Following the recent announcement of Washington State’s plan to limit gatherings of 50 or more and the urging of Governor Inslee that Washington residents over 70 self-isolate immediately, as the demographic most at risk of severe infection from COVID-19, we have decided to CANCEL the next Dante Alighieri Society’s Italian Language presentation and meeting scheduled for next Wednesday, March 25.
We will continue to monitor the situation and make a decision about the April 15 Annual General Meeting closer to that date.
We understand that this is a developing situation and, as such, our policy will be responsive and in-line with the recommendations of Washington State and King County Public Health departments.
Please take care of yourself during these stressful days. Statemi bene!
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
A presto –
Dan DeMatteis, President, Dante Alighieri Society of Washington
The health and safety of our members remains our number one priority. We are following closely the guidance of our local public health experts, the World Health Organization, and the CDC regarding the threat and spread of COVID-19 and are carefully assessing the impact of this outbreak.
A few days ago, all news reports and public health experts stated that the risk to the general public was low, and therefore we said it was our intention to go forward with our meeting next Wednesday, March 11.
However, the situation has continued to evolve and the guidance from local public health professionals changed in the last 24 hours to strongly advise all people who were at greater risk (those who are over 60 or with a history of respiratory or immune disease issues) to avoid if possible large public gatherings. They also recommend that community group organizations either postpone or cancel events for the upcoming weeks.
For these reasons, we have decided to POSTPONE the Pasta Dinner and English Language presentation scheduled for next Wednesday, March 11. We hope to reschedule Pat Hoffman’s talk for a date later this Spring if scheduling allows.
We will continue to monitor the situation and make a decision about whether to cancel the March 25 Italian meeting closer to that date.
We understand this is a developing situation, and as such our policy will be responsive and in-line with the recommendations of Washington State and King County Public Health departments.
A presto –
Dan DeMatteis, President, Dante Alighieri Society of Washington
We are mindful of the growing concerns of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 in the news and in our community and want to be sure we all stay safe.
At this time, both the March 11 English meeting with the Pre-Dante Pasta Dinner and the March 25 Italian meeting will continue as planned.
We understand this is a developing situation, and as such our policy will be responsive and in-line with the recommendations of Washington State and King County Public Health departments.
While public health officials have not recommended any restrictions on group gatherings, they do recommend that vulnerable populations avoid crowded settings. Persons who are older or who have underlying health conditions are at higher risk to develop complications from this virus.
If you are sick, we thank you for staying home from Dante meetings.
In an effort to keep our food safe, please be sure to bring serving implements for any antipasti/dolci you provide for the meetings — please avoid finger-foods for now!
On Thursday, March 5, 2020 at 6:00 pm the Seattle/Perugia Sister City Association is hosting an Italian movie, lecture and dinner. Professor Antonio Iannotta will be the lecturer. He was the lecturer at the 2018 Italian film showing as well. Dr. Iannotta was born, raised and educated in Italy. Currently, he is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Italian at the University of San Diego and the Artistic Director of the San Diego Italian Film Festival.
The film chosen for the evening is Sedotta e Abbondanata. Before watching Sedotta e Abbandonata Dr. Iannotta will give a short lecture on Commedia all’italiana and the film’s director Pietro Germi. Briefly, Sedotta e Abbondanata is an Italian comedy about a love affair and how a father tries to remedy the family’s honor.
Film: Sedotta e Abbandonata (Seduced and Abandoned) with English subtitles.
Date: Thursday, March 5, 2020
Time: 6:00 pm lecture, 6:30 pm film and 8:30 pm dinner
Where: Ark Theater for film and lecture. Tutta Bella for dinner
Member Cost: $20 for movie and lecture
$60 movie, lecture, and dinner at Tutta Bella
Non-Member Cost: $24 for movie and lecture
$70 Movie, lecture and dinner at Tutta Bella
Included in dinner is a welcome glass of Prosecco, choice of 2 appetizers, 2 salads, 4 pizzas and 1 tiramisù.
Registration: Don’t delay! This event is strictly limited to 40 guests. Register today! There will be no refunds, but reservations are transferable. For questions, please hit reply.
For Bus or light rail directions, press here. It’s a 3 minute walk between the theater and Tutta Bella.
Parking: Some street parking or Diamond Parking Service, 3781S Hudson S, Seattle, WA 98118. Lot is 200 feet east of Tutta Bella.
Just a reminder that Dante Alighieri Society memberships are up for renewal for 2020. The Dante membership year goes from January to December each year. Dues are $40 for a single membership and $50 for a family membership.
