Ciao tutti –
I am sorry to report to the Dante Alighieri Society membership some disheartening news about the Garden Club, where we have been meeting for the last 40 years or so.
We received this morning an email from the President of the Washington Federation of Garden Clubs (WSFGC) informing us that the Garden House was sold as of October 10, 2018 and that we, that is Dante, are not able to have our meetings there after October 31, 2018 at which date the lockers we rent there have to be emptied as well.
So we’re looking for a new meeting space, both in the short and the long term.
We have not yet spoken with the new owners and are trying to find out who they are and how to reach them. It may be that they will be willing to rent to us, at least in the short term. We’re trying to contact them.
Short term I am particularly interested in finding a location for our November 14th meeting. I would welcome suggestions from the membership. Please email them to me and to the Board rather than to the membership at large. I don’t want to fill up everyone’s inbox with emails.
At the next meeting on October 24 – at the Garden House – the Board is planning an Q and A / Feedback Forum before the presentation. I hope as many of you as can make it will be there.
I know that this is discouraging news but I’m sure that as a group we can come up with a solution that will enable us to continue to enjoy our gatherings and presentations.
Forza e Coraggio!
Dan DeMatteis,
President, Dante Alighieri Society of Washington
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.