Like most Americans, I did not learn to speak a foreign language until I was a teenager. My first attempt, German, was a disaster. I managed to somehow eke out a passing grade during my two years of German, and can confidently count to twenty, say ja und nein, please, and thank you. I can also order a beer, but that was not part of our middle school curriculum: I learned to do that while traveling in my 20s.

Where the Italian school system steps up beautifully is for families with children between 3-6 years old. Scuola materna is not mandatory; children are not required to start school until 1st grade, but I have never met a parent who hasn’t used it at least part time. Italians believe that socializing their children is incredibly important, and that children should be with other children. In families where having only one child is now the norm, daycare is essential for meeting this need.

Vita nuova translates to “new life,” and through prose and poems Dante describes his relationship with the love of his life, Beatrice. These two first met in Florence when they were nine years old, and then again when they were 18. The early poems in Vita nuova show Dante as a young man besotted with Beatrice’s beauty, love-sick like a hormonal teenager. As in any pop-culture romance, his infatuation has its ups and downs. He’s devastated when Beatrice refuses to greet him in the street. He even has a dream in which Love appears to him personified, and feeds Dante’s heart to Beatrice.

I didn’t learn to like food until I was twelve when my dad made me try this horrible plate of green pasta, it was covered with pesto and I was cynical, but my dad insisted I try it and it was a revolution. From that point on I tried everything and learned to not just like, but love food and to appreciate all the good things I was fed at home.

Because of the great ethnic and cultural diversity within each of the countries as well as the interconnectedness of all these countries with one another, there are actually more than 200 languages spoken throughout Europe. How do you bridge political, economic, social, and cultural divides when the mere act of communicating in the same language might not even be possible?

I came to the realization that not all Italians lived “la dolce vita” but instead, struggled with many hardships of everyday life. Political chaos, poverty and corruption have been major issues that are deeply embedded in this country. Actually, Italy made a significant impact on the film industry during the Neorealist movement at the end of World War II.

It is that time of year again when the garden is full of tomatoes and it is time to make la conserva, the base for most of our tomato sauces that we learned from Mauro’s parents. It is truly a labour of love. We enjoy good food and knowing what is in our food. In this case, it takes some hard work.