For Italians, the name Dante is heard as often as Shakespeare is for English speakers. He is a literary giant. A revolutionary in language. A poet of nearly unmatched, extraordinary genius that we mere mortals can only attempt to comprehend.

I first encountered Dante in my English class sophomore year of high school. The class was about the great epics—we read the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and Dante’s Inferno. Out of all of them, I found Inferno to be the most ambitious, imaginative, and, in my opinion, the most eloquently written. (Even taking into account that I was reading an English translation, which can’t begin to capture the beauty of the original Italian).

To understand what this work was, we need to know who Dante Alighieri was and his history leading up to it. He was born in 1265 in Florence, during a period of intense political tension between two factions: the Guelfs and the Ghibellines. The former supported the Holy Roman Emperor, while the latter supported the pope. Florence was a Guelf city, and Dante, an active member in the party. By 1300, the Florentine Guelfs divided into White Guelfs and Black Guelfs. The Whites, which Dante was a part of, were opposed to more papal influence, specifically that of Pope Boniface VIII. The Blacks continued to support the pope.

Dante’s political affiliation ended up being his downfall—yet, at the same time, beneficial to the literary world. By the time of the split in the Guelf party, Dante had achieved prominence as a politician in Florence. He was married, had children, and was well recognized as a poet thanks to his work La Vita Nuova. When the Black Guelfs took power in Florence, Dante was exiled. He roamed around Italian courts, but he never returned to Florence. He doesn’t mention his family in his works, but there is doubt that he ever saw his wife again, though his sons and daughter possibly joined him at some point.

While in exile, he continued writing, producing an “intellectual feast” of political and philosophical musings called Il Convivio, which never gained popularity. Then, around 1308, Dante began the work for which he is best known seven hundred years later: the Commedia. (Divina wasn’t added until the 16th century.) It depicts Dante’s journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven after he “lost the true way,” and is divided into three installments: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

The Commedia could be said to be a form of consolation for Dante during his difficult years in exile. In it, he condemns those who are responsible for his current state, dreams of a future in which the world is governed under a single monarch—his idea of perfect harmony—and in which he meets and is guided by those most important and influential to him, including the Ancient Roman poet Virgil, Beatrice, and Cacciaguida.

Beatrice and Cacciaguida are both important in understanding Dante’s other motivations for the Commedia, aside from politics. Beatrice was his ultimate muse. He says to have first met her at the age of nine in this church in Florence:

They only had a few meetings before Beatrice died young—possibly from childbirth—but she was a great source of Dante’s admiration and love, and one of the primary inspirations behind his early poetry in La Vita Nuova. She plays an active role in Paradiso, where she guides Dante through the heavenly spheres. Cacciaguida was an ancestor of Dante’s, a crusader; and though he only appears once in Paradiso, his importance is well established. Dante found consolation from thinking of his ancestry, particularly this heroic figure. However, this reminded him just how unjustly he’d been treated, and backfired on his writing. As Barbara Reynolds points out in her biography on Dante, his anger at those who condemned him threatened to shake the carefully constructed poetry that he otherwise had astounding control upon. At one point, she describes his rage at Boniface as a “monomania.”

The Commedia is an impressive work that took at least ten years to complete, and was finished just before Dante’s death. He takes examples from medieval art for the creation of his Inferno, including Giotto’s Last Judgment in the Scrovegni Chapel, and the depiction of the devil in Florence’s baptistery, which Dante saw as a young boy.

His journey through Hell is similar to a story of St. Paul’s journey, and that of Aeneas’s in the Underworld. Yet Dante crafts this in a completely unique way, combining pieces from ancient mythology and Christianity, all wrapped together in the beautiful rhyme scheme he created: terza rima (which follows an ABA / BCB format).

