Why This Italianista is Returning to Italian Language School

Ciao Italianista contains affiliate links and is a member of the Amazon Services LLS Associates Program. If you make a purchase using one of these Amazon links, I may receive compensation at no extra charge to you. See my disclosure policy for more information.

What's Inside this Post

I was eighteen years old the first time I set foot on Italian soil. And the second — I mean the literal second — I stepped off that plane, I fell in love with the Italian language. Not with Italy exactly, though that came too. With the language itself. The sound of it. The way it felt in my mouth when I tried to say things.

That was forty years ago. I have been obsessed ever since.

I went on to major in Italian. Then Italian language school in Florence. Then a master’s degree. Then a year into a PhD program, which I ultimately left — a decision that became, for a long time, the bane of my existence. Because what do you do with Italian if you’re not finishing that doctorate? It turns out there is no career called simply “Italian.” The language I loved most had no obvious place in my professional life.

So Italian came in and out of my life in waves. Sometimes I had jobs that used it — the most meaningful of which was teaching children at an Italian immersion school in San Francisco. While I was working at the school, I took the CILS exam at the C1 level. I passed! And now I want to go for C2.

There is no career called simply “Italian”. But there is a life built around it — and that turns out to be enough.

This summer, I’m doing something I have been done for years. I’m enrolling in an Italian language school. I am taking an advanced Italian language course at Scuola Leonardo da Vinci in Torino. One week of immersive, structured Italian at one of Italy’s most respected language schools. And I am so ready.

Flight map on airplane screen showing route from Lisbon to Milan with Turin visible in northern Italy — I’m taking this same flight back to Northern Italy, this time going to Torino

Why now, and why Torino?

Every trip to Italy I’ve taken has had a purpose beyond just being there. Last summer I spent thirty days in Bergamo — partly exploring the region, but mostly on a mission to trace my family’s roots in the mountain villages of Bergamo province.

I had the help of a genealogist and if you’re wondering if hiring a genealogist is worth it in Italy, my answer is yes. I have learned so much about my Italian family and it was one of the most profound experiences of my life.

This trip needed its own focus too. I didn’t want to just wander Torino, as beautiful as wandering sounds. I wanted something to anchor the week, something that would push me. The course gave me that anchor.

As for why Torino specifically: I have never been there. That was reason enough. I’ve spent years exploring Bologna, Florence, Rome, and Bergamo. But Torino — Piemonte, the northwest, the foot of the Alps — that’s a part of Italy I’ve only ever read about.

And after connecting with my roots, I now want to go back to Bergamo every summer and keep exploring new areas in northern Italy. Torino felt like the natural next chapter.

There’s something else too. Torino is a serious city. In fact, I always thought of it as an “industrial” city, not a tourist destination. But, I was wrong. It is so much more. It has its own culture, its own food, its own rhythm. That felt right for a trip built around language and learning rather than sightseeing.

Aerial view of Torino Italy with the Mole Antonelliana and the snow-capped Alps in the background — The iconic Mole Antonelliana with the Alps behind it — the first thing I had to write about in Italian for my Scuola Leonardo da Vinci placement test.

What Scuola Leonardo da Vinci is, and why I chose it

Scuola Leonardo da Vinci is one of Italy’s best-known Italian language schools, with locations in several Italian cities including Florence, Rome, Milan, and Torino. They offer courses for all levels — but what drew me to them for this trip was the quality of their advanced program and the Torino location specifically.

For an advanced learner, finding a course that actually challenges you isn’t easy. A lot of language school programs are built for beginners and intermediate students — which makes sense, because that’s most of the market.

But if you’re already at C1 and you want to push toward C2, you need something different. More nuance. More focus on register, on idiomatic expression, on the kinds of things that separate very good Italian from truly fluent Italian.

That’s what I’m hoping to find in Torino.

I’ll be sharing a full honest review of the course after my trip — what the instruction was actually like, whether it’s worth it for advanced learners, and everything I wish I’d known before I went.

CILS C1 Italian language certificate issued by Università Stranieri di Siena — My CILS Livello TRE – C1 certificate — the proof that decades of obsession eventually add up to something official. Now I’m going for C2

On being a teacher who goes back to school

I should say something about this, because I think it’s the part of this trip that matters most to me personally.

