The Barber of Urbino from ieiMedia on Vimeo.

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URBINO, Italy — Antonio Bisciari looks over this famous Renaissance city that has been his family’s home for 150 years and sees what the tourists see: a picture-perfect postcard town of unforgettable beauty. But he also sees something else.

“The people I grew up with are no longer here,” Antonio said. “So, staying in Urbino, a beautiful city, a marvelous city, but alone and with no friends is not worth it.”

“If you stay here for too long, Urbino becomes a jail; it’s not as good as one would think,” Antonio said.

To the thousands of tourists who flock to this scenic city each year, Urbino seems as lively and prosperous as it must have looked when the Duke of Urbino made it the hub of the art world in the 14^th century. But beneath the facade of robust health lurks a different story.

According to city authorities, of the 5,000 people living inside the walls of this ancient town, 4,000 are now students. Although the exact figure isn’t known, some local experts, including University of Urbino professor Eduardo Fichera, estimate that the actual number of families living fulltime within the walls of Urbino is less than two dozen.

A reflection of the three generations of the Bisciari family, one of the last families of Urbino; Felice (grandfather), Antonio (son), and Paolo (grandson), enjoy each other’s company during a family dinner.

The Bisciaris are one of these last families. Felice Bisciari is Antonio’s father, and also the grandfather of Anna and Paolo. Though their family’s existence in Urbino dates back more than 150 years, the lingering question is, “How much longer will their ancestral name will be carried within this little city?”

The Stacciolis are another one of these remaining families of Urbino. Lamberto Staccioli, a life-long resident who raised his family in Urbino, is Giorgio Staccioli’s father, and two-year-old Eduardo Staccioli’s grandfather. He said he believes that “it is necessary to always remember where your family roots lie, and [he wants] to make sure [he] can give [his] family the feeling and sense of belonging with which [he] was also raised.”

Today the Stacciolis all live within the same fortress walls but the manner in which Eduardo is being raised is very different from his father’s. The atmosphere of the town has created a dramatic cultural shift.

Giorgio Staccioli grew up with nine of his closest friends. He left town to attend college, came back and opened his own bar, and built a family here in Urbino. But upon his return, eight of those ten families had moved on, leaving Giorgio and only one of his childhood friends to continue their lives together in their hometown. This trend had become prevalent, as Urbino transformed from a small city with a university to a university with a small city.

The younger generation of Urbino residents are conflicted on whether to stay within the historical walls they’ve grown to love or to leave in search of bigger opportunities elsewhere. They say that the choice is between different hurts: The feeling of missing your hometown, or the feeling of being alone in your hometown.

“You have to stay in Urbino on the 24^th of December, the day before Christmas, when there are no students around, to notice how small Urbino is and how alone you really are,” says Antontello.

Carmen Staccioli, Girogio’s wife, is also struck with the same feeling around July each summer.

“Once the students have left this town becomes so empty. It becomes really sad and difficult to come to work,” she said.

Lamberto, head of the Staccioli family, takes a moment to reminisce about the beautiful city of Urbino, a place where both he and his ancestors have called home.

Antonio believes Urbino is a beautiful and magical city, but that “it’s a town from fables, and when you’re 20 years old it’s perfect, it’s the right town, there are no dangers around and nothing bad ever happens. But when you are a grown-up man and you want to have a family it gets difficult.”

Those difficulties revolve around finding work, and places to live. The job market mostly has two options: working for the university, or running a shop. And real estate is expensive because student rents drive prices up.

So Antonio deals with a 90-minute daily commute to work. But he feels the commute is worth it, because he wants to raise his family here, close to their roots. However, the saddening feeling of seclusion still tears him.

“Living within the walls of the city is expensive and Urbino doesn’t offer a lot of work,” Carmen Staccioli said. “The opportunities are very limited.”

Though she only moved here a short seven years ago, she claims it is still evident to see the distinct evolution that the city has experienced through this brief window of time.

