Summer travel experiences can be powerful tools for engaging geography, history, and cultural studies lessons. Seeing the most magnificent monuments and historical sites that are hundreds (if not thousands) of years old, engaging in daily conversations with locals, and dealing with the most basic needs—from ordering food to catching a bus—are among the most powerful language and cultural lessons. Un’immagine vale più di mille parole (a picture is worth a thousand words), and this also applies to experiences, no matter how (extra)ordinary they may be.
Let’s see how to make the most of your or your students’ summer adventures.
Summertime in Italy, Vacationing, or Just Being There
If you are Italian and/or have family or loved ones in Italy, chances are that you will spend some time in Italy over the summer. If you go there on vacation—be it to the sea, the mountains, or an art city—you might want to tell your students about it. Pictures, videos, and personal anecdotes might be great springboards for engaging students in fun conversations. Maybe some of them visited the same places, dream of doing so—or don’t know anything about them and are curious to know more. Even if you just hang out in your hometown, share your daily routine—from your daily walk to a local grocery store to the evening aperitivo with your friends. Even the most mundane “event” will make an interesting cultural lesson and provide an opportunity for comparing and contrasting.
If your students have been to Italy during the summer, they can share what they’ve seen and learned, along with what surprised or maybe baffled them. Exploring the world is not always Instagram-like, but every experience is a learning opportunity. Students can share their pictures, make a presentation, or tell their classmates about something funny, odd, or just beautiful they experienced. Food, art, history, nature, landmarks, local markets, supermarkets, social gatherings, concerts, a movie night in the city piazza, a huge gelato for lunch—there are no off-topic topics.
You can turn all the previous talking and sharing into a history or geography quiz, or a Jeopardy!-style or matching game. Students can role-play specific situations they experienced or play a song they happened to listen to a lot while in Italy—perhaps the so-called tormentone estivo (that is, a summer hit with a slightly annoying vibe, since tormentare means to torment, indeed).
No Travels? We’ve Got You Covered
Despite the fact that no real “good things” come from a pandemic, there was at least one positive to the COVID-19 pandemic: Starting in 2020, many attractions—from museums to archaeological sites—started offering online visiting opportunities. As a class, you could visit the Duomo di Milano (the largest church in Italy and a fine example of Gothic architecture, overlooking an iconic and lively piazza); the Cattedrale di Lecce (if you’re more into baroque); or the Basilica of San Francesco, in lovely Assisi. You can assign roles: One or more students can be your guide, someone else can give some background information, and others can research nearby restaurants to have a virtual lunch at after your visit. Along these same lines, you can visit museums virtually as well (bonus point: skipping those often very long in-person lines!), including the MAXXI in Roma, the Musei Civici in Venezia, the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milano, the MAMbo in Bologna, the Musei Vaticani (and here you’ll be even more grateful to skip the line!), the Galleria degli Uffizi in Firenze, the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia in Milano, or maybe the Triennale Milano, a must for design lovers.
A simple map can also go a long way in the classroom. You can plan travel itineraries on a map, looking for main destinations as well as off-the-beaten-path places to visit. You can consider distances and plan accommodations. All of this could then be turned into a role-play of buying a train ticket or asking for prices or details. To add a vintage vibe, you can do these activities on an old-school map if you happen to have or manage to find one. In any case, buon viaggio e buon divertimento!
By Claudia Quesito
Also read:
Summer Vacations in Italy: Essential Travel Phrases and Tips
Summer Language Learning Challenge: Boosting Proficiency in Your Language Journey as a Teacher