There is a reason Dante has survived for so many generations. There is a reason his poetry lives on and is studied today even by sixteen-year-olds in Kansas. We owe much of his legacy to Boccaccio, who, after his death, began a series of lectures in Florence on Dante’s work and ensured the Commedia’s survival. But we owe even more to the human imagination, to the innate fascination with the fantastical and the awe of genius. This is the reason the Commedia and the sources it drew on first came about, and this is the reason it lives on today. Humanity thrives on the power of the arts and of love—the only stronger feeling for Dante than hate—“that moves the sun and the other stars.”

Sources:

Quinones, Ricardo J. “Dante.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Oct. 2015. Web. 19 Mar. 2016.

Reynolds, Barbara. Dante: The Poet, the Political Thinker, the Man. Emeryville, CA: Shoemaker & Hoard, an Imprint of Avalon Pub. Group, 2006. Print.

Image of the dark wood at the beginning of Inferno (by Gustave Doré, 1861): http://www.worldofdante.org/gallery_dore.html

Image of devil in Florence baptistery (by Coppo di Marcovaldo, 1225): http://www.worldofdante.org/pop_up_query.php?dbid=I470&show=more

Alex Wendt,

Liberal Arts Student

La Befana vien di notte con le scarpe tutte rotte con le toppe alla sottana: Viva, viva la Befana!

Today is January the 5th and all the kids here in Italy are eagerly waiting for the “Befana” to come to their houses.

The “Befana” is an ugly and old woman with a long nose. She rides a broomstick through the air in the night between January the 5th and the 6th. Someone says she is a witch…

She carries a bag filled with candies, little gifts or coal and enters the children’s houses through the chimney (that’s why she’s covered in soot). The kids have to leave a long sock near the chimney so the “Befana” can fill it.

If the kid was good, she’ll bring him candies, dry fruit, chocolate, and so on. On the other hand, if he was naughty he will receive coal and onions.

When I was little this was my favorite holiday, even more than Christmas. I always left a very big and long wool sock inside the chimney and I woke up at 6 am in the morning, looking forward to seeing what was inside the sock.

Even now that I’m grown up I like to fill the socks and give them to my friends, as my parents used to do for me and my sister when we where little.

Today I made these nice spicy biscuits and I put them inside the socks that I’m going to give to the friends.

I went up to the villa one morning and found Teresa making a Lasagna with her thinnest fresh pasta and perfectly slowly thickened béchamel, we chatted about this and that and Teresa became worried she was going to get a layer wrong, so I didn’t ask her too many questions after that and just watched her knowledgeable hands doing their work. She works so hard and laughs such a lot, she is great company and knows such a lot about struggling through the hard times.

We roasted one of the the squashes at the weekend with potatoes, carrots and a chicken. We could have just roasted the squash though it was so good and sweet.

I got a nasty cold over the next few days and didn’t get down to the orto, but the day I did venture out, wrapped up well as there was a cold tramontano wind and took my camera in case anything new had appeared and would you believe it there on the edge of the patch was a pink balloon with a message attached with a lovely child’s drawing on the back.

It was  from france, it had been blown all the way from mid france to Tuscany in a day and landed in my vegetable garden. It was a lovely surprise. I made contact with the school and little Louanne’s family who had done the drawing and found out more about their project raising money for charity.

ANNAGIULIA CATENI’S PEAR CAKE - TORTA DI PERE DI ANNAGIULIA CATENI:

Base di Frolla Montata

Crema alla Vaniglia

Pere n. 4/5 (Dell'albero di Jackie….!!!!!!)

BASE DI FROLLA MONTATA

Ingredienti per una torta di 26 cm:

Burro gr 300

Zucchero gr 300

Farina gr 300

uova n 4

Arancia grattugiata 1 pz

sale

Procedimento:

Montare con le fruste elettriche il burro ammorbidito, ma sempre elastico, con lo zucchero poi aggiungere il sale e la scorza di arancia, le uova e continuare a montare per 5/6 minuti; nel frattempo setacciare la farina ed infine aggiungerla alla massa.Ultimare la preparazione mescolando con una spatola.

