There’s nothing like the power of an organized, school sponsored event. It can both bond students and foster comradery, or lower morale and create gaps between the administration and the students. So far, Cornell in Rome has done very well in terms of school events.
A prime example took place on Friday. It was the annual wine tasting at Renato e Luisa, a restaurant across the street from the Palazzo. Everyone in the program attended, including members of the administration. The tasting was an educational dining experience, where we learned not only how to differentiate the different types of wines, but also how to identify different scents, recognize the alcohol content, and choose wine and food pairings.
Our night started with a brief discussion of the many types of wine and the myriad of bottles they can come in. Renato, our wine sommelier, had some students try to properly open a bottle of Prosecco, a sparkling white wine. Out of three people, only one could open it as quietly and professionally as Renato. As a reward, he was given a free bottle of wine.
The next competition had each of our tables try to identify the scents in three different bottles. It sounds easier than it was, especially when the scents could have been any existing fruit or flower. My table was confident that we had correctly identified two of the three scents, but the third had us stumped. It reminded me of cotton candy, but I was incredulous to think that cotton candy was used in fine Italian wine. As Renato was making his way around the room, my table became more frustrated with trying to recognize the third scent. Finally, it was our turn. We identified our first two scents, and paused when we reached the third. Cotton candy was not correct, and we were anxious to see if we could pull an answer out of thin air. Suddenly, the answer came to me. Bananas! The scent was bananas, and we won our own bottle of wine.
The rest of the night was informative and entertaining. We had two hors d’oeuvres, a first course (gnocchi), and dessert (chocolate cake). Each course had a wine to pair with it. In the end, our table had two white wines and one red, plus the wines that one person in our area did not drink. Needless to say, everyone left the restaurant a little bit tipsy, but in good spirits.