The Beauty of Small Places

by

Kristine Crane Faculty The Cagli Project

When I told people that I’d be teaching in Cagli last summer, no one had heard of the town. And that was precisely its appeal. I thought Cagli’s relative anonymity (at least to tourists), combined with its small size (just under 10,000 inhabitants) would make for a more authentic experience than living in a bigger city. 

I don’t dislike big cities. I actually lived in Rome for seven years after college. I love Rome. It’s the only city I’ve ever lived in happily, probably because it’s a city of neighborhoods, each one like a little village. However, like all big cities, it is also loud, polluted, and expensive. I would often leave on the weekends to explore the countryside and nearby regions for sagra or local food festivals. By the time I left Rome to move back to the U.S., I was so smitten by the smaller places I’d visited that I told myself that if I ever came back to Italy for an extended period, it wouldn’t be Rome — but rather, a smaller town, where life is slower, food is better, and people are friendlier.

Cagli meets all of these criteria. First of all, life is slower. The afternoon siesta is still a sacred tradition. For our first week in Cagli, some students said they didn’t know what to do with themselves during the two-hour break in the day, but gradually, they learned to love their time to nap, daydream, or just rest.

This slower pace of life also bodes well for learning, especially in this apprenticeship-style program, where ultimately students learn to be self-sufficient and set their own goals. The emphasis is on quality over quantity, and we created 35 beautiful short profiles of people in town, highlighted on our Instagram page, TheCagliProject. Students also wrote one longer profile story with a photo package. ieiMedia founder Andy Ciofalo summed up the vision for programs: “We have produced dozens of features stories…Each of our stories is a colorful addition that will combine in an emerging picture with each subsequent visit.” I like to think of our storytelling approach as anchored in the Italian word artigianale, hand-crafted, or tailor-made, with slow and careful attention to detail.

Second, food. Food is wonderful in Cagli, as it is pretty much everywhere in Italy. But Cagli boasts of its own specialties, including tartufi, truffles, the underground mushroom with a distinctively pungent aroma and nutty, musky flavor that’s served in pasta, cheese, oil and honey. Passatelli, thick, tube-like noodles made with eggs, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and nutmeg, are another specialty of the region.

Cagli has many inexpensive restaurants where you can try these things, including a Michelin-star restaurant, La Gioconda, where we ate one of our last nights. Cagli also has a few cafes, all on main piazzas, where students regularly got their morning cappuccino and brioche; or enjoyed an early evening gelato or glass of wine.

Third, people in Cagli are friendly and helpful. Students made friends with their Italian peers and hung out with them. One student got her hair cut, and raved about the experience—both the stylish cut, and the kind hair stylist. Another student, as part of her reporting project, immersed herself in the town’s chess team, playing the sport she loves with them, while telling their story. Although many people in Cagli speak some English, students learned enough Italian to be able to communicate.

This friendly vibe made interviewing people and writing about them a natural, and joyful process. Cagli is ieiMedia’s longest-standing project, so there are established relationships with townspeople. The community invited us to take part in, and document local events, such as the Corpus Domini procession, in which townspeople created flower art on the streets. We were also there for the mayoral elections, and my personal favorite—the sagra della lumaca, the feast of the snails—in the nearby town of Pianello, where we sampled snail, and learned about its various uses (such as in children’s cough syrup.)

Another benefit of being in a small place is that everything is walkable: grocery stores, fruit stands, the post office, and the tabaccheria (small stores selling a mish-mash of things including tobacco products, newspapers and magazines, bus and lottery tickets). Even the hospital (though thankfully no one needed it) was just around the corner.

The town and its surroundings also beckon walking for its own sake. Nestled in the Apennine mountains, there are some great hikes in the area. At the same time, Cagli is not in the middle of nowhere. We took day trips to Urbino, a half hour away, and Assisi and Perugia, one hour away. Students also ventured to the beach town of Fano, and Florence.

But they always appreciated being back in Cagli. As one student wrote about in her blog after returning from Florence, “I do feel as if I have been spoiled by Cagli. The small village and slow-paced, quiet environment have been very sweet.”

Indeed: Come to Cagli and enjoy the real dolce vita.

Would you like to join us?

Get started on your journey with ieiMedia by submitting the GET STARTED FORM. We’ll follow up with you to answer any questions you have about programs of interest, help with registration for an info session, and review your submission for eligibility for our programs and scholarship opportunities. If you have any questions regarding this form, please reach out to admissions@ieimedia.com.

Did you find this blog topic interesting? Click the social media icons on this page to share it with your colleagues, students, friends, and family.