic articles, and newspaper clippings would be so strikingly nuanced.

That the second theme would be near to my heart came as no surprise; since the first week of Italian 101, anyone who knew even in the vaguest sense of my academic interests or extracurricular involvement would mention the Italian 203 field trip to the Nasher Museum. The prospect itself was one of the major catalysts for my attempting to place into Italian 203 last August, and being a pretty lamentable self-advocate in my own right, I probably would not have dared to ask. Despite such heroic preambles, the Nasher unit still managed to challenge and surprise me, taking notable aim at my own seemingly well-founded relationship with the museum by essentially “reintroducing” me to it through the eyes of students who were on that day visiting the galleries for the first time. Somewhere in the balance between observing their reactions to the Nasher’s collections, exhibitions, and spaces and attempting to frame the whole afternoon within the distinctly Italian museum-in-the-city perspective, first introduced in our research on the museums of Bologna, my entire paradigm sifted, and suddenly I noticed a host of basic flaws in the philosophy underlying our relationships with students. Although effective solutions may not materialize for several years yet, this insight alone has spared us time otherwise wasted toiling in frustration over the wrong concerns; as an outgoing senior doing his best to cement the foundations for continued growth in the arts, I am acutely aware of just how previous this time is. The magnitude of this mid-project revelation permeates the video-blog, in-class presentation, and tesina created in its wake; in each account of the museum excursion, I noted in varying hues of awe the impact of visiting the museum with “persone che non lo avevano sperimentato.” For the presentation, I leveraged my new perspective into measured programming recommendations for Nasher MUSE, the board of student advisors I co-chair, namely that we have gravely erred in discontinuing our famous exhibition parties; later that week, I argued the same points at MUSE’s weekly meeting. In my conclusion to the tesina (and, by extension, the second unit of the course), I note that the Nasher “può essere una risorsa fantastica per gli studenti, ma solo mentre sta cercando di essere accessibile ai diversi tipi di studenti e utile ai loro interessi.” With luck, the invaluable  perspective gleaned from our shared afternoon at the Nasher will henceforth prove harmoniously attuned to students’ interests and needs.

With the third unit, Le Relazioni, came an interpersonal emphasis that sought to harness all of the grammar learned to date into another exploration of the Italian and American cultural crossroads. However, unlike the previous units, which centered respectively on the products and spaces that denote culture, the thematic crux of this unit had been left purposefully undefined. Said arrangement reflects the considerable directive freedom accorded to the attendant project, an interview conducted with an Italian speaker of our choice. Though the instructions called for the discussion to focus on certain aspects of Italian society and to make comparisons between Italy and the United States, we were entrusted with selecting and contacting the interviewee, determining the general subject matter and themes of the discussion, developing potential questions and talking points, and, ultimately, facilitating the interview either in person or via Skype. Instinctively, I called my uncle, Walt (his nickname is “Coco”), who upon graduating from college in 1983 rather spontaneously moved to Florence for nearly two years, and asked to interview him about his life in Italy. If it did not quite occur to either of us then that we had not yet debriefed my own months in Florence, we must have realized the oversight at some point during the 18-minute minute! Once again, Italian 203’s cultural investment fueled a discussion that drifted well beyond the reach of idle conversation, momentarily grazing the surface to revisit a favorite gelateria in Florence and then gliding back up into memories, feelings, and the spirit of the city. In that less-than-tangible domain, where 30 years amount to zero, there are remarkable parallels between his Florence of 1985 and my Florence of 2015. In one extraordinary moment, when Coco conjured a memory of the city in the moments just after sunset, “quando la luce era un po’ oscuro: c’era un’ombra, c’era una sensazione particolare,” (this quote included on the presentation handout) I found myself covered in goosebumps and was momentarily puzzled until I realized how much his depiction shared with mine. It was much less cold terror than a peculiar coincidence that is neither unpleasant nor unexpected, just a bit haunting. Perhaps it was another symptom of the timeless spirit of Florence, one which Coco and I agree has left an eternal print on our hearts. To think that I nearly asked one of my art history professors to give this interview instead…

In hindsight, the sprawling breadth of the grammatical structures, vocabulary terms, unit projects, review sheets, written reflections, cultural comparisons, in-class presentations, life stories, video-blog summaries, and occasional paranormal encounters that jointly define Italian 203 eclipse even the most sweeping summaries and contrived conclusions. It would seem a gross understatement to say that the experience exceeded my expectations when, in fact, we so long ago seemed to venture beyond the realm of expectations. Alongside my long-achieved goals of proactively cataloguing and analyzing the months I spent across the Atlantic, integrating the continuous, applied study of Italian language into substantial cultural inquiries, and confidently traversing transatlantic threads, I am delighted to add the following dreams I could never have dreamt:

  1. Synthesizing lunches in New York, an accidental world headquarters discovery in Turin, the Slow Food movement, articles on management engineering, and The New York Times into a keen analysis of Eataly as a major cultural intersection
  2. Escaping a potentially-interminable and critically ignorant perspective on the relationship between the Nasher Museum and Duke students
  3. Discovering striking sentimental/spiritual parallels between your life in Florence (2015) and your uncle’s life in Florence (1985)
Grazie mille di tutto, Matteo! Era una class stupenda & un’esperienza memorabile!