This evolution has been especially evident to the older generations.

“The way of living is really different now,” Felice Staccioli said “Fate allowed the exterior part to remain as it was, luckily, but the relationships between people have really changed. Now everyone just ‘harvests their own fields’ and there is more individualism; in the past there was much more solidarity and brotherhood.”

In Lamberto and Felice’s youth, the streets resonated with the laughter of children and piazzas were places where families and friends gathered. But now, the sounds of partying students drinking from open beer and wine bottles echoes down the narrow cobblestone streets from early afternoon until three in the morning, making it hard for children and residents to sleep.

But while the last residents of Urbino see the students changing the quality of the life they cherish, they also know that their livelihoods and futures are tied to these same students.

“The youth help boost the town’s economy because they are constantly buying drinks, shopping, and keeping the town alive,” Lamberto said.

Antonio’s brother’s family has already moved away to Bolzano, leaving Anna and Paolo as the only future Bisciari descendants within Urbino.

“I belong to a generation that just wants to move away and look for something out of these walls,” said 17-year-old Anna.

She and her brother are torn with the tough decision of whether to raise their own families here, or search for better opportunities. Though it would make their family happy to see them stay and continue their legacy within the walls of this extraordinary city, they would rather see their children choose for themselves.

Antonio said he feels, “I can only help them to choose, but it’s their call. I’d like them to stay here and have children here; I’d be happy. But it’s their happiness, not mine.”

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URBINO, Italy – The piazza was already pulsing with energy from newly graduated students as Pasquale Massaro’s brother and closest friends got off the bus and began the walk to the college of languages where Massaro would be taking his final test in the University of Urbino.

Pasquale Massaro and his closest friends after he received his diploma.

They arrived in the waiting room where Massaro and the rest of his family and friends were already waiting.  The atmosphere was excited, as if “Paky” Massaro had already passed his exam.  Despite the high stakes of the exam, only a few short minutes away, Massaro showed little, if any fear.  He radiated confidence and pride.  After a little while, they were led into the testing room where Massaro took center stage in front of a panel of professors while his entourage sat in chairs set up in the back of the room to watch the exam.

Graduations ceremonies in Italy are quite different from those in the States.  Instead of a painfully long and scripted procession with the entire class lined up to receive diplomas, the students schedule individual times with the commissioner of their department when they will take their final exam,  delivered orally, then if they pass, will be awarded their diplomas on the spot and are free to leave without having to listen to any longwinded speeches.

To receive his degree in language and foreign literature, Massaro was to engage two of the professors in a discussion concerning the differences between the type of Spanish spoken in Argentina and that which is spoken in Spain.  He was undoubtedly well prepared as he dominated the discussion and any trepidation he may have had quickly vanished. His voice grew stronger with every word, aided by the constant nods of agreement from the professors.

Pasquale poses for a picture as he is showered with confetti.

After about 10 minutes, the professors seemed satisfied and asked Massaro and company to leave the room as they reviewed their notes.  A few minutes later, the company was ushered back in and Massaro was presented with his diploma as he shook the commissioner’s hand.  His family and friends erupted into applause and everyone offered their congratulations.

The celebrations quickly spilled out onto Via Veneto, bottles of champagne were popped and Paky was showered in confetti as he donned his laurel crown.  He ripped off individual leaves and gave them to all present, symbolizing good luck.  The party began making its way down the street towards the town square, with Massaro’s friends yelling the lyrics to the unofficial graduation song at the top of their lungs, “Dottore, dottore, dottore del buco del eu culo, vaffancu, vaffancu,” which is not a very old tradition here in Urbino. The younger crowds seemed to have created its vulgar lyrics.

“I feel like you have no more problems,” exclaimed Massaro, “so, so happy! But I feel also quite strange because I’ve finished the university. I should find a job and you know, it’s difficult here in Italy.”

