Family Matters: Students Look Back on Italian Family Club Experiences

written by Savvy Sleevar for SPEL: Journalism

Back in the United States, Endicott College student Lilliana Kyle is an only child, but here in Italy, she has a sister.

Through Italian Family Club, a community-focused activity open to students at Florence University of the Arts (FUA), Kyle spent some of her fall semester abroad with a Florentine mother and daughter. With this family, she gained a firsthand look at everyday life and local culture in her host city.

Kyle, a junior at Endicott, came to FUA to study hospitality and music, with her sights set on Italian Family Club before ever setting foot in Florence. “I had a friend of a friend who came back (to Endicott) in the spring from this exact program, and she told me about it and recommended it, knowing I was coming to Florence,” she says. “So I was really excited to learn about it since basically around the beginning of [last] spring semester.”

Alongside other interested students, Kyle attended an informational session back in September, and she submitted her Italian Family Club application shortly after. As the university’s Student Life & Development (SLD) team worked to match students with interested local families, Kyle and other applicants were interviewed ahead of their placement.

Kyle was optimistic heading into her interview, despite some nerves. “I knew that I had a good, decent chance… I have a welcoming presence, is what I’ve been told,” she said. “However, I can be introverted sometimes, so I was very nervous about that.”

Ultimately, her interview was a success. “The people at FUA are very nice, so I felt very comfortable already, being interviewed,” Kyle notes. “And it felt like a conversation as opposed to being talked at.”

In October, Kyle met her Italian family, then-16-year-old Irene and her mother, Daniela, for the very first time. This initial meeting was, admittedly, a little awkward. “I was extremely nervous, didn’t know what to say or do; I just kind of came up with the most random small talk I could,” Kyle recalls. As Kyle broke the ice with her new Italian mother and sister, though, their cross-cultural bond began to grow.

Throughout the semester, Kyle and her Italian family spent time together around the city, but some of the FUA student’s favorite moments with them were at their house. “We’ve had some good movie nights and some nice dinners that I’ve really enjoyed,” Kyle says. “They’ve been nice enough to make dinner to show me about the food that they really love … I really wanted to learn about them, and that was a perfect way to do it.”

Among other foods, Kyle got to taste panettone, a traditional sweet bread, with her Italian family. “I know 100% that I would not have been exposed to the foods that they’ve taught me about, especially the traditional foods for holidays.” She joked that it must have been funny for Irene and Daniela to show her panettone in November, even though the traditional treat is usually enjoyed during Christmas.

In addition to Italian cuisine, Kyle’s Italian Family Club experience gave her insights into Italian culture and daily life.

“My specialty is observing, so this is my goal for Italian culture, like, I want to observe everything,” Kyle notes. With an Italian family around, her observation of local culture is enhanced even further.

“Seeing the interaction between a local and other locals is really interesting,” she says. “Because yes, I see them on the street sometimes, but they [my Italian family] inform me what they are talking about, and so I’m like Oh, okay, so that’s what that kind of interaction looks like.”

On top of local interactions, Kyle also got to see how her American family members interacted with the Florentine community. When her mother and uncle came to Florence to visit midway through the semester, Kyle introduced her American family to her Italian one.

“The interaction was really fun,” Kyle says. “My side and their side were very nice to each other, and although there wasn’t a lot of talking … it was still very nice because we got to learn about each other, and we did learn more about each other’s cultures.”

At the end of her semester in Italy, Kyle reflected on her unique second family and how it helped mold her Florentine experience. “It’s a little awkward sometimes still, but it’s still a good way to get out of our comfort zones and get a better sense of other people's lives,” Kyle says. “I think it’s important to take the step to learn about the culture through a local perspective.”

To learn more about Italian Family Club, send an email to the SLD office at sld-studentservives@florencecampus.org for information on how to get involved in one of FUA’s most immersive cultural activities.