CREMA ALLA VANIGLIA

Ingredienti:

Latte intero 1 Lt

uova n 3

uova intere n 2

zucchero semolato gr 200

amido di riso (o farina 00) gr 80

limone grattugiato 1

bacca di Vaniglia ½

sale 1 pz

Procedimento

Far bollire il latte con la bacca di Vaniglia e il limone grattugiato. Nel frattempo mescolare con frusta a “foglia” (o mestolino di legno) le uova con 1 pizzico di sale, setacciare a arte la farina con lo zucchero, aggiungere le farine alle uova e continuare a mescolare. Quando il latte è in ebollizione abbassare la fiamma e versare il composto. Con una frusta mescolare e cuocere la crema finchè non arriva alla seconda ebollizione, questo per ottenere la consistenza densa desiderata e per abbattere la carica batterica delle uova. Una volta ultimata la cottura stendere la crema in una placca d'acciaio e lasciar raffreddare.(la vaniglia si lascia in infusione fino al raffreddamento). Imburrare la Tortiera con burro fuso e farina. Con un Sac A Poche stendere una parte della frolla montata su tutta la superficie dello stampo. Stendere la crema 1 cm e mezzo. Tagliare le pere sbucciate precedentemente a fette fini e completare la torte riempiendola di fette di pera disposte a piacere (tenere 4 fette da parte per la decorazione). Lasciare 1 cm di bordo per coprire la torta con l'ultima parte di Frolla Montata. Prima di infornare disporre le pere sulla torta e cospargere un po’ di zucchero per facilitarne la colorazione dorata. Preriscaldare il forno a 180 c e cuocere per 60 min. Lasciare raffreddare bene e poi sformare. Cospargere con dello zucchero a velo, oppure cacao amaro.

Jackie Tune

The combo ticket included, on top of the exhibition and the museum, the baptistery, finally uncovered after a very long restoration. It’s shiny marble white now!

The inside is, as always, just fantastic. I tried some eccentric panoramic picture of the mosaics on the ceiling.

This is regular, with the Jesus pantocrator

These are ‘panoramic’

And here is the good Donatello with Michelozzo. Tomb of the anti pope John XXIII

But let’s move to chapter two… Museum of the cathedral!

Read Art Day in Florence - Chapter I here.

Roberto Fineschi,

In Siena we live within the city walls.

Apparently, you don’t realise it. You get into the city centre through one of the many gates and you forget the bricks-belt around you.

Actually, we can’t ignore them. Most of the cities in Tuscany (I should say in Europe) one day decided to demolish their unnecessary, anachronistic, bulky walls. Siena didn’t. It was not necessary nor advantageous. Thankfully. The city centre has been protected by any kind of intrusion and even its green valleys are still secluded, magical places to be discovered.

I wonder if living within the walls produces any effects on us. I bet.

A feeling of security, a sense of belonging and feeling like home just when we get inside the gates. But walls means also living apart. Conservation or isolation? Identity or diversity? I would say one may find both in Siena. That’s why it is such an intriguing city. Never banal, never ordinary. Recently, the city walls made the miracle to put togheter volunteers from two enemy Contrade, Nicchio and Valdimontone, who worked for a city walls conservation project.

After all, senesi really love their walls.

Daniela Passeri,

I often think about the purpose of art.  Many, many people–wonderful thinkers, artists, writers–have wondered about this too.  And I wonder about wondering about it.  When I am standing before 15,000-year-old cave paintings in Les Eyzies in southwest France, and marveling at the beauty and mastery of those paintings/drawings/low-relief sculptures, that feel so alive after all this time that I can feel the artists’ presence, I don’t question art’s purpose.

To see those works is to realize the inevitability of art, to know that art-making and consciousness go hand-in-hand.  Tracing humanity’s roots, one finds the aesthetic impulse in our very early ancestors. And then one has only to think of the beauty of birds’ nest and bee hives to realize that all of life is perhaps suffused with this consciousness.