As they arrived in the town square, Massaro’s group did a great job of making the biggest scene possible, yelling and spraying champagne everywhere and finally throwing the newly graduated Paky into the fountain, a traditional practice here in Urbino until the mayor had it banned. But Paky’s friends were far too caught up in the moment to recognize the rules.

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URBINO, Italy – Imagine you are visiting Italy, and there are millions of boutiques with beautiful clothes. Somehow you have to quit eating this great Italian food to fit in them, especially goodies like Capocollo, a ham rolled around some kind of cheese. Cheese is such a big deal in the Italian people’s life, nothing seems more important than the happiness it brings.

So you think: Why quit eating? It makes you so happy, this cheese.

Pierluigi Nieddu, an Italian cheese maker, runs his cheese business in Urbino.

Pierluigi Nieddu, a local cheese maker here, understands the dilemmas of cheese as well as anyone. He has been in cheese all his life, through ups and downs.

Nieddu, keeps 170 sheep to make high quality, organic Pecorino cheese, a traditional cheese made of 100 percent sheep’s milk.

He was born in Sardinia, the third largest island west of mainland Italy. Nieddu spent his childhood and teenage years there, where his father ran a small cheese business.

When Nieddu was 6, his father taught him how to make cheese. The boy had so much fun mixing milk in the pot that he forgot about time, and the cheese overcooked. “My first experience with making cheese was miserable,” he said.

In 1976, Nieddu decided to move to the mainland of Italy with his cousins for a better life. He worked for a cheese factory in Piemonte. Then with the experience that he gained in the factory after two years, Nieddu made up his mind to start his own cheese business in Tuscany. The business didn’t turn out as well as he expected because he didn’t understand business management and marketing nearly as well as he understood making cheese. Nieddu and his relatives fell on hard times. From 1982 to 1984, they had to sell all their sheep in order to survive.

Nieddu’s cousins thought about going back to Sardinia. Nieddu had a different thought. He was determined to stay. It was the biggest decision in his life.

Pierluigi Nieddu makes Pecorino cheese, which is a traditional cheese of 100 percent sheep’s milk.

In 1988, Nieddu moved to Urbino, where a local farm was available at a low cost because the owner was having to leave for a job in a big city. That’s when Nieddu’s cheese career got back on track, and the life in Urbino seemed to bring good fortune.

Nieddu got married and had two daughters. Now he sells his cheese not only in Urbino, but also in Gadana and Montesoffio.

Many local shops love to sell his cheeses because they are organic and of high quality. Those qualities are exactly why Renato Radici says he sells Nieddu’s cheeses in his specialty shop in the Galleria Raffaello, Galleria Dell’Altra Economia..

Nieddu has continued to make cheese not because of the money he makes, but because he enjoys the work that he does each day. Cheese is more like a friend than a food, or job.

“Cheese makes me happy,” says Nieddu.

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But one glance at the menu corrects that impression. Chef Claudio Amati, it turns out, is on a mission to bring back the flavors that helped make Urbino a capitol of cuisine as well as art during the Renaissance.

Claudio Amati is the only chef in Urbino that studies Italian Renaissance cuisine. ”Each restaurant (in Urbino) has a Renaissance menu that has the same ingredients revisited with modern techniques and modern ingredients of the season.”

And Claudio isn’t alone . . .

Daniella Storoni is also interested in bringing back Renaissance food cuisine. . (insert quote here).

Claudio is one of the chefs that are in the presentations of food in the Piatta Del Duca, a festival dedicated to demonstating the influence of the Duke of Montefeltro over Renaissance cuisine in the cities around Urbino over the summer months of June through September.

Walking into (get shop name) there is an ensemble of organic and biological ingredients and products. Talking to Daniella Storoni is both informative and intriguing. Her interest in Renaissance cooking strikes you in a way that leaves you wanting to find out more and more, even if its very simple. She describes renaissance cooking in descriptive ways that enable you to create a visual image in your head of what it should have looked like. Renaissance food is a combination of meats, pasta, fruits and vegetables on hot and cold plates, seasoned with oriental spices, and presented to those of higher social classes and standards.

