“As soon as I entered the gates, I realized I had found an island with a lust for creativity,” says director Alex Infascelli of the American Academy of Rome, the subject of today’s meditative short that explores the effect of the institute's inspiring culinary programme on a prestigious artistic and academic community. In 2007 Alice Waters of California's famed Chez Panisse launched the Rome Sustainable Food Project at the venerated establishment, which promoted an educational approach to food culture, updating the communal rituals of a traditional Italian dining table. The Academy is a member of Rome’s Slow Food Community and has its own on-site herb and vegetable garden committed to seasonal produce, while its Head Chef Christopher Boswell has authored the cookbooks Pasta and Verdure (vegetables) that follow Zuppe (soup) and Biscotti, written by his predecessor Mona Talbot. Infascelli won the David di Donatello prize for Best New Director in 2001 for his feature film, Almost Blue, and comes from an Italian filmmaking dynasty led by his late producer grandfather Carlo and director father Roberto. “I had no idea my city was hiding such an inspiring environment from me,” he says of visiting today's featured location for the first time when making the film. “It’s a new world within an old world.”