Students of Indiana University study Italian with Italia Slow Tour

From this semester, the French and Italian Department of Indiana University in Bloomington offers to the students studying Italian the class “Italia Slow Tour: A Sustainable Journey through Italy”, as part of the course “Visions of Italy through the Arts, Media, Society, and Culture”! Italia Slow Tour web series subtitled in English and the articles by Syusy Blady and Patrizio Roversi about Italy became teaching materials to introduce American students to the Italian territory and the principles of sustainable tourism.

Here is the presentation of the course: “Most people who come to Italy are not aware of the infinite possibilities that ecotourism, a sustainable way of traveling, offers visitors. This Slow Tourism let people appreciate many authentic characteristics of Italian culture and to live a more immersive experience. Taking ecotourism as a guiding principle and a way to develop advanced textual analysis skills, students on this course will engage deeply with a rich variety of written texts, media and artistic contributions. Thanks to those authentic and innovative materials, students will understand how much the values of eco-criticism, sustainability and Italian-Mediterranean geographical identities reflect in literature, music, cinema, etc. In the process, students will increase their knowledge of Italian history and society, improving their proficiency in the four main areas of language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing)”.

The lessons will present many destinations, for example Italia Slow Tour itineraries in Sicily (Favara and Noto), in Umbria (Gubbio, Assisi and the Sibillini Mountains), the ones of Milan & Leonardo da Vinci and of the Lazio Holy Valley (Greccio, Subiaco and Rieti), the web series in Valtellina and Oltrepò Pavese area. At the end of the lessons, Syusy Blady and Patrizio Roversi will join a virtual Q&A meeting to meet the students. “Traveling the world, we met many Italian people living abroad loving our videos cause they remind them their origins – say Syusy & Patrizio – this is a total unexpected use, making us proud and happy”. Thanks to Professor Colleen Ryan and the course assistants Lucia Casiraghi and Nicolò Salmaso who got the idea and got in touch with us through social media!