I teach Italian. And one of the things I believe deeply — the thing I try to model for my own students — is that language learning is not a destination. It’s not a box you check when you reach a certain level. C1 is wonderful. C2 is a goal.

But the truth is that fluency is a living thing. It breathes and shifts. You can lose ground. You can grow stagnant. You have to keep feeding it.

Going back to school as a teacher is both humbling and exciting. Language learning is hard when you’re not immersed in it daily — even for those of us who love it most.

I’m looking forward to moving from the front of the classroom to the student seat. I think it will make me a better teacher. There’s nothing like sitting on the other side to remind you what your students are going through.

Fluency is a living thing. It breathes and shifts. You have to keep feeding it.

I’m going to Torino to chase C2. But I’m also going because I think it will make me a better teacher. Because sitting in someone else’s classroom reminds you what it feels like to be on the other side. And because after forty years, Italian still has things to teach me — and I am still, gratefully, willing to learn.

Italian language books including Nuovo Espresso 6 and Volevo i Pantaloni with an espresso cup — My preparation stack for Torino — Nuovo Espresso 6 for C2 structure, Volevo i Pantaloni for authentic reading, and obviously an espresso.

What I’m doing to prepare (and what you can do too)

Even for an advanced learner, a little focused preparation before an intensive course makes a real difference. Here’s what I’ve been doing in the weeks leading up to Torino:

Watching Italian TV every day

I’ve been using Lingopie, which I reviewed earlier this year in my Lingopie Review and still genuinely love. Right now I’m rotating between news segments in Italian and episodes of L’imbruttito Milanese — a short web series that is both hilarious and packed with the kind of natural, colloquial Italian that textbooks never quite capture.

For advanced learners especially, this kind of authentic input is irreplaceable. If you haven’t tried Lingopie yet, they offer a free trial and I have a link for 55% off the annual plan. Check out Lingopie for Italian.

Reading in Italian

I’ve gone back to reading novels in Italian rather than my usual psychological thrills in English. Nothing sharpens your sense of register and vocabulary range like reading prose written for native speakers. I’m re-reading my old books and magazines in Italian and studying my C2 level grammar book.

Thinking out loud in Italian

This sounds strange but it works. When I’m driving, cooking, walking — I narrate to myself in Italian. I also speak to my dog in Italian. She cocks her head and agrees with everything I say. It is very validating and keeps my brain working in Italian.

Two women photographing a narrow street in Schilpario, a mountain village in Bergamo province — My daughters in Schilpario last summer — literally standing next to my great-grandmother Angela’s house, though none of us knew it at the time. This summer I’m going back

What’s coming next

I’ll be writing about Torino itself after the trip — the city, the food, where I stayed, what surprised me about a place I’d somehow never managed to visit in forty years of loving Italy. And I’ll share a full review of the Scuola Leonardo da Vinci course: what it was actually like for an advanced learner, whether it delivered on the C2 preparation I was hoping for, and whether I’d recommend it.

On this trip, I’m also going back to Bergamo to take a cooking class since we didn’t do that last year and I really want to learn how to make casoncelli at the source! And I’ll be renting a car again (trying out DiscoverCars) and driving up to Schilpario to spend three nights there really absorbing my great-grandmother’s alpine village.

Since my trip last year, I have learned where her house was, that her family owned a coal making enterprise, and that somehow we are related to the bishop Angelo Mai. I learned this and more from my genealogist who did land registry research for me. These cadastral registers contain a wealth of information, if you can decipher them.

But the most fascinating and exciting thing I learned by poking around more in Portale Antenati is that although she brought her young son with her when she emigrated, my great-grandmother left a baby daughter in Schilpario who grew up there and started her own family. I want to see if I have any living relatives still here. I’ll soon be adding all these discoveries to my ancestor stories.

When I fell in love with the Italian language immediately when I was 18, I had no idea where my family came from at the time. Now that I know, my quest to reach C2 is even stronger.

If you’re an advanced Italian learner — or if you’re dreaming of an immersive language experience in Italy — I’d love to hear about it. Where are you on your Italian journey? Are you thinking about a language course? Send me an email or join our Northern Italy Travel Tips Facebook group. This community is full of people who understand exactly what it means to love a language for decades, and I love hearing your stories.

Join the Northern Italy Travel Tips Group