Your dues help support the many activities of the Dante Alighieri Society of Washington and allow us to keep our event prices as low as possible. All donations are greatly appreciated. You are now able to renew online on our website: https://danteseattle.org/join-the-dante-alighieri-society-of-washington/ . Its simple and easy. Or, if you prefer, we’ll have a membership table set up at the English Meeting on Wednesday, February 12. You can renew there.
The Dante Alighieri Society of Washington promotes the Italian language and culture and welcomes all who share those objectives. Each year we present English and Italian programs open to the public, and host the Christmas party and the Annual Wine Dinner featuring wines from throughout Italy. The Society also sponsors an Italian Language program with beginner to expert classes for everyone who wants to learn, improve or perfect their fluency in Italian. We are an official chapter of the Società Dante Alighieri, an international organization headquartered in Rome, Italy. When traveling in Italy, Washington Chapter members are eligible to receive discounts. Information on the available discounts is available on the Dante Seattle website: https://danteseattle.org/join-the-dante-alighieri-society-of-washington/. Be sure to ask for your Membership Card at one of our meetings.
Dante Alighieri Society of Washington is a 501(c)(3) organization. Membership dues and donations are tax deductible to extent allowed under federal law. Tax ID: 91-0988808.
Giuseppe Tassone moved to Seattle from Italy in 1993. He has been the director of the Italian Language Program of the Dante Alighieri Society of Washington since 1998 and the PLIDA coordinator since 2011. He is a language educator, coordinator, and advocate of Italian language and culture. He has a background in economics and finance (B.A. in Economics), but chooses to specialize in Italian language and culture (M.A. in Italian Studies). He has 20+ years of experience teaching, developing curricula, coordinating, testing, and assessing in public and non-profit organizations (e.g. Seattle University, University of Washington, Shoreline College). Giuseppe reviewed and/or contributed to several Italian language textbooks, such as Da Capo, Oggi in Italia, Avanti, Piazza and Sentieri. He is the author of Ricordati di me, Buongiorno Notte – Italian Films Series by Edizioni Farinelli and Un buonAffare – Italian for Business by Hackett Publishing Company available in print (2016) and e-book (2019). Giuseppe teaches at Seattle University and heads the Italian Section in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures. Personal interests are: reading, traveling, cinema, economics, politics, playing and listening to music, swimming, biking, gardening and cooking.
Roberta was born in Salerno a city located in the region of Campania in Southern Italy where in the ninth century flourished the renowned Schola Medica Salernitana; the forerunner of the modern university medical schools. She holds a Master’s Degree in Economics and Management for Arts, Culture, Media and Entertainment from the Luigi Bocconi University, and a Master’s Degree in Piano from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory of Music in Milan. Roberta has been working in the field of arts management since 2008. She has served as a project manager, fundraiser and arts administrator in high-profile nonprofit organizations and music festivals in Italy. She has taught music and Italian language in middle schools, and has held lectures in performing arts management as a teaching assistant at the University of Milan and at the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala. She has performed many solo and chamber music recitals across Italy. She loves classical music, visual arts, reading, traveling, hiking and of course teaching Italian.
Giorgio is a native Italian who grew up in the outskirts of Milan. He holds various university degrees including a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He works on engineering research and development projects in the fields of aircraft performance and commercial aviation. He became passionate about teaching and sharing his knowledge of Italy in response to the welcoming and inspiring interest in the Italian language and culture he witnessed and experienced while living in the United States. Throughout the years, Giorgio has taught Italian courses as well as privately tutored business professionals and students from various age groups.
In his free time, Giorgio enjoys photography, hiking, history and mathematics, museums and fine arts, theatre performances, and traveling.
Gabriella Vagnoli was born in Pisa, Tuscany, home of the famous Leaning Tower. She grew up in a multicultural family thanks to her Brazilian mom and remembers teaching Italian for the first time as a child to her Brazilian cousins. She obtained a Laurea in English and Spanish Language and Literature at the Università degli Studi di Pisa and during her college years spent a year in the University of Reading, UK, studying mainly the works of Shakespeare. After obtaining a Certificate as a Teacher of Italian (DITALS II) at the Università per Stranieri di Siena, she has taught in a full immersion school in Florence, a children's full immersion program in Chicago and a Community College in Illinois.
Besides teaching Italian, she has obtained a BFA in Illustration at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and is a published children's book illustrator.