Maybe one only wonders about the purpose of art when one lives in a purpose-driven, product-oriented world.  We are all well aware of the “manufacture of desire,” that our capitalist consumeristic culture values anything and anyone that is marketable, and that the market of art is highly lucrative.  But we also know that the purpose, meaning and value of art is much more than that.  We know that it is hard to pin down and is as old as the hills.

I was thinking about these things last summer, while on holiday with my family on the high plateau of Asiago, in the foothills of the northern Italian Alps. At 1000 meters of elevation, the air is fresh and clean, and it’s a relief to escape the sweltering August heat of Florence. On our daily bike rides and hikes, we rode through thick ash and pine forests, came upon gorgeous panoramas overlooking the valley far below, and dodged cow pies on our way to the malghe—the dairy farms that dot the hillsides–where they make the famous Asiago cheeses. And on nearly every mountain side and deeply tucked away in the forests, are powerful and poignant reminders of the events of World War I. In 1914, the Asiago plateau was near the border between Italy and what was then Austria-Hungary, and there were significant battles fought along this so-called “Alpine Front”. In particular, the Battle of Asiago, also known as the Strafexpedition, or “Punitive expedition,” was an unexpected attack launched by the Austro-Hungarians on May 15, 1916. The town of Asiago was completely razed to the ground. And the fighting continued in the hills and valleys of the high plateau for the next 2 years, with huge loss of life on both sides of the war.

Our daily expeditions took us past the remains of trenches, battle-scarred hillsides, war cemeteries and monuments; constant reminders of what had taken place here only 100 years before. The bucolic natural setting was a stark contrast to the testimony of those horrific event–the destructiveness of the battles themselves, the disease, the horrors of life in the trenches, the use of poison gases, the destruction of entire towns, peoples homes and lives.  Millions and millions of people died or were maimed, countless more were forever traumatized.  The enormity and savagery of the destruction was unprecedented.  

And this was just the beginning, we know that the 20th century turned about to be the most destructive in history, and that up until today, there is no end in sight. Wars are being fought every day, as refugees are spilling into Europe in such numbers, many to escape these wars, that it is creating major upheaval for the current populations as well as the displaced peoples.

How have we gotten here?  With all of our technology, ingenuity and creativity, is this the best we can do?  How is that we humans have created such a conflict-filled world?  Only through a long process of de-sensitization.  Perhaps art can bring us to our senses.  Literally and figuratively.  Art is a necessity.  It offers us the possibility to re-form our world.

Walking through these trenches last summer, I thought of all of these things. And I thought about different kinds of art that are a direct response to war and to the kind of mind, the kind of world, that sees war as a solution or as an inevitability.

As a response to the absurdity of the war and to the “rationale” that leads to it, Dada was a most sane response. An artistic and literary movement founded in Zurich in 1916, it opposed the cultural values believed to have led to the First World War.  As Hugo Ball, one of the co-founders of Dada said of the Cabaret Voltaire, the site of Dada’s first performances: “It is necessary to clarify the intentions of this cabaret. It is its aim to remind the world that there are people of independent minds - beyond war and nationalism - who live for different ideals.”  It was art as protest. ‘It’s not Dada that is nonsense–but the essence of our age that is nonsense.’  (The Dadaists) Just as with the definition of art itself, Dada is hard to pin down.  It is often referred to as an anti-art movement, because it calls into question many of the tenets of Modernism, but at the same time, it epitomizes what art has the power to do: to wake us up, to reveal the truths of existence, and to expand our imaginations.  Art as wake-up call.

‘I wish to blur the firm boundaries which we self-certain people tend to delineate around all we can achieve.’  (Hannah Hoch)

We can trace the legacy of Dada, through to today, even though it was a short-lived movement.  It’s spirit is alive in all of us, as artists, as humans, who care deeply about the world, and can imagine another possibility.

Melissa Morris,

It’s been a somewhat drizzly October but that means it has been an amazing season for the local mushrooms in Tuscany.  