She talked about the Renaissance cooking atmosphere as a (quote here) and a demonstration of the Duke’s power. The banquet halls were great, and the tables long, Urbino grew to its peak of power under the Duke of Montefeltro during the Renaissance era. Today, it’s considered one of the greatest representations of architecture from that period, and the cuisine follows it.

Storoni stated that the largest influence on Renaissance cuisine during this time was the Duke of Montefeltro. In order for the Duke to show his power he would present large banquets in order to feed his friends and guests. These banquets lasted many hours, whether for wedding parties or for simply eating and sharing food. Sometimes the Duke would instruct the chef to kill a female calf, proving his wealth because “if you killed the girl that meant that you were very powerful, you were giving up having other calves, it was highly symbolic” Storoni mentioned. As the main power figure in Urbino, the Duke of Montefeltro became the main force behind the development of Renaissance cuisine.

As Amati stated, the ingredients today are the same as the ones that were used in the Renaissance, they have different tastes and are used differently. Through the natural evolution of animals, meats taste different now than they did in the Renaissance era. Many of the meats in the renaissance were caught wild and then cooked while most of the meats today are cooked on farms and fed special diets. At certain times of the year, Catholics were not allowed to eat red meats, and so the diets of the people who lived in those years changed with it. Instead of red meat they were able to eat fish, and they caught it themselves, and over time it became a primary food source in the Renaissance era.

All of the elements in the Renaissance period were presented differently as well. They were on plates that were decorated with plants not meant for eating. “There are blends of meat and food, meat and fruit, and smells that are interesting but you need to find the equilibrium”, Claudio Amati states about the mixes of foods. Pastas and meats were served alongside fruits instead of as separate dishes. All of the elements on the dish, even the fruits and vegetables, were seasoned with the same spices. The combination of spices that was predominately used was “cinnamon, sugars, ginger, and pepper” and according to Daniella Storoni, “they came from the oriental east and this made him (the Duke) very powerful because not everyone could afford to have spices and sugars because they came from very far.”

The generic Renaissance banquet was centered around friendship and community. There were two courses, the credenza and the chochina. The credenza was the cold plates and then the cochina was the hot plates. The plates were often centered on the body, appealing to senses and making the meats match each other according to age principles of dry and wet. The older animals were considered dry so their meat was boiled, while younger animals were considered moist and they were roasted. The dry meats were served with wet foods and the wet meats were served with dry foods. This made for easier pairings and cohesion amongst the dishes.

Community was important in the Renaissance, and people would get together and share conversation over meals on long tables in banquet halls. The guests shared no tension with each other and it is said that banquets were, according to Storoni, “a sign of unity and cohesion and sharing food, culture, friendship, and community”. The guests and the host were able to share a common ground and talk around the table for hours.

Even though all of the guests were on common grounds they were not on them physically. Depending on the social status of the guests they were on lower physical levels than the Duke himself. You were also organized on where you set by your social status or your importance, if you were a close friend of the Duke you sat closer to him rather than far away on a lower physical level. There were also several times also that people were allowed to stand outside of the building that the banquet was in, and all of the leftover foods were thrown to them so that they were able to taste the food.

Daniella Storoni is on the executive board for the Le Piatto del Duca festival that runs through the summer months of June to September. The festival was formed 5 years ago to honor the Duke and everything that he did for the Renaissance food and the era. The Duke is the one that was known for making everything happen and they wanted to honor him. The 5 towns in the Pesaro – Urbino area put together a several month long festival that demonstrates the influence of Renaissance food on the Marche region. There are festivals that are put on and demonstrations that are shown at several restaurants and shops in the areas.