Tiziana was born and raised in Sardinia, a beautiful Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea. She has always been passionate about foreign languages and cultures, and studied French and German at the Scuola Superiore Interpreti e Traduttori in Milan, where she obtained her first Foreign Languages and Interpreter BA degree. She then pursued her MA in English and German Language and Literature at IULM, one of the most prestigious universities in Milan, Italy for Language and Communication studies.
Tiziana moved to the US in 2000 and started working in the software industry, where she applied her linguistic skills and cultural knowledge to localization and testing projects. She also took on various leadership roles and managed teams of linguists and testers across different countries and time zones. Tiziana is passionate about teaching Italian and sharing her insights into the Italian culture and lifestyle. She has taught from beginner to advanced Italian courses for the most prestigious schools in the Pacific Northwest: The Dante Alighieri Society, Seattle Language Academy and Bellevue College. She also privately tutors American business professionals who want to learn or improve their Italian. She is currently working on her Spanish, as she enjoys learning new languages and cultures.
In her free time, Tiziana likes to read, hike. cook, travel, and spend time with her family and friends.
Laura was born in Palmanova, in Northern Italy, a star shaped fortress built by the Serenissima Republic of Venice to protect the territory from the invasions of the Hapsburg and the Ottoman Empires. She was raised speaking Italian, French and Friulano (her native Northern Italian dialect). Laura received a Laurea in Linguistics from the Università di Udine where she specialized in Spanish and English literature. Since then she has lived and worked in Holland, Switzerland, Spain, England, America, and Italy. In addition to teaching in our program, Laura is authorized to cover the role of intervistatrice in our PLIDA Examination Board.
Francesca is an Italian native, born in Cremona, northern Italy. She holds a laurea in Biology from the University of Padua and Masters of Biology from Eastern Michigan University. She left Italy in 1994 and has lived in New Zealand and the United States. She has a passion for teaching her native language, as a way of maintaining and exploring the Italian language and culture with different eyes. She has taught privately and in many institutions to students of different proficiency levels groups. Francesca is interested in literature, art and design, and in her free time, she likes reading, cooking, and making ceramics.
Damiano is a native of a small countryside town in Northern Italy, about 17 miles away from Padua, a city famous among other things for its university, the fifth-oldest surviving in the world. He received his B.A. and M.A. Cum Laude in Japanese language and culture from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, while specializing in linguistics and translation. He lived in Japan for three and a half years, where he continued his studies and his sociolinguistic research on (im)politeness in language. While in Japan, he also started working as an Italian teacher, discovering his passion for conveying the beauty of the Italian language and culture abroad.
Nicla is a native of Napoli, Italy. She has a Laurea in Materie Letterarie (degree in humanities) and a Laurea in Pedagogia (degree in Education) from the Università degli Studi di Cassino. She earned her M.A in Italian and her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington. She has published articles and book chapters on gender and theater as well as politics and religion in Counter-Reformation Italy and in the last years, has been teaching Italian literature, language, and culture in different institutions. In addition to teaching in our program, Nicla is authorized to cover the role of esaminatrice and intervistatrice in our PLIDA Examination Board.
Gabriella Vagnoli was born in Pisa, Tuscany, home of the famous Leaning Tower. She grew up in a multicultural family thanks to her Brazilian mom and remembers teaching Italian for the first time as a child to her Brazilian cousins. She obtained a Laurea in English and Spanish Language and Literature at the Università degli Studi di Pisa and during her college years spent a year in the University of Reading, UK, studying mainly the works of Shakespeare. After obtaining a Certificate as a Teacher of Italian (DITALS II) at the Università per Stranieri di Siena, she has taught in a full immersion school in Florence, a children's full immersion program in Chicago and a Community College in Illinois.
Tiziana was born and raised in Sardinia, a beautiful Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea. She has always been passionate about foreign languages and cultures, and studied French and German at the Scuola Superiore Interpreti e Traduttori in Milan, where she obtained her first Foreign Languages and Interpreter BA degree. She then pursued her MA in English and German Language and Literature at IULM, one of the most prestigious universities in Milan, Italy for Language and Communication studies.
Nicla is a native of Napoli, Italy. She has a Laurea in Materie Letterarie (degree in humanities) and a Laurea in Pedagogia (degree in Education) from the Università degli Studi di Cassino. She earned her M.A in Italian and her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington. She has published articles and book chapters on gender and theater as well as politics and religion in Counter-Reformation Italy and in the last years, has been teaching Italian literature, language, and culture in different institutions. In addition to teaching in our program, Nicla is authorized to cover the role of esaminatrice and intervistatrice in our PLIDA Examination Board.