SAMANTHA BLONS & MELISSA GIAIMO
Staff Writers
Students in the Florence program kicked off the spring semester by observing a closed practice of the Florentine soccer team, Fiorentina. It was the first in a series of field trips designed to immerse students in local culture.
“This is one of the many events we do to get into the Italian culture … that the typical tourists don’t see,” sophomore Chris Benz said.
Attending a Fiorentina practice was an exclusive opportunity granted to Pepperdine students.
It was “an honor because there are so many die hard local fans that would kill to have that opportunity,” said sophomore Martin Premoli, one of 10 students who attended the practice.
Only 10 students were able to attend due to weather issues, so they were chosen by a lottery system of pulling names out of a hat.
Although Florence Program Director Elizabeth Whatley had planned on all 54 students participating, she scaled back the group when inclement weather changed the team’s practice plans.
Students sat in bleachers at the stadium and watched the players scrimmage. One such player was goalie Sebastien Frey, who has recently received attention in American and European media as international soccer teams compete to sign him.
But, according to sophomore Jonathan Lightfoot, “the biggest celebrity we saw there was their head coach [Claudio Cesare Prandelli] who has been with the team for a long time and is very popular here in Florence.”
Since his arrival, Lightfoot has become known as one of the most spirited Fiorentina fans in the house, having attended three games last semester and organizing an intramural Villa soccer club.
Fiorentina pride runs deep in Florence. Many locals are known to name their first daughter “Viola,” the Italian word for purple, in honor of their team’s color, according to Whatley.
After the practice, several players and Prandelli posed with students for pictures and offered autographs.
“I got to see them more as real people,” said sophomore Sarah Villamaino, rather than “screaming at them in a huge stadium.”
The visit to Fiorentina’s practice was part of a week-long intensive Italian program that Whatley designed to help students assimilate to Italian culture and learn Italian language skills. This year, Whatley expanded the two-week fall program to include a week in the spring semester. The program is unique to Florence and occurs before classes commence.
“We want you to feel more Florentine,” Whatley said. “When you go to an island program like this, it’s so easy to live in this little bubble and not be involved. Yes, we want it to be residential, but we also want you to be engaged.”
Whatley and a team of students and professors organized field trips, taking into consideration the particular interests of the students, to bolster class material. Other field trips included a performance of “Madame Butterfly,” visits to two of Italy’s top newspapers, La Nazione and La Republica, and a community service outreach program called CIRS.
Students widely credit Whatley’s connections with local Florentines and persuasion methods as the reason behind many of the special opportunities the program affords them.
“To see the Fiorentina practice 10 feet away from you isn’t something that’s going to happen in any other program,” Villamaino said.
Whatley plans to reschedule a visit to a Fiorentina practice for all students to attend.
01-24-2008
