BRIDGING FLORENCE FLORIDA STATE

FSU INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS’ STRONG RELATIONSHIP WITH FLORENCE

By Kelli Gemmer (B.A. ’14, M.S. ’18)

The relationship between Florida State University and Florence, Italy, flows deep, and it all began at the circus.

It was the summer of 1964 and student performers in the FSU Flying High Circus were on tour throughout Greece, Spain, France and Italy. The then Dean of Student Affairs Roscoe “Ross” Oglesby and Literature Professor Conrad “Gene” Tanzy, who accompanied the students, admired the city’s rich history as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance.

Florida State and Italian officials arranged performances outside of Florence in the ancient Roman theater. It was here during these performances — as alumni recall — that the vision for an FSU program in Florence was born.

In 1966, the university launched the FSUadministered pilot program in Florence and Tanzy established the Hotel Capri as the first FSU Florence Study Center. That fall, 120 students, six faculty members and Tanzy, as program director, arrived in Florence for the seven-month program.

Just two months after their arrival, tragedy struck the city. The Arno River flooded Florence, leaving mud and debris in its wake. The city suffered tremendous damage and museums, archives and libraries were covered in mud.

Instead of heading home to Tallahassee, FSU students and faculty responded to the citywide call for volunteers to assist in recovery efforts and helped save important works of art damaged by the flood. The city’s residents dubbed them, along with other international students, “Gli Angeli del Fango,” or “Mud Angels.”

The Mud Angels paved the way for the Florence program to exist in its form today. In 2016, the program celebrated its 50th anniversary and honored over 60 alumni and the Mud Angels who returned to the study center for the anniversary of the flood, and a reunion, where they were celebrated by current students.

Today, the FSU Florence program offers four sessions throughout the year and a wide range of class curricula including art history, hospitality, humanities, Italian language and civilization, history, political science, mathematics, business, entrepreneurship, fashion design, photography and drawing. The program also provides students with the opportunity to use the city as the classroom and become immersed in daily Florence life and culture.