Tuscany Trip Reflections
Initially I was worried about our trip to Tuscany because it didn’t fit the vision that I had before this semester started for my study abroad experience. I wanted to hit the places that everyone always talks about; the Rome’s and Paris’ of the world. So, it’s safe to say that Montichiello, Montalcino, and places of that ilk were not on my to-do list. But now, I couldn’t be happier with all of the places that we saw. Overall, I felt that I personally gained a lot from this trip because it did a fantastic job in balancing free time with direct learning situations, putting us in the right situation to learn as much as possible. I gained so much from this weekend because it was simultaneously a vacation and a two and a half day long class.
I am a big proponent of education through immersion. I believe that seeing something with your own eyes and experiencing something first hand is the best way to learn. At least personally, studying a cake recipe everyday would not be as effective as actually trying to make that same cake every day. On that note, this excursion catered to my learning patterns which helped me gain a great deal of valuable information. Firstly, I felt a heavy sense of culture and I got the sense that I was becoming more seasoned as a person. Having guided museum tours and going wine and olive oil tasting was one of the most sophisticated experiences of my life. Moreover, I got a better understanding of the different lifestyles and personalities of the Italian city and countryside. Before the Tuscany trip, I had only been to major cities in Italy. But after this past weekend, the mental picture I had of Italy became more comprehensive. I felt like I was in a more serene environment, were you were meant to savor every drop of life like you were drinking the local wine. Experiencing the vast dichotomy in the atmosphere of an Italian city like Rome and the Italian countryside was one of my favorite parts of the whole weekend.
An intriguing aspect of the trip was what everyone learned during their free time, which allowed us to plunge ourselves in each new region and observe citizens in their everyday life. One of the main things I learned about citizenship was that the pride in your home plays a huge role in how you act as a citizen. For example, our expert at the restaurant in which we had our olive oil and wine tasting was an extremely passionate citizen whose vigor for oil and wine, two staples of Tuscan culture, was contagious. This made it apparent to everyone that oil and wine were in fact important parts of Tuscan culture and not a false stereotype that is only believed by the people on the outside looking in. His pride for what made Tuscany special made me feel more engaged and helped make it easier to learn about his culture. Furthermore, citizens’ spirit for their region is an extremely telling part of citizenship. If people don’t have a strong positive emotion for the place that they call “home”, then there is a good chance that they won’t do the little things to help their local community. Additionally, if this regional pride is lacking, it can rub off on other people, especially tourists whose opinions are more easily molded, and can alter the perceptions of a particular place. Yet, the most telling example of participatory citizenship was the way the locals in the smaller Italian places treated tourists. In Rome, I felt like a faceless member of an overwhelming mass; the tourist. I was bothersome and insignificant. Conversely, the Italian countryside gave off the opposite vibe; I felt valued. The locals were actually happy to see me because they were excited that more people were going to experience the magnificence of their homeland. I had several locals come and ask my friends and me if we wanted our pictures taken and how we liked the region. It was refreshing to feel embraced by the locals. The outward participation towards building a rapport between the locals and the tourists from the side of the locals made me feel that they had a strong sense of regional pride, and consequently, a stronger sense of citizenship.
During the trip, two key characteristics of citizenship rose to the surface. In Siena our tour guide told us a historical anecdote about Siena’s founding that I thought was interesting. Later on, I would hear the waiter in my restaurant and a lady taking my picture mention this same fact. Thus, I realized that a historical knowledge of your particular region is probably important to all places, but more so in Italy. This is the case because Italy is an extraordinarily young country, even younger than the United States. Therefore, in many cases regional pride outweighs national pride making it vital that everybody knows what piece their homeland plays in the larger historical puzzle. The last characteristic that I noticed while in Tuscany was the role of food in citizenship. While in Tuscany, I asked many locals what and where I should eat. Although there were a lot of different answers as to where I should go, the responses to what I should eat were mostly similar; Steak Florentine or pasta and definitely a glass of wine. Although that may sound trivial, it is ultimately very expressive about the role of food in culture and citizenship. The local citizens in Tuscany were eager to share their culture with me. It wasn’t a hidden treasure that they hoped would never be found by a foreigner. They were very eager for me to experience just one iota of what they have experienced and if that could be accomplished through one measly bite of a steak Florentine then even better.
This trip was filled with memorable moments, so it is hard to just pick one memory that sticks out, but if I had to choose one, I would choose the bus rides in and around Tuscan. Seeing the luscious green of the Tuscan grass, the ceaseless hills, and beautiful sky was something out of a movie. This was the most unforgettable aspect of this trip for me because it was the most jarring. As someone who has lived in New York for his whole life and is now residing in Venice, gorgeous and natural land is not something that I am used to, so when I do see something like the Tuscan countryside, it is not easy to forget. In addition, the most unexpected moment of the trip was just how much I enjoyed the wine and olive oil tasting. I never thought that something like that would be my cup of tea because I haven’t been exposed to the subtlety and nuance of the rarer and more expensive foods. Nevertheless, I was equally surprised and pleased as to how much I enjoyed the olive oil and wine. Lastly, there was one aspect of the trip that I thought was troubling; the lack of tourists. Knowing that most people will never get to see the things that I saw during this trip is really troublesome and sad. Hopefully, it will change in the near future.
Although this trip provided me with a lot of clarity, it also left me with some unanswered questions. If I could go back and ask some of the locals a couple of questions I would first ask if they would move to a big city like Rome if they were given the chance. Next I would ask if they think that people from small places have a stronger connection to their city than people from big places. I would ask these two questions because I am interested in if people from smaller places feel a stronger regional pride. Also, I would ask my classmates if they felt different as a tourist in these places compared to the larger cities and if they felt more valued as a tourist in smaller places compared to the larger places.
Overall, I felt that this trip was one of the most valuable scholastic experiences I have had. I would claim that going to smaller and less touristy places was a better educational experience because it allowed us to immerse ourselves more in the space we were in and turn it into a place. The reason for this is that cities like Rome are too big to grasp in a few hours and the feeling that you missed something would outweigh what you actually experienced. I know this firsthand because I was in Florence for three hours and saw the Duomo and Ponte Vecchio but I felt like it was the worst part of the trip because I didn’t feel an intimate connection. I felt like I wasn’t experiencing all of Florence. Although I was initially upset that we weren’t going to touristy places like Pisa, I now realize that it was the best thing for my education.