Are you a Foxy Knoxy?

by Stefanie Burger
This week, we took a lovely day trip to Urbino. We toured the local gallery, hiked up a mountain (the locals somehow call it a road), enjoyed delicious pizza and grubbed on some incredible gelato.  While I was away from the group I chose to explore the side streets of the city where I met a darling gentleman. This man was making quite the effort to continue a conversation regardless of the language barrier. 

The view from Urbino is beautiful!

After conversation about the immense heat and the bright sun, we began making introductions. When the man realized that I was an American student studying in Cagli, he asked me where I was from in the states.  I smiled politely and said, “Seattle,” and the man seemed unusually fascinated. His eyes got big and stretched with curiosity. I was expecting to hear a Grey’s Anatomy reference but when I didn’t hear about McDreamy, I became confused. Eventually, the man leaned in and whispered a question in my ear… he asked, “Are you friends with the foxy Knoxy?” 

Coming to study in Italy, I was completely prepared for some interesting conversation and commentary regarding Amanda Knox, especially since Perugia is not very far from our areas of study. However, I was not prepared to automatically be associated with Knox strictly for being from the same region and around the same age. The man wanted to get a glass of vino and ask me all sorts of questions about Knox, even after I said I did not know her.  

The legal system in Italy is much different than that of the United States and discussing the matter with this man and other locals definitely results in some cultural dissonance.  I found that many Italians carry the mindset that an individual accused of a crime is guilty until proven innocent rather than the other way around.  I was also very surprised to find that the Italian justice system is not largely respected in their process by the natives. I studied pre-law in my undergrad and tracked the Amanda Knox case closely but had no idea the amount of scrutiny that the Italian legal system was coming under from an international standpoint. 

The discussions and reactions about the justice system in my conversations following our trip to Urbino have been enlightening. Whenever the Knox or Madoff cases come up in conversation, elaborate gestures and eye rolls are not in short supply and the content is never lacking in animation.