By Leslie Lakind
I just returned from two weeks of “Living the Language” with Esperienza. I have been to many Italian classes in Italy but never one that created a greater sense of community — not just with the greater community, but also among the group of students.
Leslie chats with a local woman at a scheduled group aperitivo gathering
I was drawn by Esperienza’s clear and complete descriptions, but it wasn’t until I lived the experience that I truly understood. I will say that there is no daylight between the actions of the people involved with Esperienza and their words on the website. There is truly an effort to integrate the participants with the communities we interacted with, especially in the town of Pennabilli, where we were quartered and schooled.
And as the website states, your tuition helps Esperienza contribute and donate to the community’s museums, cultural organizations, local artists, and more. We met many of them.
In addition, creating a community of students was fostered in many ways. We all stayed in one of two places, putting us in contact with each other nearly continuously, like at breakfast or just coming and going. The town was small, so when going out for a meal, I would run into other participants. Also, nearly every day we shared a community lunch or dinner.
Leslie befriends some animals during a visit to a farm and vineyard, where he and the group had a delicious dinner with the farmers around their dinner table.
Because of this fostering of community, half of the participants were folks who’d been with Esperienza previously.
As for the lunches and dinners — the words delicious, generous, and interesting are accurate descriptors. On other tours and language courses in Italy with community dinners, we often got separate checks for our meals. Not so with Esperienza. The cost of every community meal was included in the price.
Although there was time built in for rest, after our language classes, there was a very full, well thought out and well organized agenda.
In sum, this was an experience unlike any other and lived up to its name: Esperienza.