Random Musings O' The Week

I am so happy to be able to be part of a trip like this. Obviously I would love to continue to travel as I get older – maybe with family, maybe for business, maybe for something else entirely – but this trip will undoubtedly be more unique. Two simple reasons I believe so: first, the group of people I’m with and second, the idea that we have a home city in a sense. So far everyone here has been amazing to travel with. Whether it be the precious internet time after class, eating dinner (either out or apartment cooked!), or grabbing drinks/staying in, everyone has been great about trying to include everyone or at the very least most people. Granted we will all split off on the weekends to do our own thing in small groups, but I would rather that that be the case so that everyone gets to visit the cities and countries that they most prefer to…plus it would be a nightmare trying to plan a trip for all 15 of us. Secondly, it is also very comforting knowing that we have a city to explore from but always come back to without the anxiety of paying by the night for a room or trying to learn everything on the fly: where the best restaurants or bars are, what we need to see, helpful little shops, and the tourist hotspots to avoid (and thus live cheaper). From Perugia we can make some day trips to interesting towns, have field trips to inspiring businesses, and have a single place that we can really identify with.

One of the things that I think could only happen if we were staying in one spot for a lengthy time like we are, is that one night as we were making the trek from the girls’ apartment out to bars we ran into this nearby restaurant off the beaten path. The owner only knows a little English, and we only know minimal Italian, but he was incredibly nice, offered for us all to come in, and gave us free shots of Limoncello – which I’m convinced is the unofficially official drink of Perugia save wine of course. He must have used up an entire bottle in the process. We promised that we would be back another night for dinner, and he insisted we use the upstairs as a private room. On Monday night, part two of our Independence Day celebrations, we indeed were back with all 15 of us for an amazing meal. He cooked family style dishes for us (served individually), and though I’m not sure what the exact cost of the meal should have been, he certainly cut us a deal. To boot, he even brought us down to the wine cellar and promised that the next time we came back he would cook any dishes on his menu that we wished. Since then we have seen him around town a few times as well. He is certainly the nicest man we’ve met, and I’m really glad we get to be able to stay in Perugia to have local connections like this.

Of course, I’m finally getting to the thing I’m actually here for, classes! In a word, they have been spectacular. I’m taking two marketing courses, Sports Marketing and Retail Management. For those of you unaware, Sports Marketing is the direction I want to go into, and it is taught by Dr. Baker, who I had for Intro and absolutely loved – his stories, humor, and experience are encapsulating. It is great to be able to have some concrete information and concepts for when I think of sports marketing. His lectures are interesting and relevant, and I always seem to have something I can add to class discussions. On day one Dr. Baker brought up how many different aspects are possible to pursue, which is fantastic because I am still lost with that. Retail Management is a class in the course catalog but not often taught at Clemson, and as a result it is being taught by Dr. Baker’s former colleague at UNC-Wilmington, Dr. Tracey Meyer. Dr. Baker has always spoken highly of her, and I would describe her first lecture as electric. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I was blown away by how invigorated I was during her time – talking about the future of retail and how people are going about speculating and resultantly acting on those speculations was both inspiring and exciting. It reminded me of why I’m getting into the field and the rousing opportunities, rather than the dreary thoughts of being unemployed or stuck in a sales job after graduation. So often marketing is viewed as a dirty and annoying way of trying to falsify claims and exaggerate in order to force people to buy things they neither want nor need, and even I get caught up in it sometimes. I am so glad that these courses are reminding me that I chose marketing to study people and their behavior, determine their individual needs and the needs of larger groups, and continually strive to provide them with those things that they desire, not go door to door overhyping niche products to people who are completely uninterested and not taking no for an answer.

On Wednesdays in lieu of class we have little field trips during the day to learn about local businesses. Next week we will be going wine tasting in Assisi, but our first trip was to a cashmere designer and manufacturer, Brunello Cucinelli in Solemeo. Though I had never heard of him prior to the trip, his line is carried at retailers such as Sachs Fifth Avenue. It is a rather interesting and strange place. The entire town is about 500 people, and 400 are employed by Cucinelli. He is famous for his outstanding treatment of employees. They don’t have set work hours, they come and go whenever they please to complete their tasks, they have a 90 minute lunch break where they can eat a multiple course meal at the cafeteria for only 2,80, and they have employee sales multiple times a year that make items I couldn’t dream of buying in this lifetime affordable to factory workers. To say he runs the town is an understatement. His business is the only one in town, he built a theater and small library with his name on it, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until his name is on the town as well. Investor’s advice here, the company is going public for the first time in October. Granted this might force a cutback on the types of benefits and extra-business activities he provides, it is such a popular company that stock may soon skyrocket once it hits the market. After leaving the factory, we were off to spend a few hours in Cortona. It is another hill town, famous for its Etruscan remains that are still standing since 2 B.C. We were treated to a lunch where the dishes seemed to just keep on coming, and got to wander around the city a bit. We did some shopping in all the different stores along the main street, checked out a park and the amazing views from the hill, and tracked down the remains and a small museum before calling it a day and heading back home.

Today (or yesterday by the time I get around to posting this…internet connections and all) for the first time I really felt like I belonged here in Perugia. Now that is not “belong” as in someday I can see myself living here, though that would be cool it would be very stressful and always feel a little odd. I mean that walking around, I knew exactly which streets I needed to take without even thinking about it; I knew which shops to avoid because of marked-up tourist places and which alley I should go down to find a much more reasonable price; I felt just at home as I do in Michigan, or the first couple weeks of freshmen year when I was just settling in in Clemson – still out of place, but comfortable with that fact. I hear snips of Italian conversations and can visualize the words but don’t know what they mean. I begin to spot out the obvious tourists and maybe even where they come from. And the funniest thing about all of this is that it happened when I was walking alone. I know just a few paragraphs ago I talked about how much I love spending time with everyone I’m with, and that has not changed. There are certain aspects that I love about hanging out with a big group like us. But when I’m with everyone, it’s just a reminder that we don’t belong here, we’re only students from all over the east coast. As my roommates began to start doing their own thing, I made the trek to school to use the internet for a little while. I met up with some people there, but walking to and from home and continuing on to meet up with some others at another apartment I was overwhelmed with this empowering sense of individuality.

On the heels of this experience, planning for the upcoming first weekend started to get down to the wire. A few are taking up the massive endeavor to go to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. A couple others are headed to the coast. The remainder of us are headed to Florence for a few days and the rest of the group will be continuing onto Venice while I visit Bologna. Despite the doubting looks and concern I received for my conviction to go alone, I’m very excited for the experience – for a couple of reasons. First off, for as long as I’ve been researching this trip I’ve had almost no interest in visiting Venice. It’s expensive, it’s out of the way, it’s a complete tourist trap (especially in July, holy mother of god), and once you get over the fact that it’s a bunch of islands with rivers instead of roads I don’t see the thrill. Bologna was something I kind of stumbled upon, out of the way of the majority of tourists and a place that looks really cool. As a total medieval history nerd, this place is my haven. Old town walls, medieval architecture, and these covered walkways all around the city that I compare to pictures I’ve seen of parts of Moorish Spain but I cannot accurately say which Spanish town exactly. For a few days a lot of people were on board with stopping there for a few hours and continuing onto Venice, but when it came down to crunch time this didn’t seem practical. As if I needed a final boost of motivation, my dad had given me some advice before I came over about not being afraid to travel alone, telling some stories about all the trips he made on his own back when he was studying in Europe. Rather than sacrifice something I really wanted to do for something I pledged not to waste time on just to stick with the others, I look forward to the challenge of tackling a city by myself.