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Our Teachers
The unique Team of Italia per Passione!
Chiara Nannicini
Chiara Nannicini was born in Milan.
After her studies in Italian Literature she obtained a PhD in comparative literatures at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University of Paris. She has lectured on the Italian language, literature and culture at the Universities of Paris 3, Paris 12, Caen, Lille 3 and Namur. Currently, she is a professor of Italian literature at the University Saint-Louis in (Brussels) and at the University of Ghent. She speaks French, English, German and Dutch.
She founded Italia Per Passione in 2008. She is now the director of the school, where she teaches language and culture at advanced level.
Francesco Radicci
Francesco Radicci was born in Bari (Apulia).
In Italy he gained his degree in Foreign Languages and Literature and he worked as a journalist from 2006 to 2011. At the end of 2011 Francesco moved to Brussels, where he now works as an Italian teacher in several schools. He speaks French and English and he is passionate about music and the history of the 20th Century.
He has been working at Italia Per Passione since 2012. He teaches language courses (all levels, from beginners to advanced students) and leads conversation tables. He also gives courses about Italian history and politics.
Alessandra Maistro
Born in Florence and raised in Lombardy, she has always had two passions: the Italian language and dance. She carries on these two passions together doing classical studies and professional artistic studies. She graduated in Literature in Milan with a thesis on the language of Manzoni’s Betrothed. She decided then to undertake a specific course of study to become a teacher of Italian as a foreign language, obtaining a master's degree in Linguistics and didactics of Italian for foreigners at the University for Foreigners of Siena. She has experience as a teacher of Italian for foreign adults in Italy and for adults and children at the Dante Alighieri Society in Luxembourg. As a dance teacher, she has five years experience as a contemporary and modern dance teacher for all age groups, from children to adults.
At Italia per passione, she currently teaches Italian and dance.
Maddalena Narducci
Maddalena was born in Cesena, in Emilia-Romagna.
After her high school graduation in foreign languages, she moved for Toulouse, where she stayed for a year as an au pair for a French family. In 2016 she moved to Brussels and enrolled in the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. During her studies she continued to cultivate her interest in photography, long walks and languages, giving private courses in Italian and French. The Erasmus in Alicante (Spain) represents to her once again a way to confront a new culture and question reality. Back in Brussels she enrolled in the Master of Linguistics at ULB and does voluntary work for the association La Voix des Sans-Papiers. Maddalena speaks Italian, French, Spanish and English. She is currently learning Modern Greek.
She collaborates with Italia per Passione in courses for youngsters.
Roberta Mangano
Roberta is originally from Luino, a small town in northern Italy.
Passionate about foreign cultures, she studied Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Milan and at University College Dublin. She then enrolled in a master’s program for teaching Italian as a foreign language. At the same time, she obtained a Diploma in classical guitar at the Conservatorio G. Puccini in Gallarate and a master’s degree at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels with distinction. She also holds a master’s degree in Musicology from the University of Cremona.
Over the years, Roberta has lived in Italy, Australia, Belgium and Spain where she has worked as a teacher of music and Italian language and culture. She loves to share her passion for literature and music through crossover courses, seminars and performances.
She speaks French, English, Spanish and Catalan. At Italia per Passione she gives language courses for adults and children and is responsible for music history workshops and music courses.
Giulia Colombo
Giulia was born in Torre del Greco, a town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, in the centre of the Gulf of Naples. Her desire to learn about the world led her to study languages and comparative cultures at the University of Naples "L'Orientale", specialising in English and Chinese. She then won a scholarship to the Confucius Institute, which enabled her to spend a period of time in Beijing, China, during her Master's degree in History and Oriental Civilisations. Her passion for art inspired her master's thesis, which focused on the mutual influence between Chinese artists and European avant-garde artists. During her studies she dedicated herself to teaching, giving private lessons and doing internships first at a social cultural cooperative for the integration of Chinese children and then at Italia per Passione, through the Erasmus+ programme, where she still holds courses for children and teenagers.
Arianna Santus
Arianna was born and raised in Milan. At the age of 18 she moved to the Netherlands to get her bachelor’s degree in cultural sciences at Maastricht University. She has always loved travelling and facing new cultures. Her curiosity for foreign languages and customs brought her to Germany and Spain, where she taught English and Italian and learnt the local languages. She went back to Italy and obtained a master’s degree in foreign language teaching at the University of Milan. Before graduating, she obtained a scholarship to write her thesis on innovative methods in foreign language teaching at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. She is now working in Brussels as an Italian and English teacher.
Claudia Esposito
Claudia was born in Piacenza, a small city in Emilia Romagna.
She got a bachelor’s degree in “Science of Culture” at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, where she studied languages and subjects related to sociology and anthropology. She felt in love with Cultural Anthropology, so she moved to Milan, where she has been graduated in "Social and Cultural Anthropology”, master’s degree offered by the University of Milano-Bicocca. She also had the opportunity to gain experiences abroad, such as the Erasmus Program at Lund University (Sweden), and a volunteer stage project in Ciudad Guzman (Mexico), with a brilliant local journalist. Always attracted by cultural diversity and different ways of communicating, she kept on her studies in Dance Movement Therapy and she had various professionals’ experiences with children, women and adult with psychiatric disorder. After twelve years in Milan, she decided to change her life, attending a master in "Didactics of Italian as a Second Language" at the University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, and she finally moved to Brussels to start a new career.
She speaks English, Spanish and French and will always be happy to share and discuss with you!
External Staff
Vittoria Papa Malatesta
Vittoria Papa Malatesta is an art historian. Before her coming in Belgium, she has been teaching for few years Art History at the University of Napoli ‘L’Orientale’, the ‘Suor Orsola Benincas’, and at the University of Salerno.
She studied History of Art in Naples at the ‘Federico II’ University, where she also obtained a PhD.
Her work is focused on art from the Middle Ages to the Modern Ages in Europe, and on art criticism; her researches concern especially the historical-artistic relations between Italy, France and Flandres.
When she doesn’t pay attention on a framework or on a fresco, she has eyes only for her children, who are a real….“masterpiece”!
At Italia per Passione she is the responsible for the workshop of Art History.
Elena Burchianti
Elena was born in Siena. She has always been passionate about archaeology and classical culture, and pursued her dream by graduating from the University of Siena with a degree in classical literature with an archaeological focus. She has conducted excavation campaigns in Rome, Cerveteri and Vetulonia. And then travelling, the other great passion that she cultivated during her years of teaching at the Liceo Scientifico in Siena, with cultural exchanges in England, Sweden and above all Turkey, a fascinating treasure trove of archaeological treasures.
Her love of the classics also led to a performance of Antigone on the stage of the prisons of Siena and San Gimignano, where, together with the students of the Liceo, she brought the beauty and depth of a timeless work. An exciting experience.
Elena loves reading, art, walking in nature, cinema, theatre and has a weakness for Brussels brocantes where she likes to get lost in search of unusual objects.
She has been living in Brussels for a few years and teaches classical culture courses at Italia per Passione.