Their seemingly hopeless small-town isolation when they started, though, remains crucial to them.
As much as Renoir offers a viscerally kinetic visual thrill, he also presents a cold small-town isolation that, for him, is both the mark and the cause of an uncivil society.
The beaches in and around Santa Teresa are worth the detour, and the town's isolation and frontier-town vibe are a big part of its appeal.
The town's isolation and its dominant, blue-collar industry propel many of its disaffected young people to pursue college degrees.
The train station lies in ruins – weeds sprouting from the tracks and rubble strewn across the platforms – as a grimly symbolic reminder of the town's isolation.
The town's isolation and its climate of hot, dusty summers and punishingly cold winters drove Fyodor Dostoevsky to distraction during the five years he spent in exile in the town, where he had seizures and sank into depression.
The two live in squalor in a small Italian town, their isolation relieved only by Rino's two friends — Quattro Formaggi, the village idiot, and Danilo, a man desperate and crazed after the loss of his wife and child.
This entrepreneurial notion is corroborated by longtime resident and serial entrepreneur Vic Prokopchuk, who noted that the town's isolation and independence during its early days may have been a factor in developing local entrepreneurs.
Colleges around the country have abandoned a fortress-like, town-gown isolation and are finding a variety of ways, from anthropological and sociological study to outright redevelopment, of building bridges to their host communities.
