.png)
News
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.
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!
Valentina Poiana
Valentina was born in Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet.
After finishing her studies in Social Work, she realised she wanted to continue her path by studying what she was most passionate about: languages. She then obtained a Master's degree in Linguistic Sciences and Intercultural Communication at the University for Foreigners of Siena, with a focus on teaching Italian to foreigners.
Thanks to her study experiences in Finland and Belgium, she realised that she loves being immersed in a multicultural environment. She enjoys sharing her culture and her interests in art, TV series and music.
Valentina speaks Italian, English and Spanish and is looking forward to learning new languages!
Ruben Goriely
Born in Brussels to an Italian mother and a Belgian father, Ruben Goriely graduated from UCLouvain with a bachelor's degree in French and Italian languages and literature (2018) and a master's degree in musicology (2021). Already during his studies, his varied skills, combining literature, linguistics and music, enabled him to work for UCLouvain Culture, in the dramaturgy department of La Monnaie as an intern, and to give various music lessons.
In 2021, he became an assistant professor at UCLouvain, where he teaches musicology and conducts research as a doctoral student in areas close to his heart, such as the history of opera, vocality and orchestration. He is currently studying opera singing at Arts2 with Marie-Laure Coenjaerts, and has been teaching French at Italia per Passione since 2023, where he can combine his didactic and linguistic skills with his Italian heritage.
External Staff
Laura Fanti
After graduating in Literature and Philosophy at the University of Rome La Sapienza, Laura obtained a postgraduate diploma in Contemporary Art History at the University of Florence. She is involved in research and dissemination of art history, collaborating with various institutions in Belgium and Italy, museums, galleries, publishing houses and offering workshops and other initiatives as a freelancer.
His historical period of the heart is the last decade of the 19th century, energetic and controversial, to which he has devoted most of his writings and lectures. She wrote the first monographs in Italian on the Symbolist painters Ferdinand Hodler and Fernand Khnopff. Born in the wooded hills surrounding Rome, she loves to contemplate nature and works of art.
In addition to visiting exhibitions and museums, doing research, reading and writing, she loves music, dancing, hiking and studying languages; besides Italian, she speaks French, English, a little Spanish and enjoys studying Dutch.
Elena Tosi
Elena was born and raised in Mantua, a small historical and artistic gem in Lombardy. She studied
Foreign Languages and Literature at the Alma Mater University of Bologna, where she furthered
her studies of German and French. She graduated with top marks by discussing a thesis on
Austrian Literature. During the third year of her three-year degree course, she did an internship at
the Elfriede Jelinek literary research centre in Vienna, funded by the Universität Wien.
After graduation, she moved to Brussels to do an internship as an assistant professor of Italian language,
culture and literature at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. She speaks Italian, English, German,
French and Spanish fluently and is currently also learning Dutch. In her spare time, she loves
reading, going to the cinema, travelling, visiting museums but also enjoys eating, outdoor sports
and spending time with friends. Her dream is to work in the art world, because her greatest
passion apart from languages is art history.