At Rome City Institute, the strength between Italian and American culture is ever growing. While Rome City has students from all over the world with different backgrounds, it’s not surprising to find many student-athletes who arrive in Rome hold pre-existing Italian American roots. An example of this, lies in Rome City’s second year student-athlete, Luca Buitoni.

Born and raised in New York to an Italian father and American mother, Luca is now an undergraduate student studying and playing in Rome at Rome City Institute. Growing up in a bicultural household had already given Luca a deep appreciation for both American and Italian culture, but his appreciation has grown immensely since his arrival in Rome. Of course, being part of longstanding Italian pasta royalty family ‘Buitoni’, has influenced this. Now, his studies in Rome have allowed him to further explore his Italian roots.

Born in Hudson Valley, New York, Luca was raised outside the city, around 2 hours north of Manhattan. A small local town that Luca claims played a large role in his upbringing. Ever since he can remember, his parents have owned an Italian restaurant, which has given him quite a connection to Italian culture. Luca’s father was raised in Rome, Italy, although his father was also born in NY like Luca. Luca’s whole extended family on his fathers side still resides in Rome today. On the other hand, Luca’s mother and her half of the family is from New Jersey.

In his younger days and even now, Luca always sensed that the Italian culture in his family has been more prevalent than the American culture. While there were other factors, the biggest influence of Italian culture in Luca’s life has always been food. This is because Luca is not just any Italian American, he is a Buitoni, ‘Buitoni’, founded in 1827 by Luca’s great-great-great-great-grandfather Giovanni Battista Buitoni, is an extremely well known Italian pasta company.

His mental image of the ‘Buitoni’ brand mainly stemmed from his father and Aunt’s stories of them running wild in the factories as children. But one of the most noteworthy footnotes along the way was in 1986, when the Buitoni brand was etched into history when Napoli led by Diego Maradona won the Italian Serie A league, while sporting Buitoni across their chest as the team’s sponsor.

Thanks to his family history & and the upbringing of his father, Luca’s dad put a big importance on the quality of ingredients that the family would eat.

While Luca does respect and have love for the American way, he is very grateful for the Italian values that his family bestowed upon him.

Beyond his admiration and connection to food, Luca’s Italian influence is seen ever so clearly in his beloved activity, calcio. Whether it’s called Soccer, Calcio, Football or Fútbol, it’s the universal world sport. Whether it was playing, watching, discussing or just thinking about calcio, it didn’t matter to Luca.

While Luca is in his second year of attending Rome City Institute, it is only his first year in the Undergraduate program. When Luca first arrived in Rome, he did so as a Gap-Year student, merely testing the waters of playing and

studying abroad. In his first year, Luca trained and played solely with the Rome City academy, competing in the University Tournament, as the youngest player on the team at 17-years old. Playing with much older and more experienced players, Luca worked hard to find himself as a key factor for the team during the first half of the season, scoring the first goal of the game during only his 2nd start for the team. Now in his second year at Rome City, a year older and with a year of international experience on his belt, Luca joined and now belongs to A.S.D. Aurelia Antica Aurelio, a local team that competes in the fifth tier of Italian soccer. Luca is currently on the Juniores team, competing alongside other players his age, for a spot on the first team. Luca is determined to take his game to the next level, and is putting in the work on and off the field to get his first senior call up.

While Luca was in the United States, he always looked for ways to find a greater connection to the Italian league, but it wasn’t always easy. In the U.S. there wasn’t a great emphasis on the television rights the same way there is for the top English leagues, but coming to Italy has been a really refreshing and exciting experience for him. People in Italy don’t just love calcio, they live by it, as if it’s a religion.  

In his younger years, Luca used to tell himself “When I’m older I want to go play calcio in Italy”. As a little kid, that was just a dream. However, now he has turned his dream into reality. To experience Italy first-hand, to live here and embrace the culture, to speak the language, to play football with other kids his age, continues to be surreal for Luca as he embraces his Italian heritage.

For the Buitoni’s living in America, there were always reasons to come to Italy, so they would visit as often as they could. When Luca was younger he would love to ride the tractors throughout the olive trees, as well as ride on the backs of the pigs that they raised. While Luca did have this strong connection to Italian culture, he previously had only experienced it living in America. Typically, when a young adult finishes high-school in the United States, they prepare to study at a 4-year American University. However when the time came, Luca was looking to break the mold and see what other adventures might lie outside of the norm. When Luca first came to Italy, he was enrolled in the gap-year program at Rome City, giving him a 6-month trial at what it might be like to begin his next step of education outside of the United States. It only took a taste, but once Luca experienced what it was like to play football & study in Italy, he knew immediately that this was where he wanted to remain for the near future.

He realized quickly that the opportunities through education as well as through experience in Italy, simply were more appealing to him, than they were in America.

Since coming to Rome, the way Luca talks and acts has changed, he has made sure to remain the same person at his core. Luca has found a new love for cooking. Since being abroad Luca has found himself making his own meals much more than before, and has really started to appreciate the value of good ingredients and the time it takes to cook a nice meal.

It’s never easy to travel away from one’s family, even for a short time, but the risk Luca took two years ago has seen plenty of rewards that he remains thankful for.

The Buitoni family is a wonderful example of the ever-strong relationship of Italian and American culture. The bond between the countries has not only kept their connection to one another, but continues to strengthen it as time goes on. Luca Buitoni is a shining example of the possibilities that lie ahead for anyone who wants to embrace these two cultures simultaneously.