For the past two years, during this time the entire city has begun to make the various restaurant menus’ focus on the cooking styles that were used in the Renaissance. They prepare summer menu’s that follow the general style while updating the cooking methods. In order to keep the methods of Renaissance cooking alive Storoni “created a line of cookies that were based on the renaissance menu’s and the recipes were taken from renaissance recipes using biological ingredients” that she sells in her shop, (name of shop).

Claudio Amati’s restaurant focuses on the elements of Renaissance cuisine and through his studies he has helped to keep the Renaissance cuisine evident in today’s daily life. The demonstrations and efforts made by food historians and experts are important in connecting Urbino to the glory that it held during the Renaissance era.

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URBINO, Italy – Sirto Sorini, 78, and Mauro Patarchi, 44, huddle intently over a table filled with objects that resemble an arts and crafts project in the same manner two men in America might analyze the engine of a 1960’s muscle car.

The pair makes gestures to each other as they speak rapidly and begin working with the materials in front of them.

They are preparing for the annul kite festival known as the “Festa dell’aquilone”  which has taken place annually in this small Italian town since 1944.  Every September, the ten neighborhoods that comprise Urbino engage in a   competition with a fierceness at odds with the vision of graceful kites.

Sir proudly displays the trophy he won in the competition last year in his front window.  A passerby sees the old man through the window and shouts, “The king of the kites!”

This king of kites has been began making kites at the age of six, and has been teaching the people of his neighborhood his skills for over half a century.

He says that the people of Urbino had been building kites for centuries but it was not until 1952, eight years after the first competition, that the trophy and event were made official.

“Every neighborhood has their own ancient origin which we decorate our kites with,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.

Sirto and Mauro’s neighborhood is the team of “San Paulo” and accordingly many of their kites display the saint holding his sword vertically.

After decades of experience, kite makers become compulsive about the quality of their work for the festival, Sirto said.  It is not unheard of for one person to construct between one thousand and twelve hundred kites in the two months leading up to event.  When an experienced kite maker is finally content with a design construction can last between fifteen and twenty days and one hundred hours of craftsmanship, the two explained.

The festival is a source of neighborhood rivalry that follows kite makers their entire lives.  Mauro, for example, began learning the art of kite building from Sirto when he was eight years old.  He now lives in a different neighborhood in Urbino, but still identifies himself with and competes for the San Paulo team. Sirto laughs as Mauro says one of his neighbors calls him a traitor in the weeks leading up to the festival.

Mauro claims the purpose of the event originally was to unite the community by getting everyone to participate in an activity that was unique to the culture of the town.  He says the purpose of the event now is to preserve the town’s identity.

Speaking in a prideful tone he exclaims, “We are the only place in Italy with such an event.”

On the day of the festival, thousands of kites are flown in the air on a bald hilltop within sight of the old city’s walls.  A panel of 12 judges rates the kites in two categories, beauty and height of flight.  Mauro competes in the distance class and is known for making kites that are two meters in diameter and soar as high as two kilometers high while Sirto has always focused on the creativity and design of his kites.

During the heated competition, rivals try to steer their kites into each other and cut one another’s strings.  Sirto still speaks viciously about a man who one year destroyed both of his kites – then laughs stating he was the same way when he was younger.

However, Sirto and Mauro admit the competition actually brings the city together.  After seeing the sky covered with intricately constructed and beautiful kites of all shapes and sizes, all ten of the neighborhoods come together and share a feast.

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URBINO, Italy – Near midnight, a group of young men spills into the Piazza Repubblica, stumbling and shuffling over a cobblestone roadway. They gather near a fountain ringed with beer and wine bottles emptied over the last few hours. The leader pauses, then raises a vuvuzela—the infernal horn made famous by the World Cup in South Africa—and blasts staccato notes into the air. His ever-growing horde cheers wildly, as if his vuvuzela was spraying money, enough to make the college degrees many of them just earned moot.

