Student life abroad questioned after Italy killing

Perugia off the beaten path
In many European capitals, the close-knit world of foreign students is hard to miss.

Groups of rowdy, mostly English-speaking students are routinely seen staggering through central squares, like Rome’s Campo dei Fiori, on any given Saturday night, frequenting bars that carry “Two-for-One” or “Lady’s Night” signs that clearly target English-speakers out to get drunk.

But Perugia, population 150,000, seemed to provide a different experience for students.

With its steep medieval streets and heavy presence of European students attending its University for Foreigners, Perugia was off the beaten track for Americans, said Carol Clark, the American director of the Perugia Umbra Institute, which offers programs for U.S. students.

“Here, foreign students tend to live in apartments with international roommates, buy food, interact with locals,” although the foreign community still has their own pubs and meeting points, she said.

Bar owner: Abroad is a break for students
The students who come to Perugia, she said, “want a place which is less Americanized,” than the big cities that attract many U.S. college programs.

But alcohol and drugs are certainly available, said Esteban Garcia Pascual, an Argentine whose bar “La Tana dell’Orso” is a top destination for foreign students in Perugia.

“Perugia is more of a break to them than a commitment,” he said. “For them, it is a new world. They come here, have fun and get trashed in the evening.”

Not all students come to Perugia — or go on study abroad programs — just to have fun with other Americans, said Zachary Nowak, a 30-year-old New Yorker who fell in love with Perugia during a study abroad program and never left.

“They are really integrated,” he said of the foreign students. “There’s no Campo dei Fiori here, they have to make an effort. If they want to order a margarita in English in a bar, they’d go to Rome or Florence.”

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