Posted in Italian experiences on Jun 28, 2019
On Saturday the 24th of August we kicked off with our first Italian course in “Borgo Pianello holiday homes and winery”, a beautiful residence, surrounded by a quiet and uncontaminated landscape and situated on Appennino bolognese, the mountains between Bologna and Florence.
I had an amazing time together with my students Anders, Mary and Peter who were very pleased about their Italian experience!
Italian Tutor experience’s aim it’s not just learn Italian in Italy but indeed to get the students to discover other aspects of Italy, such as cookery, wine and above all get them to mingle with Italian people so that they can get constant feedback about their improvement from the locals: the best way to learn Italian is to be in Italy.
I kept a photographic diary of this amazing week of learning and cooking Italian and I would like to share it with you!
Sunday – Welcome lunch
Chef Stefania, in the picture with husband Marco, cooked for us an amazing lunch: a lovely lasagna and a fantastic sweet based on ricotta cheese and crumbled biscuits. I met my students Anders, Mary and Peter together with the cookery students and we had a great time together! Mix together English, Dutch, Swedish and Italians and you a get a great few hours of bantering and chattering. Indeed a good start!
Monday: pasta lesson.
Amazing cooking day at Borgo Pianello: we made tortelloni and tagliatelle pasta from scratch. We cooked as well bolognese sauce and an amazing sweet typical of Bologna called fiordilatte. After we had lunch all together! It was great fun. All our students have been great cooks!!!
Tuesday: pizza lesson.
Amazing cooking day at Borgo Pianello: All the students and the Italian teacher made his or her own pizza from scratch! As you can see happy faces at the end.
Wednesday: First day of Italian lessons
This is our classroom!! Amazing isn’t it?
Learning Italian by the pool
While we were having Italian lesson, the other students cooked from scratch an amazing meal which we had together: bruschetta and mixed crostini as a starter, spaghetti with pesto, cherry tomatoes and burrata cheese as a first, pork wraps and courgettes as a second and cantucci biscuit with vinsanto! I have to say that after such a meal, getting back to books and grammar in the afternoon was hard for all of us!!!
Thursday: second day of Italian lessons
After a day on the books my students Anders, Mary and Peter and I went for dinner and we could not have chosen a better place! Chef Betti from the restaurant “Caciosteria 2 ponti” in the local town of Pavana cooked for us fantastic food! An amazing fusion of tastes from 2 Italian regions: Toscana and Emilia-Romagna. The village of Pavana where the restaurant is located is right on the border!
A bunch of happy people: Yummy food and great evening!
Friday: third day of Italian lessons.
Anders, Mary and Peter did very well and I really hope we can meet again one day. They gave great feedback to the Italian tutor experience.
All the videos of the lessons can be found on my FB page or on my youtube channel:
At night we celebrated the end of of an amazing week of socialisation, cooking and Italian learningin a local restaurant with some amazing mountain food and some fancy bottles of grappa. I am very looking forward to the next one! Grazie a tutti! I miss you all!!!
Posted in Italian experiences on Jun 28, 2019
On Saturday the 1st of June we kicked off the 2019 summer season with our first course in Bellaria Igea Marina, an iconic seaside resort on the Adriatic coast in northern Italy
Posted in Italian experiences on May 29, 2022
On Saturday the 9th of April we kicked off the 2022 summer season. I had an amazing time together with my students Jeremy and Bev who were very pleased about their Italian experience in Bellaria Igea Marina!
Posted in Italian experiences on Sep 22, 2022
Last week we kicked off a course in Bologna, my hometown, the beautiful capital of Emilia-Romagna I had an amazing time together with my students Jane and Cecily and their husbands Jeff and Wil.
Posted in Italian experiences on Apr 30, 2023
Two weeks ago we kicked off the first course of season 2023 in Bologna, my hometown, the beautiful capital of Emilia-Romagna. I had an amazing time together with my student Crispin and his wife Christine. Crispin has been my student for a very long time.
Posted in Italian experiences on Nov 24, 2022
The last week of September we kicked off another course in Bologna, my hometown, the beautiful capital of Emilia-Romagna. I had an amazing time together with my students Dave and Diane who have been my students for a very long time.
I am a 44 years old certified Italian teacher with a degree in politics and a PhD in modern history.
