SFS Italy: Sustaining Traditions: Food, Farming, and Climate

Based in Tuscany, students have access to a remarkable range of ecosystems, from the coastal lagoons of Maremma to the high pastures of the Apennines. Survey biodiversity, meet with farmers and fishers, or trace how centuries-old practices adapt to today’s environmental and economic pressures—all within one of the world’s most celebrated regions.

Stone terraces, chestnut groves, and coastal lagoons form a living tapestry where food, culture, and ecology are inseparable. Students kneel in vineyards to survey pollinators, track wolves along ridgelines, and study soil and water management in citrus groves, while working with cooperatives adapting to climate shifts and global markets. Students collaborate with local cooperatives during harvest season, gaining insight into sustainable food systems and agricultural practices. Yet across rural Italy, fields are abandoned even as predators reclaim old ranges and traditions strain to survive. The tension is vivid, but so too are models of renewal.