ffered through classes that made us think, “How does this information pertain to my life?” That is not the case with the classes at CET. Here’s why: On a Monday Professor Travis taught us about the Italian system of government and predicted that Italy would have a new government in a very short amount of time. On the following Friday, Sam, Kristina and I travelled to Rome to see the Borghese Gallery—home to the famous Bernini sculpture of Apollo and Daphne—and ran into massive crowds celebrating Berlusconi’s departure as Prime Minister.
Professor Travis also taught us about “amoral familism,” a sociological theory that “backwardness” in a society can be caused by individuals failing to act for the common good, an action rooted in distrust and suspicion of other individuals. Edward C. Banfield, creator of the term “amoral familism,” first came up with this thesis when observing a small, Italian town. Sam, Kristina and I, on the other hand, experienced this Italian suspicion of
others at a Siena v. Atalanta (Bergamo) soccer game. Whenever a penalty was called, old men would rise angrily out of their seats and forcefully thrust their hands at the refs, yelling profanities to contest the calls.
Not to be obvious, but Professor Albanese teaches us about Dante. And you basically cannot go anywhere in Italy without running into monuments to Dante, hotels named after Dante, or restaurants claiming to have uncovered the earliest fresco portrait of Dante. He’s just everywhere.
Another direct connection: Professor Petrioli teaches us about Pietro Lorenzetti, then we go to San Francesco church in Siena to see a fresco Lorenzetti created. He teaches us about Jacopo della Quercia, and we finally understand the fountain that we pass by every time we walk into the Piazza del Campo. He then teaches us about Sodoma, a Mannerist painter; Kristina and I make a casual trip to the Uffizi Gallery just to visit; we run into Sodoma’s painting of St. Sebastian; and I decide to write my Sienese Art and Architecture paper about that painting, just because I got to see it. And so on and so forth.
Essentially, studying abroad is awe
some because we learn about another culture—Italian culture—but instead of just learning about it in a classroom setting, we get to live it as well. Not to mention that the five of us girls in the CET Siena program get to learn and experience what we learn together, which is the greatest part of all.
