Federica I    Learn Italian with confidence, clarity, and real-world results.

What is your favorite word in your language and why?

My favorite Italian words are adverbs: they usually end with the suffix "-mente": I like this sound phonetically, because it marks a time and a soft tone of voice; secondly, in my experience, I have found that at all levels of knowledge of the language, Italian verb tenses are the most difficult grammatical part for students (being numerous and with small differences that can change the meaning of a speech), and adverbs often help me make myself understood by them. They are like a small communicative strategy that, it seems to me, is received effectively since in almost all languages adverbs serve to define and complete an action temporally.

What is your favorite dish from your hometown? If you no longer live there is there a good local restaurant that serves it?

My favorite dish is stuffed totani, both in pan sauce and white (i.e. without tomato sauce, with oil and lemon, baked). The best cuisine that makes this dish, here in Barcelona, is my home.

Besides the languages you teach, do you speak or study any other languages?

I speak Spanish and English.

What are your interests outside of teaching at Strommen?

I enjoy: reading and writing; traveling around the world, whenever possible, and learning about culture and traditions while immersing myself in society; walking and trekking in nature; photography (both digital and analog, developing myself in the darkroom); attending or organizing literary and socio-cultural conferences;. Also, I love all animals.

What do you consider your hometown? Why do you love it?

My hometown is a small village in northern Sicily: it is the closest point, geographically, to the Aeolian Islands archipelago. From the beach in my country, you can see the islands, volcanoes and clouds that release when they are active. I like the calm and the feeling that time stands still, that's there. Every time I return I rediscover it, because it evolves urbanistically, but I also see it the same, like when I was a child, and a sense of ancestral and indissoluble belonging becomes more alive in me because that's where my mother is.