News and Past Events

Written by 2025 October Scholar Adrienne Voermans

I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have received a scholarship from the Seattle-Perugia Sister City Association (SPSCA) to study in Perugia this October. It’s not every day you get to live out a dream of wandering cobblestone streets, eating way too much gelato, and practicing your Italian with the “perugini.”

My love affair with Italy began years ago when I was a college student. Back then, I landed an internship in Italy through AIESEC — a student organization that began after World War II to promote cross-cultural understanding. That mission stuck with me, and it's basically the same heart and soul behind SPSCA and other sister city programs around the world: the belief that global understanding starts with people, one relationship at a time.

In Perugia, my days are filled with interactions with teachers, taxi drivers, local shopkeepers, and waiters who politely tolerate my errors in their beautiful language. Every time I manage a decent conversation in Italian (or even just make myself understood at the pharmacy), it feels like a small victory. However, the truly extraordinary part of spending time in Perugia and studying at the Università per Stranieri di Perugia is being part of a global classroom.

My peers come from all over the world: Turkey, Iran, Lithuania, Mexico, Tajikistan, Brazil, Colombia—just to name a few. Together, we fumble through homework assignments, laugh at our confusion, and cheer each other on (or cry) as we tackle tricky grammar. Outside of the classroom we grab coffee between classes and make plans to play tennis. These moments might seem small, but I know and hope that they add up to something much bigger.

This week, I’ve been reflecting a lot on how lucky I’ve been — not just now, but also as a younger college student. These opportunities weren’t handed to me because they were a great return on investment for the businesses that sponsored me or because they made financial sense on a spreadsheet. They were given because someone believed in the transformative power of human connection. They trust that sending people out into the world to meet each other is still worth doing.

And that’s why sister city programs still matter. They matter because they remind us that building bridges doesn’t have to be loud or flashy. Sometimes it’s as simple as a shared laugh or a group project with someone who grew up in a totally different part of the world.

So, thank you, SPSCA and sponsors for helping me be a small part of something bigger. You’re not just funding travel and language classes — you’re helping create the kind of real-world, one-on-one diplomacy that the world could use a lot more of right now.

Immediately after disembarking from il minimetrò at Pincetto Station in the historic center of Perugia, I learned two things. The first was that maneuvering a 40 pound suitcase on a sloped cobblestone street does in fact generate enough magnitude to register on the Richter Scale (my sincere apologies to all who were within a 75 km radius of my arrival!). The second, and arguably more important, is that every turn of the charmingly narrow streets of Perugia led me to something new and completely unanticipated. For example, as I walked to my apartment, I traversed Via della Viola and Via Cartolari, the artists’ district of the city that I have called home for the past month. In this neighborhood, every wall is adorned with art, ranging from the comically nonsensical to the profoundly polemical. This first day of the unexpected set the tone for the rest of my time here: to wander in awe.

However, as a scholarship recipient, I had to balance my immediate desire to wander with my academic studies. At l’Università per Stranieri di Perugia, I was placed into the advanced Italian course, which met for about 18 hours a week. Through this course, I studied lexical and textual analysis as well as phonetics and phonology in the context of various political, cultural, and historical topics. Beyond the course content, I had the opportunity to study with students from around the world, most of whom came from the Middle East, central and eastern Asia, and eastern Europe. As the only student from the western hemisphere, I deeply enjoyed learning about my classmates’ lives and cultures, including why they chose to learn Italian.

Students assigned to the advanced courses also have the opportunity to enroll in cultural courses, of which I decided to take three. In my Italian literature course, we explored excerpts of novels and poetry of 20th century authors, including Pier Paolo Pasolini and Giorgio Caproni. We analyzed the historical context of their writing, with an emphasis on their rapport with their respective cities. To apply our knowledge, we each wrote and shared a poem in Italian about a city we consider home. Needless to say, this was one of the hardest, yet most rewarding, things I have ever done in Italian! Moreover, I enrolled in an Italian Cinema course where we explored songs in Italian films from 1920 to 1980. Finally, in my art history class, we toured Perugia while learning about the city’s artistic legacy. These courses allowed me to not only wander across the city, but its rich history as well.

If you are considering applying for the scholarship and thinking “Yikes, that is a lot of studying…” I want to assure you that there is more than enough time for shenanigans. Some of the highlights of local tourism included visits to local museums, my favorite being a tour of Studio Moretti Caselli, the family home of five generations of artisans specializing in painted glass (I highly recommend the tour in Italian!). Moreover, as the capital of Umbria, Perugia hosts a plethora of events throughout the year, which are advertised on cartelli posted across the city. As I wandered, I took pictures of everything that interested me. As a result, I attended a documentary viewing at Cinema Frontone all’Aperto (an outdoor movie theater), attended four concerts at La Basilica di San Pietro and La Chiesa di Spirito Santo as part of the 80th annual Sagra Musicale Umbra, and of course, sampled several wines during the third annual Festival di Vino Umbro.

I highly encourage future scholars to take in as much as you can of Umbria! Every weekend, my roommate and a mutual friend took the train across the region to explore as much as we could. As a result, we admired “la città dei fiori” (the City of Flowers) Spello, toured La Basilica di Santa Chiara in Assisi, traversed the ancient Roman viaduct of Spoleto, and had a picnic on the shore of Lago Trasimeno, where we pillaged the local grocery store to devour a multicourse meal on a park bench. Travelling by train allowed us to take in more of the beautiful landscapes that surrounded us. Of course, this also led to a dramatic (yet retrospectively hilarious) scene where we had to sprint for 10 minutes from the boat of Lago Trasimeno to the train station in order to catch the last train back to Perugia (Two weeks later, I am still out of breath).