Visitors who come to this piazza after 10 p.m. might think it only serves as a party platform for drunken University of Urbino students. But twelve hours before that, this square hosted middle-aged and elderly people calmly sipping espresso and nibbling croissants. Fifty years earlier, a burgeoning leftist student movement held protests here. Ten years before that residents gathered to watch the city’s first TV  together.  And two and a half centuries before that, this city’s heart began to beat.

For generations the Piazza Repubblica  has served as the social linchpin and historical stage of the city.

Though it’s a staple of present-day Urbino, the Piazza Repubblica has deep historical roots. It began to shift towards its current form in 1700, when Urbino-born Giovanni Albani became Pope Clement XI. The new Pope funneled resources towards the development of Urbino, concentrating on the Piazza Repubblica. His efforts worked, and the Piazza thrived. Decades later, in the 1800s, a pair of theatres further enhanced the area, and an arcade was built on the edge of the square to shelter visitors from the elements.

The Pope’s interest in the Piazza Repubblica is easy to explain, given the importance of piazzas in Italian culture. The Roman Empire, for instance, laid out its  towns where two main roads met, creating natural piazzas.  In Siena, the city wards have competed in Palio di Senia—a horse race—since 1656  using the Piazza del Campo as a staging ground to keep historic rivalries alive and the people paradoxically united through competition.

Similarly,  Urbino’s own Piazza Repubblica is located on a hill at a convergence of four roads, two going up and two going down. Bars and restaurants ring the area, sporting names like Caffé Degli Archi and Ristorante San Giovanni. The neon signs of some buildings provide a counterpoint to the ancient architecture. Other establishments favor a simpler approach: one below-street-level pizza joint is advertised by a painted black and white sign that simply reads, “PIZZA.” Anyone over six feet tall has to duck to enter the place, and it’s known to many American visitors as the “Pizza Hole.”

The Piazza wakes up early; cleanup crews and breakfast eaters are out by 7 a.m.. Trucks soon arrive, enough of them to obscure the fountain from view, and workers deliver food and drink to the restaurants. Buses and a tour-giving tram, which looks it belongs in a Disney park, use the Piazza as a drop-off and pickup area.  Cars and motorcycles also weave about. Any drivers who pass through must pick their way around tourists and residents.

To Urbino residents, the Piazza Repubblica’s importance is huge. Gamba Stefano, a middle-aged man who runs a shirt store just off the Piazza, said that for sixty years his family has relied on the Piazza to funnel customers in. The store targets students, who hang out in the Piazza, and tourists, who instinctively gravitate towards it.

The crowd goes through a slow but noticeable change over the course of the day: people of all ages are out from the morning until the evening, at which point the older crowd, which favors white wine and cappuccinos, gives way to students, who favor giant bottles of Peroni and Birra Moretti.

Opinions on the evening crowd vary. A gray-haired taxi driver said through an interpreter, “The students are loud and cause problems. It’s difficult to park, and broken glass is everywhere. And the bathrooms are closed, so there’s piss everywhere.”

But Carmen Staccioli, who works with her husband at their bar, Café Deggli Archi, recognizes the economic value of the nightlife. “We [cater to] the students,” she said. “Without them, we’d have less work.”

Come June, many of those students use the piazza for graduation celebrations. Once they take their last exam, each graduate dons a laurel crown, then heads out to the fountain for champagne and picture-taking. They tend to drink a little, talk a little, drink some more, talk some more, and then move to another area of the Piazza for more pictures and drinking.

Friends arrive. Groups blend together. The cycle repeats until nighttime, at which point the crowd becomes huge, amorphous and loud. The noise culminates when the vuvuzela-wielder arrives. Chants and dancing spontaneously break out, though the only dance move many of the young men display consists of hopping up and down with a fist in the air.

Despite all the drinking, the bars themselves are surprisingly empty. Instead of sitting inside with only a few people, the students celebrate outside with an entire city.
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