Heading to Italy

Hi everyone, as you know I am a participant on a study abroad program titled "The Culture and Poltics of Food in Italy" in Rome, Italy. The program is first in its nature, hosted by the Anthropology and Geography Dept. with UW Seattle. I will be studying at the Rome Center in Campo Dei Fiori (field of flowers), where I will also be residing close to. This "Field of Flowers" is a famous tourist stop for its huge daily farmer (bazaar almost) market and this is where we will start studying the Italian Food Chain and reach to the Global scale of how food is obtained and produced through Italy. And through this travel we will stop off at the Slow Food Movement that was started in Italy in response to the Fast Food (virus) who, McDonald's, started to appear in the eternal city, Roma.

When I arrive in Italy, I kinda have no clue what i'm doing until my program starts on October 5th. Basically gonna vagabond i suppose on friends' couches throughout Umbria, Tuscany and maybe even up north a bit in Emiglia-Romana (Bologna). Homeless till the 5th! It will be awesome.

Wonder if you knew this, there are no Starbuck's in Italy. Urban legend says the government banned them from even trying. I think its because there is a cap on how much cafe's and bars can charge for coffee...max i believe is 1.80 or 2 euros and maybe 5bucks realized that can't compete with that. Boh!

Personally I imagine that I will learn that the once pure and prideful Italian foodways have been tainted by globalization. And that all the fantasy that I want to believe that the Italian food supply has been protected in spite of the global rise of factory farming, conventional agriculture, and GMO's will be painted over. I also think I will learn about the Mafia's corrupt role in farming and agriculture. I hope to learn about product quality polemics as a result of the global food trading market.

In all, I'm excited for what I am about to learn and experience. All 3 of my love affairs should be melange'd into one trip: my love for Italy, my love for Food and my love for politics. I hope that some of you stay tuned and find my blog as interesting as I do.

I will update this pretty well, if you have gmail, you can click on the follow option and you can get email notifications about new posts.

Take care guys! Ciaoooooooooo!

Love,

Coral