Photographic evenings: When the words leave room to images.

Bianca and Gianfranco Stoppa, photographers and travellers, have shared with us over the years photographs of their travels. 

The couple has turned their passion for travel into not just a style of life, but a raison d’être, having visited more than 100 countries on 5 continents and published numerous books featuring their visually and narratively powerful photos. 

At the Scuola Mattei, they have shared with us, through words and images, their travels in Asia and Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific islands: the green hills praised by ancient Chinese poets, the branching of both river and tree, the savannah and the jungle, festive maidens and earnest pilgrims, the voices of the city, solitary islands, the mysteries and silences of the wind-whipped Tibetan plateau. 

To name but a few of the memorable slide presentations they’ve shared with us:

• A journey through the Himalaya: Yunnan ("South of the Clouds"), Tibet, the Roof of the World 
• Inside Africa: Namibia, the Kalahari, Botswana  
• Iraq, Land of Abraham
• The Pacific: Islands in the Sun. An exotic journey among 10 Pacific island locales: Polynesia, Okinawa, Guam, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Tonga, Hawaii, Easter Island, the Galapagos Islands.

Inter-ethnic dinners

A table filled with tastes from all over the World! After a day of studying there is still the energy to work with the stove

The inter-ethnic dinner has become a classic event at the school, attracting the participation of students and alumni alike.

The dishes offered are as numerous as they are various, and come from all over the world:  from Canadian pancakes to Bergamasque sausage and polenta, from Venezuelan arepas to the piadine of Emilia-Romagna, not to mention Turkish borek, Spanish tortillas, Brazilian brigairos and other delights, the spelling of which you may forget but the taste of which you surely won’t!.

Cineforum

The choices reveal a preference for films that blend the dramatic with the comic, or films that recount desperate situations in a comedic key. Other times, the tone is purely comic or hard drama. Every year the programme reflects the tastes of a class of 50 people, thus it reflects inevitably compromises, alliances, bargaining and, sometimes, hitting the nail precisely on the head.