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