PHS students travel to Italy

From November 1 to November 11, around 30 Italianlearning PHS students immersed themselves in Italy’s culture through scavenger hunts, pasta-making classes, and classes at Liceo Scientifico Statale “Manfredo Fanti,” a high school in Carpi, Italy. The students traveled to the regions of Tuscany and Marche, visiting culturally significant duomos and the Ferrari Museum, before spending the rest of the trip with their host families in Carpi.

For Italian teacher Laura Francolino, one of the highlights of the trip was a scavenger hunt in Mantua, a small city in Northern Italy, that both PHS and Italian students participated in.

“They had to sing a song, so the Italians taught the children from PHS how to sing Rigoletto, from [the] famous opera La Donna Immobile. Then they had to go into a store, [and] come back with a tortellino. They were on their own throughout the city of Mantua,” said Francolino. “We met back at a certain spot, they had turned in everything, and then the kids ate by the lake … their host families had packed them lunch.”

PHS students also had the opportunity to attend their host student’s school, Liceo Fanti, for several days. Hawthorne Warren ’26, an Italian IV student and participant on the trip, noted differences in school culture between Liceo Fanti and PHS.

“The entire school, almost, biked … it was like a flock of bikes coming in. And their classes, they stayed in the same class [for] the whole day. [School] only goes until one o’clock, so they would have three classes a day and the teacher would come each hour [and] switch out. They stayed with [the] same class all five years of high school,” said Warren.

Though Francolino noticed a significant language barrier between PHS students and their Italian host family at the beginning of the trip, by the end of the trip she observed a much closer connection. In the past, Francolino has had students who stayed in touch with their Italian host family for several years.

“Everybody was crying before we left. I even got tearyeyed, even though we know they’re coming in February.

The families all came out to say goodbye – they were crying as well. Before we left… they went on each other’s social media to check out whatever [online] pages your generation has,” said Francolino.

PHS students primarily spent the second half of the trip with their host families, but the trip also allowed them to connect with the entire community of Carpi as well.

“In Carpi, they have these centers where the senior citizens, [who] are very vibrant, make pasta and share their skills with the younger generations. We met women who showed us how to make tortellini. And actually we made tortellini with them, then they cooked it for us, and we had this big goodbye dinner,” said Francolino.

In the months before the trip, Francolino was in constant contact with her counterparts in Italy, planning activities and pairing students from PHS and Italy together. But despite the challenges (including a canceled Uber ride at 5am on their last day), Francolino says it was worth it. “I love to be in Italia,” said Francolino. “One of my students came up to me before I left, when we were in the airport, and said, ‘I understand why you cry every time you leave,