Porcini mushrooms are a local favorite, rich and flavorful, they can be used in all sorts of dishes, on pasta, in soups, or battered and fried!  Here you can see a collection of Tuscan recipes using mushrooms compiled in conjunction with the EXPO 2015 event “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”.

The local Natural History Museum here in Siena, the Accademia Fisiocritici, right around the corner from the school, has a whole display section dedicated to mushrooms.

Since mushrooms are hard to preserve, a series of detailed models in terracotta were made by scientist Francesco Valenti Serini (1795-1862) to aide in the study of local fungi and to understand in greater detail the difference between different species and how they appear in nature.

Obviously with mushrooms it is important to be able to identify them correctly, since some can be a tasty ingredient and others can be toxic!  You can find out more about the terra cotta mushrooms on the website of the Fisiocritici museum.

[The photos used are all from their collection].

Lisa Nonken,

“Messico e nuvole” is the title of a popular song from some decades ago; every time I go to Mexico, it pops up on my mind.

I was in Mexico city for the third time in ten years and I can say I’m kind of familiar with the place, an incredible mix of people, cultures and nature.

I was there for a conference and a lecture that were a great success. Nemo profeta in patria, as the Romans used to say.

Welcomed by old friends, I made some new ones, in particular from Argentina.

Visiting Xochimilco channels

and Teotihuacan pyramids.

Thanks Mexico for being so warm with me. I’ll be back!

Roberto Fineschi,

Today is Saturday. Yes! Weekend!

I don’t have plans for the day. A fieldtrip near Siena? Afternoon to the beach? A refreshing bath in the pool? Or perhaps a walk in the city center? Any clear idea in my mind about what to do in this cloudy day of July.

Well…there’s something that I could do, something at the same time relaxing and fun. I could cook a delicious lunch!

The course of the day will be “Spaghetti con le vongole”, that is spaghetti with clams. This dish is traditional of the South of Italy. It is a quick and easy recipe and the result is really appetizing!

The first thing I have to do is going to the market with the shopping list, in order to buy some ingredients that I need:

spaghetti

clams

tomatoes (the small ones)

garlic

parsley (forgot to get it…)

Once back home, with some nice music (and a fan), I started working in the kitchen!

Directions

Wash the clams very carefully and more than one time, they might contain sand.

Heat 3 spoons of olive oil in a pan and add 2 garlic cloves. Add the clams and a little bit of white wine to the pan, cover it and let the clams cook until the shalls don’t open, thanks to the heat. They produce a liquid that is very flavorful.

Than add the spaghetti in salted boiling water.

While pasta is cooking, heat 3 spoons of olive oil in another pan, with a garlic clove and the cut tomatoes. Let them cook for a few seconds and than add the clams with their liquid.

When the spaghetti are “al dente” (cooked 2 or 3 minutes less than the recommended time), save a glass of cooking water, drain them and add them to the pan. Add the cooking water to the pan and cook for 2 minutes more.

Ready!!!

And…..BUON APPETITO A TUTTI!!!

This is what was left…  :-)

Chiara Ricchi,

We are having a summer heat wave in Siena, so on Saturday I decided to take the beach bus down to the Tuscan seaside town of Castiglione della Pescaia for some ocean breezes.

I had never been to Castiglione before, and this was my first time taking the beach bus, too.

The bus left Siena at 7:30 in the morning and came back at 8 pm, so it was a full day, but I wish I could have stayed longer!

Castiglione has a beautiful medieval historic center on a bluff looking out over the coastline of the Maremma… 

…and the beach is smooth and wonderfully tranquil. 

It was crowded (a lot of people had the same idea as me to escape the heat at the beach!), but there was still space for everyone, and it made for fun people-watching all day. 

The water was heavenly although the afternoon got very windy!  My umbrella blew over, but thankfully no one got impaled as it bounced down the beach!

 I didn’t try to put it back up for the rest of the afternoon because the wind stayed very gusty until it was time to leave!  Still, I can’t complain because after all it was ocean breezes that I had come looking for!

