The Accelerator

How can we bring friends from all over the world to discover beautiful Italy during the lockdown when all borders are closed?

Thanks to this ESAA-project, coorganised with gE4Ancona and the Scuola di Italiano Dante Aligheri (Recanati, Italy) during the last weekend of May 2020 (30-31 May) more than 170 students from all around the world –from Russia to Uruguay- had the opportunity to experience an intensive “Italian Weekend” in a virtual format.

A perfect partner for this journey was needed and found in the Dante Alighieri School of Recanati (Marche), hometown of the poet Giacomo Leopardi. The school, thanks to the enthusiasm of the principal prof. Anna Poeti and the expertise of the prof. Valeria Savi and Angelo Liberati, coordinated a great weekend experience, with the participation of garagErasmus Director Carlo Bitetto. 6-T Accelerator was, therefore, developed for non-Italian students and professionals who showed a particular interest towards Italy and want to deepen their knowledge of the country, its traditions, and culture.

The “Italian weekend” was organised as a virtual journey to Recanati in the Marche region in Italy, where the students experienced a warm, pleasant adventure in the local Italian style by getting to know different cultures and learning in an enjoyable way.

Its lectures were divided in sessions: each session was, in turn, divided into different topics to be covered, including Italian grammar, society (idioms, holidays, superstitions etc.) and cuisine where two traditional Italian live cooking recipes were prepared. This programme gave an opportunity for people to travel despite the latest restrictions, get to know different cultures and spend a weekend in one of the most symbolic cities of literacy in Italy.

Do you know the exact recipe of Pasta alla Carbonara? Is it correct to translate “It was raining” with “E’ piovuto” or “Ha piovuto”? What does the 25th of April mean for Italian people? Why is my partner saying that “she has UN DIAVOLO PER CAPELLO”? Why do Italians avoid walking under stairs or why do they feel unlucky if they see a black cat?

At the end of the event we awarded one of our participants, Pamela Vernazza, from Paraguay, with an Italian language course at Scuola di Italiano Dante Alighieri!

A wide mixture of cultures as people applied from 31 different countries including South American countries, Australia, Russia, South Africa, UK and many more. The participants were enthusiastic after the programme and garagErasmus received several requests with questions about a possible next chapter of the Accelerator.

From gE we would like to express our gratitude to everyone who made it possible: the Erasmus Student and Alumni Alliance (ESAA) for funding, to Scuola di Italiano Dante Alighieri from Recanati and garagErasmus4Ancona for coorganising the event and, overall, to all the participants who joined from many many different countries.

PARTNERS OF THE PROJECT

Erasmus Student and Alumni Alliance (ESAA)