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This May a group of Syracuse Florence students traded the familiar cobblestones of Tuscany for the sun-drenched markets and volcanic hillsides of Sicily.

From April 30 to May 9, they traveled the length of the island as part of Culinary Crossings, a Signature Seminar designed and led by food studies Professor Olivier De Maret that used cuisine as a window onto centuries of Mediterranean history, culture, and exchange.

The seminar was exclusively food-focused unlike a previous travel seminar led by De Maret in collaboration with retired photography professor Stefania Talini. “This time around we focused on getting to know the people that make up the island’s food system,” he says.

Markets, Farms and Family Tables

The ten-day itinerary moved students through some of Sicily’s most distinctive culinary landscapes. In Palermo, they dove headfirst into the city’s legendary street food culture with a guided tour of the Ballarò market—one of the oldest and most vibrant outdoor markets in southern Italy—complete with tastings.

On the contrast to Florence, De Maret says, “Especially the energy we witnessed in Palermo’s outdoor markets, as well as the kindness, openness and hospitality Sicilians showed us.”

From Palermo, the group traveled east to the island’s rolling interior, stopping at the Azienda Agricola Fiumefreddo near Troina before continuing to the Baroque city of Siracusa, where they were based for four nights.

Days out of Siracusa brought visits to the Bonajuto chocolate factory in Modica—Sicily’s legendary chocolate-making center, where the ancient Aztec-influenced method of cold-processing cacao has been practiced since the 1700s, as well as a cooking class in Noto and a visit to Il Biviere, an organic citrus farm in Lentini.

The seminar concluded near Etna, where students visited the Fattorie Romeo del Castello in Randazzo, a historic wine and farming estate on the volcano’s northern slopes, before a final dinner together in Taormina.

Transformed by These Experiences

The highlights of the trip were the two farm visits: Fiumefreddo and Romeo del Castello.

“In both places, we were warmly welcomed into family homes and involved in daily activities,” says De Maret. “Besides learning new skills such as gardening, we felt the care and joy put into the production, preparation and sharing of food in very intimate contexts. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that most of us were transformed by these experiences,  including the families hosting us.”

Why Sicily?

The choice of Sicily as a destination was itself pedagogically significant. De Maret sees the island’s cuisine as a kind of living archive of the Mediterranean world—layered with the influences of Greek, Arab, Norman, Spanish and Italian cultures that have passed through over millennia.

“Sicily and its cuisine provide a fascinating lens through which to approach these exchanges,” he says, “and reflect on what makes Italian cuisine Italian, if anything.”

That question—deceptively simple, endlessly complex—was central to what he hoped students would take away.

“The multiplicity of meanings associated with Sicilian cuisine, and how the history of the island and contemporary interests shape it,” De Maret says of the seminar’s core lessons.

Beyond the specifics of Sicilian food, he hopes the experience planted a more lasting habit of mind: “I hope that students now see the value of thinking through food in order to understand the world and their place in it—and that they will keep thinking critically about broader social and cultural processes at play in kitchens and beyond.”

Culinary Crossings: Food Culture, Identity and the Mediterranean is offered as part of the University’s Signature Seminars initiative, which supports faculty-led travel courses that extend classroom learning into the field.

Students interested in studying abroad in Florence can apply for Fall 2027 programs beginning Nov. 15.