Lisa Nonken,

Drawing teacher - Siena School for Liberal Arts

So, safe to say there are hundreds if not thousands of study abroad program choices out there. Some are school sponsored, some are with partner universities or colleges, and some are private programs, but each one has unique qualities that differentiate it from all the rest. The big question is: With all these choices how can people figure out which program is the best fit for them? Here are 4 simple steps that may help you when planning your own study abroad.

Step 1: Know your needs.

What do you need to gain from studying abroad? Are you doing it for school credits? Having the adventure of a lifetime? To party? To explore? Answering this can really help hash out the programs that just will not work for you. For us, we wanted to have and adventure while getting some credits so we would not be in college FOREVER! So, since both of us are working on two majors, we decided to get our foreign language major, in Japanese, out of the way through some study abroad. *Note: If your goal is credits or some sort of hours for school, check that your school will transfer credits from a private program and not just from partnered or sponsored programs if you find a private program you are interested in.

Step 2: What country?

After figuring out what you need to get out of your program, the next step is figuring out where you want to go. Do you have a craving for the romance of Europe? Is the majesty of Asia calling to you? Do you want to explore the tropical wonders of Central or South America? Maybe, it could be a simple matter of convenience. Allison and I both have a Japanese language major we are working on, so it only made sense when we chose Japan as our target country. Not that we are complaining, we both love the language, culture, and history of Japan.

Step 3: Private, Partnered, or Sponsored?

 We should probably explain what we mean when we say Private, Partnered, or Sponsored programs. *Note: These are our definitions. Not everyone uses these terms, but the definitions do explain the general classification of the programs out there. First, Private Program- these are programs that are not affiliated with your home institution. These can be programs offered by companies that specialize in exchange or study abroad programs, or by unaffiliated universities or colleges. Next, Partnered Programs- these are programs that are offered through your home institution; where you participate in an affiliated university, college, or company’s program. Your home institution will probably be more knowledgeable of these programs and be able to assist you with them, in comparison to private. Partnered programs will normally have credits that will transfer with little difficulty. Also, your home institution can provide support to you during your time abroad. Lastly, Sponsored programs- these programs are led by your home institution and often count as a class. Most of the time, these are faculty led, so there is always an appointed chaperone with you. Also, these tend to have a set itinerary and are shorter in length. Since they tend to count as a class, credit transfer is not a problem. Often Scholarships can be applied to partner and sponsored programs. We chose a partnered program because it suited our educational and financial needs best.

Step 4: Pick the program.

So, you have figured out why, where, and what type. Now it is time for which. At this stage, research is the key. Knowing what each program offers and then narrowing it down by your own personal preference and needs is, in our opinion, the best way to do this. We needed Japanese language credits, so that narrowed down the list a little, most programs offer some foreign language classes as part of their curriculum, but we wanted something intensive and immersive. Plus, we did not want to argue with our university’s credit transfer office to try to get a private program’s credits to transfer, so, as mentioned above, we picked school partnered. From there, it was just personal preference. We wanted to be near the action, we are college students, but also not in the heart of a massive city. In classes we are only taught standard Japanese, so going to somewhere like Osaka, where a different dialect is spoken was a little too much of a challenge. My Osaka-ben is a little rusty, I barely can understand a simple sentence, so no. We narrowed it down to a university in Kantō. We also wanted to study abroad for an entire year instead of just a semester. I wanted to be near my family in case something happened and Allison had friends nearby, so, in the end, J.F. Oberlin University was the perfect fit for us.

A little extra advice:

Along with all this, talk to people you know who have done study abroad, talk to your study abroad office, or a professor in the department of what you want to study while abroad. Doing this can get you all sorts of information like program specifics, scholarship opportunities, or just advice from a knowledgeable source. Even if you decide against the programs they suggest, at least you know to ignore these when researching your other options.

With this, the best of luck in beginning your own study abroad journey. We hope that maybe this helps you even a little.