This is our eleventh year for the program, which to date has hosted over 100 students. We are taking 13 more this year.
Pre-departure session dates: Finals week, spring quarter 2020
Travel dates:
- Florence: June 16 – July 5, 2020
- Includes Switzerland
Program Details
This food studies program begins with culinary intensives in Bellingham, then moves to Florence, Italy, where students study heritage food cultures. Students also study in the prestigious University of Florence sensory taste sciences department, with the renowned gastronomy/sensory taste scientists, Caterina Dinnella and Erminio Monteleone. Italian family home stays, Tuscan countryside excursions, cultural tours, and hikes. Museum visits included. The cost of this program provides most meals in Italy, including country and palazzo-dining in the Tuscan countryside, as well as conversational Italian and introductory art history as part of the food culture experience.
Additional credits are available through independent study.
Enrollment is limited to 13.
Additional credits are available through independent study.
Enrollment is limited to 13.
- Experience Italian farm- and home-cooking with Italian families and in hands-on culinary intensives in Italy, the home of the “Slow Food” movement
- Visit Fiesole (with its Etruscan sites and ruins)
- Visit San Gimingiano (Tuscan countryside)
- Visit Boboli Gardens
- Italian cooking classes
- Museum visits included, e.g., The Uffizi (the Louvre of Italy) and the Accademia (where Michaelangelo’s David is housed)
- Study sensory taste science
- Study natural animal breeding and biodynamic farming at Camporbasso in Tuscany
- Observe cheesemaking
- Participate in carbon-offsetting
- The cost of this program provides most meals in Italy, including country and palazzo-dining in the Tuscan countryside, as well as conversational Italian and introductory art history as part of the food culture experience
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| Our classroom in Switzerland |
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| Pre-departure cooking |
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| One of our classrooms in Florence |
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| One of our cooking classes in Florence |
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| Italian culture, etiquette, language |
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| Under the Tuscan Sun — last day reflections on our university, language, and travel studies |
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| Last meal in Italy, at Il Palagio |
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| Return to the U.S., more meals |
Instructor
Gigi Berardi, Huxley professor, received her B.A. in Biology from John Muir College, University of California San Diego and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Natural Resources, Policy, and Planning from Cornell University. She holds an M.A. in dance from UCLA.
Gigi has held four tenure-track positions and has taught at over a dozen colleges and universities – but she has saved the best for last: Western Washington University. Gigi’s research focus is on community vulnerabilities and food. In addition, she is an avid cook, gardener, student-of-languages, and fitness/dance enthusiast!
Gigi co-founded and served as interim director of the Resilience Institute at Huxley and currently serves as Resilient Farms Project co-director. Her current book projectis entitled FoodWISE.
Truly an amazing program! 11 years later and I would not hesitate to do it all again. Gigi is an extraordinary professor and a wonderful guide to exploring the origins of Biodynamic farming systems of Switzerland & the Slow Food culture & cuisine of Italy!
Emmett Codd, I remember you and your amazing insights! Truly an amazing and bold student you were to join me on that very first adventure!