- Left to right: Carolyn Mannon Haber, Ellen Rudnick, Martha Wilmering, Mary Lynne Donohue, Christy Cutler, Gail Skolnick Brennan, Penny Feinstein-Ranan, and Jean Drimmer Iaderosa at the Neptune Fountain, 2010.
By Christopher Kleinhenz,
Professor of Italian Emeritus
On a bright September morning in 1970 we met at the Neptune fountain to begin our orientation tour of the ancient city of Bologna, which would be our home for the next ten months. And there we began our common adventure.
That event, more than forty years ago, seemed like yesterday when, for four days in mid–October 2010, thirteen of the sixteen students on the Indiana-Wisconsin program at the Università degli Studi in Bologna and I came from all points on the compass to renew the bonds forged during that academic year so long ago.
I still think of them as my “kids,” for they were 19 to 20-year-olds then, and they, as some confessed to me now, thought that my wife, Marge, and I were “really old” back then —“pushing sixty,” one said, which would make us centenarians now! Given that our sons, Steven and Michael, were respectively three years and six months old, their calculations were a bit off. As my students only later came to realize, we weren’t that much older than they were, but in those turbulent times of the late ’60s and early ’70s we were adults and part of the establishment.
Sixteen students formed the group, thirteen women and three men,1 and all thirteen donne made the pilgrimage to Bologna. Gail Skolnick Brennan, from Australia, had traveled the farthest. Mary Lynne Donohue, a Wisconsin lawyer, arrived directly from Israel where she had been on a cooking tour. Others came from Vermont (Michele Reiling McCaffrey), Chicago (Mary Elizabeth “Betsy” Clark McKay and Ellen Rudnick), Los Angeles (Penny Feinstein-Ranan and Carolyn “Cam” Mannon Haber), Denver (Christy Cutler), Kansas (Rebecca Weimer Janssen), Georgia (Jean Drimmer Iaderosa), and Florida (Martha Wilmering). Two reside in Italy: Laurel Grant Spano, married to a Sardinian, has been in Olbia for over 35 years, and Mary Bandiera retired to her parents’ native province, the Friuli, nine years ago.
In our days together in Bologna we easily recaptured the magic of that academic year and were pleased that, in many fundamental ways, the city had not changed: the two towers — the Asinelli and the Garisenda — still stood as mute reminders of the city’s medieval past. Some restaurants were still going strong — Diana, Pappagallo, and Cesarina, where we had our celebratory dinner on Friday evening and were joined by the beloved office administrator, Nicoletta Bonafé, and her husband, Gianni Mezzadri.
Other eateries were lamentably gone — Birreria Lamma, Tre Vecchi, Nerina. From our first meal at one of my personal favorites, Donatello, we remembered why Bologna is lovingly known as “La Grassa” (“The Fat,” for the
rich farmland surrounding it and for its predilection for using lard in its cuisine) and our palates were richly rewarded with the fare.
As we roamed the streets, we visited many familiar sights. The old center office at Largo Trombetti 3 is now used — appropriately — as headquarters for students participating in the European Erasmus program. Plus ça change plus c’est la même chose. Some of my “kids” went in search of their former pensioni (boarding houses) or apartments, coffee bars and trattorie, and all were happy to be walking down the familiar streets. Nostalgia held sway.
For me it was wonderful to see them now — talking, laughing, reminiscing, and planning for the future, much as they had done forty years ago. The leit motif that permeated our conversations was how that year in Bologna had been perhaps the most important one in their lives, truly a transformative experience.
All of the clichés regarding study abroad are apparently true. It was a year in which they discovered the existence of a wide and wonderful world that lay outside their narrow frame of reference, a year in which they had to adjust to a myriad of personal challenges — linguistic, cultural, social, and intellectual — in short, they came to realize that it was sink or swim, and they all proved themselves to be swimmers, perhaps not all of Olympic class, but close to it.
They lived day to day with their program-mates and with their new friends in their new “hometown,” friends that many of them still have today. There’s Christy’s fellow student acquaintance, Giovanni Tamburini, who owns an elegant wine bar and food shop (the “Antica Salsamenteria Bolognese”) in the old market district and who generously hosted one of our several gastronomical gatherings. Or Michele’s friend, Franca, with whom she has kept in touch for these past four decades. And the list goes on and on. Studying abroad is more, much more than classes and books, it’s about the people and places that become part of one’s identity and the source of many
(generally) happy memories.
And then there’s travel. Not only do you have to travel thousands of miles to get to Italy, but once you’re there, you have to see everything you can, for you never know if you will ever get back there again. And did they travel! In the days before Easy Jet and Ryan Air, it was, fortunately, not very easy or inexpensive to get to the hot spots that attract many of the students who study abroad these days.
It was also true that back in 1970–71 there were many more vacation periods than there are today, and this allowed them to travel without compromising their studies. After our six-week orientation program the students had almost a month before classes would begin in mid–November and then, only a few weeks later, the Christmas holidays began ending on Epiphany (January 6). And then here came Mardi Gras (and Carnevale in Venice), Easter, and a few other holidays or saints’ days thrown in for good measure.
In short, my students had ample opportunity to travel — and in some cases to go great distances — without the “necessity” of doing so in the limited space of a weekend, as many do now. Among the far-flung destinations were Germany, the Low Countries, Greece, Spain, and Morocco, and, of course, once the school year ended, in mid–June, some went even further afield, traveling as far as Iran and Afghanistan.
Before we met in Bologna last October, we were all, I believe, excited as well as a bit apprehensive — Would we recognize one another? Would our interests have changed substantially? — for four decades are a long time.
Once there, it was as though no time had passed; we quickly slipped back into the easy, friendly relationships we had enjoyed then and treasured even more now. The passage of time since our year in Bologna has not lessened the impact of that experience.
Indeed, all of us recognize that the pleasures and challenges we faced in 1970–71 shaped in many and diverse ways our identities, interests, passions, and careers. Where would we be without Bologna? It’s better not to ponder the alternative, as we continue to savor the memories of that wonderful, life-changing, lifeenhancing experience, which we are fortunate to have shared.
This was featured in the Spring 2011 Issue of L&S TODAY (Vol. 16, No. 2)