Children’s drawing showing two smiling figures in blue outfits and yellow faces beside a red scooter, as if ready for a road to Rome adventure. All set against white paper on a light wood surface.

On the road to Rome

Year 2 Italian students are learning all about transportation in class this term!

Making your way to Milan? On the road to Rome? If you need to know how to get around Italy, just ask Year 2 Italian students who this term are learning all about transportation, and all the exciting ways Italians get themselves from one place to another.  

Lessons on Venetian gondolas, Vespas and even the Ferrari have enthralled students, explains their teacher Nicola Sternberg.

A colourful drawing of a gondola on blue water with a pink-roofed cabin labelled love. A girl in a red dress stands at the back, dreaming of the road to Rome. Above, La gondola is written in a cloud with a yellow background. 

“They have learnt about Enzo Ferrari and the origins of the Ferrari, the history of Venice and the gondola, and this week we have been focusing on the Vespa and its inventor Corradino d’Ascanio, as well as the genesis of its design as a cheap and easy to navigate form of transport perfect for post-war Italy.”

A child’s drawing shows two smiling people near a red scooter on the road to Rome. One says, Sei molto bravo Corradaino!! in a speech bubble. The figures are coloured blue, black, and yellow on white paper.

But the most important thing students have learnt about taking transport in Italy? Manners. 

A child's drawing with colourful figures and handwritten Italian text on the left page, and more text on the right beside a small drawing of a red Vespa scooter—the perfect way to imagine a joyful road to Rome.

“We are spending time looking at good manners, how to politely ask for things and other ways to be courteous as a passenger and person,” said Ms Sternberg who has shared some of her students’ work.

Indispensable Italian Words of Politeness 

Per favore = Please 

Posso = May I 

Scusi = Excuse me 

Prego = You’re welcome

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