Folklife Center Sponsors Italy Tour

The Fairmont State campus and the local community have an opportunity to learn about the "Roads to Appalachia through Italian Heritage 2007," through a study tour experience sponsored by the West Virginia Folklife Center at Fairmont State.

The June 11-25, 2007, trip to Italy will explore the cultural roots of Italian traditions and Appalachian influences, emphasizing the unique similarities between Appalachia and Italia, especially Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy). For more information about the trip, call Dr. Judy P. Byers, Director of the West Virginia Folklife Center at Fairmont State, at (304) 367-4286 or (304) 367-4403.

"The story of why and how the southern Italians came to Central Appalachia is an important part of our study abroad program, which will take us through the Mezzogiorno in the southern regions of Campania and Calabria where few tours travel," Byers said.

"A group of our Fairmont State students have a wonderful opportunity to participate in an intensive study through a competitive scholarship program. We are pleased to be able to offer our local community a chance to participate, as well."

During the spring 2007 semester, the Folklife Center will be offering a study abroad course (Folk 3399) on Thursday evenings that will review all of the historical, cultural and artistic sites and aspects of the travel program. Byers and Noel W. Tenney, Cultural Specialist for the Folklife Center, will team-teach the class. Tenney is also Assistant Professor for the Folklife Studies Associate Degree Program in Museum Studies and Folk Arts. Conversational Italian will also be offered. Fairmont State GEAR UP will select a group of educators to participate in the travel program and to create learning materials that they will share with their students and school systems. Tenney and Byers will also work with these educators.

In the late 19th century, the American Industrial Revolution reached the Appalachian Region when coal was discovered in its hills. Workers were needed to mine the coal in a far greater abundance than Anglo-Celtic Germanic farmers could provide. The timing was right to introduce cheap labor into the hills from southern Europe because many immigrants were flocking to America seeking job opportunities and the promises of prosperity for themselves and their families. Of the different nationalities, 30 percent came from Italy, especially the southern part of the country. Many southern Italians were forced to leave their homeland in a massive emigration that stretched from the 1880s to 1920s due to a range of frustrations and calamities: heavy taxes imposed by the government, natural disasters such as earthquakes and landslides, cholera, an infestation of plant lice that destroyed most of the wine industry and unpredictable periods of flooding and droughts that made farming a challenge.

"The tour will take us on an expanded journey of the Italian peninsula from the canals of Venice in the north and the rich renaissance of Florence to imperial and spiritual Rome in the center, with many historical, cultural and famous sites along the way," Byers said.

The itinerary includes stops in the following cities: Rome, Pompeii, Naples, Benevento, Cosenza, San Giovanni in Fiore, Sorrento, Assisi, Ravenna, Venice, Bologna and Florence.