As I reflect back on this past month, I must say the absolute highlight of my time here was attending the dinner of our sister city organization, Il Comitato del Gemellaggio di Perugia e Seattle, hosted by board member Elisabetta Valentini and her family in Mugnano. At this event, I had the privilege of meeting the perugini who have contributed their time, talents, and resources to facilitate a profound cultural exchange between Seattle and Perugia, all while enjoying an exquisite meal. During one of the speeches of the evening, Elisabetta asserted that one cannot understand another culture without an understanding of their language. I could not agree more with her, given that language is more than just a means to communicate. Learning a new language represents an ability to enter another world, which is full of stories, history, and media to enrich and expand our worldview. To that end, my experience here in Perugia this past month has wholeheartedly affirmed my decision to continue my studies to teach the humanities, both in Italian and in English.

Alla fine, if “wander” is the English word that best represents my time here, la parola italiana would have to be “amicizia” (friendship). A simple, yet profound, word that encompasses the relationships that I am eager to maintain in the years to come. Thank you to SPSCA, especially the Scholarship Committee, for facilitating this opportunity. My heart is so full of gratitude to have had this opportunity to study and live in Perugia. I cannot wait to return in a month to volunteer at La Fiera dei Morti! Until then, ci vediamo alla prossima!

SPSCA members met for a morning of gardening and planting at Piazza Perugia (aka Julia Lee's Park) . Located in the Madison Valley neighborhood of Seattle, Piazza Perugia is an outward symbol to our fellow community members of our city's special connection to the city and people of Perugia, and we love to keep it spruced up.

Thanks to the efforts of member Karen Rosatti, the City of Seattle Parks & Recreation Department supplied us with hosta plants selected for the park's landscaping. The City is now also working on the plumbling and electrical to get the watering system back on track, and they have committed to adding the park to their watering rotation.

A heartfelt grazie mille to CEO Joe Fugere and the amazing team at Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria for welcoming SPSCA members to their Culinary Innovation Hub in SODO! We had an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how this local gem crafts more than 40,000 pizzas a week, along with many classic Italian favorites—pasta, salads, and tiramisu—using only the highest quality ingredients, all while honoring the Neapolitan tradition of being fatto a mano (made by hand). We saw the three Italian pizza ovens named after Fugere's mother, grandmother and great-grandmother that produce all those pizzas.

It was fascinating to hear the stories of how Tutta Bella pivoted during the pandemic to provide restaurant-quality food initially to local supermarkets, and how the business has grown since. It’s truly inspiring to witness such cutting-edge innovation rooted in authentic Italian craftsmanship, right here in our Seattle community. Tutta Bella lives up to its name -- “Everything is beautiful” -- by sharing their delicious creations across more than 30 states nationwide!

In April 2025, the SPSCA Scholarship Committee awarded four scholarships for a month of Italian language study at the Università per Stranieri di Perugia. Our Scholarship Program is a major way for our members to connect and collaborate with our counterparts in Perugia.

2025 Scholars from left to right: Gina Cantara, Karin McCullough, Conner Suddick, and Adrienne Voerman.

Gina Cantara, who first encountered SPSCA through volunteering at SIFF, grew up in a theatre family with her father often singing Italian arias. Her Italian godparents fostered her love of Italian traditions, culture and values, and she and her husband aspire to move to Italy within the decade. She has been studying Italian since 2019 and is excited for the immersive experience of a month in Perugia.

Karin McCullough is a pianist and piano teacher who began studying Italian many years ago so she could understand all the lyrics of her favorite Italian operas. She’s familiar to SPSCA members as the originator of our popular Italian sing-alongs, in which she plays Italian songs and makes handouts of the lyrics for participants to accompany her. She also hosts our Italian book club. She looks forward to singing with the Voci dal Mondo choir in Perugia and organizing future music-themed SPSCA events here in Seattle.

Conner Suddick is a university-level educator specializing in conflict studies, qualitative research, and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Langauges (TESOL). Conner started studying Italian two years ago to be able to communicate with his spouse's family in Italy and has since fallen in love with the language. After becoming a member of SPSCA, he has faithfully attended our Tavola Italiana Virtuale. Conner volunteers on the Communications and Events Committees, where he works on graphic design projects and will co-coordinate SPSCA's presence at "La Fiera dei Morti" in Perugia.

Adrienne Voerman’s initial exposure to Italy was through a 3-month UW college internship-exchange working for a small bank in the Le Marche region. That program aimed to increase cultural understanding between citizens of Italy and the US, so she assumed the role of “ambassador” at a young age. She recently began studying Italian online at Dante Alighieri and says, “I believe your Sister City Program is a small but very important way to create diplomacy and show that Americans still have heart and want connection with other cultures.”

Many thanks to the tireless volunteers on our Scholarship Committee and to everyone who applied! If you’d like to be considered for a future scholarship, please get involved. Come to the wine tasting, attend our annual picnic, practice your Italian at Tavola, propose an outing or event. Help us get to know you before we read your application!