Language, culture and sport in Ferrara

After our fun-filled and educational day trip to Venice, described so expertly by my colleague Sam in our last blog, our navigators settled in once again to their home base, Ferrara, to begin another immersive and exciting week of Italian language and culture. 

Our youngsters continued their Italian lessons and conversations throughout a very hot week here in this jewel of a city. Temperatures rose to highs not seen in several years. In Ferrara, life goes on despite the hot and humid summers, and our navigators, like real ferraresi did not let the balmy temperatures slow them down. I can attest from first hand observation that the linguistic progress our navigators are making is nothing short of impressive. To hear our young adventurers carry on conversations in Italian, not only with us and the locals but also with each other, fills me and my colleagues with a great sense of pride. I am well aware of the sense of accomplishment they are experiencing when successfully communicating in Italian, and the gains they make only encourage them to improve further.

An excellent assortment of afternoon activities awaited our navigators this week, and they threw themselves in completely! Our youngsters had a pasta making lesson with a master sfoglina. A sfoglina is a woman from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy who makes pasta by hand. Pasta dough, or sfoglia, in this region has only two ingredients: 00 flour and egg. That is all. No semolina flour, no water, no salt. Our youngsters were thrilled to have their mani in pasta!

Next on the agenda was a visit to the Biblioteca Ariostea. This library, housed in the famous Palazzo Paradiso, holds volumes of rare books, which the students were able to observe. The Palazzo was built in 1391 for the Este family. Today, the library is named for Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533). Ariosto is considered one of Italy's greatest writers and poets and his masterpiece, Orlando furioso, is still considered one of the most important works in the history of Italian literature. Our navigators had a chance to marvel at Ariosto's tomb, a very ornate mausoleum housed in one of the library's rooms. 

On Thursday, our students were able to show off their athleticism and sportsmanship as they engaged in a volleyball tournament in the gymnasium of their school. A coach taught our kids some basic strategies, but it wasn't too long before their competitive spirit took over and a best of three series was tightly contested. We were proud to notice that for most of our youngsters, it wasn't about winning or losing but about getting in some physical activity and playing together as a team. We have some real campioni di pallavolo among us!

As we head into the weekend and then our last week, there are still more adventures to be had. Stay tuned to this page for all the updates.