Italian by Lara

31/08/2026

Big news from my teaching desk! 🇮🇹

Next Tuesday, September 8, my new course opens at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute): "Italy Before You Go: A Cultural and Linguistic Companion."

Four sessions, four regions, travelling the way a traveller does, south to north: Naples and the Amalfi Coast, Rome, Tuscany, Venice. History, culture, food, and the real Italian you actually need — every phrase taught inside the story that gives it meaning. Because here's the idea at the heart of the course: Italy became one country only in 1861 (yes, it's younger than the United States!), and travelling through it still feels like crossing several nations. Once you know that, everything about Italy makes sense: why the food changes every hundred kilometers, why every region sounds different, even why the coffee has rules.

Many of my new students are preparing for a real journey to Italy this fall, and by the end of our four lessons, they'll read any Italian word aloud and introduce themselves not as tourists, but as guests. I can't wait to meet them all.

A full classroom is always a special kind of joy; and at the same time, nothing changes for my own students: I continue working one to one, with the premium, fully personalized courses that are the heart of Italian by Lara. Spreading Italian language and culture on more fronts than ever: honestly, what a privilege.

And if Italy is calling you too (for a journey this fall or a dream for someday) you'll find all my programs, from personalized signature courses to self-paced learning, at italianbylara.com. Write to me, I answer everyone. ❤️

A presto!
Lara

18/06/2026

She lost her husband. She started over. And she chose Italy. 🇮🇹
Suvi is Finnish, has lived in the US for over 20 years, and decided her next chapter would be written in Italian — literally.
In this interview she shares how learning Italian is helping her build a new future, and why she believes speaking the local language is the ultimate act of respect for the country that welcomes you.
If you've ever said "I'd love to learn Italian, but…" — this one's for you. 👇
🎧 English subtitles included

💬 DM me to find out how my personalized lessons work

16/06/2026

"Italy was the place I went to feel at home."
Robert traveled across Europe as a kid, dragged from gallery to gallery by his mother. But there was one country he always came back to.
In this clip he describes the moment Italy stopped being a tourist destination and became something else entirely:
Not a place to simply be educated, but a place to feel at home. Beauty not just inside the galleries — but in the cities, the landscapes, the people.
This is exactly why I teach Italian starting from culture, not grammar. Because a language only becomes "home" when you bring your real life into it.
🎙️ Full interview is on the channel — link in the comments.

15/06/2026

As a kid, he was "dragged" from gallery to gallery across Italy. At 18, he took a train to Italy alone. Today he speaks Italian fluently and dreams of spending half the year in Tuscany. 🇮🇹
Robert is Norwegian-American, a strategy consultant and a sommelier. But above all he's my student — and here he shares how Italian turned him from a tourist into "one of us."
👇 When did a language stop being just "study" and start becoming personal for you?

14/06/2026

"I was immediately convinced this was a good fit."

That's what Suvi told me about our very first conversation.

When you're a busy adult investing real time and money into learning a language, you don't want guesswork. You want a teacher who has clearly thought about you — your trips, your interests, the conversations you actually want to have in Italian.

That's the difference between language lessons and language coaching.

11/06/2026

"There is no one same lesson after another."
This is Suvi, describing what learning Italian actually looks like when it's built around you — your interests, your travels, your life. Not a textbook. Not the same lesson Mrs. Smith gets.
This is the whole reason adults stay motivated and actually keep going. 💛
Her full story — leaving the US, starting over in Italy, learning the language she wants to live in — is on YouTube now.
🎥 Full interview: link in bio / comments

11/06/2026

Four years ago, Suvi Tory lost her husband. In the middle of that loss came a quiet, clear question: what do I want the rest of my life to look like?

Her answer was Italy.

Suvi is Finnish, has lived in the United States for over twenty years, and is now learning Italian not as a hobby, but as the language she intends to live in. In this conversation she talks about beginning again, about learning a language as an adult, and about what she would say to anyone who has spent years thinking "I'd love to, but…"

It's an honest, moving conversation. I'm grateful she shared it.

🎥 Watch the full interview: https://youtu.be/ljBCIIIBgqE?si=nBTdvY2Ggl-bEsyt

Suvi is Finnish. She has lived in the United States for more than t...

09/05/2026

"It's much more fun to talk about shoes and Caravaggio
than the pluperfect subjunctive."

That's what my student Fiona said when I asked her what
surprised her most about our work together.

This is the Italian most adults never learn from apps or
textbooks: the language of real life. The way Italians
actually talk about their day, their loves, their small
obsessions.

Grammar matters. But grammar without context is just
homework. Italian as it's lived — through clothes and art
and family lunches and the unspoken rules — is what makes
it stick.

And it's a lot more fun.

If you've been "doing Italian" with Duolingo for months
and still feel like an outsider, you're probably missing
this part.

Private coaching for adults — link in the first comment.

30/04/2026

She had the Italian.
She had the children at the local preschool.

And she was still sending messages she didn't mean to send.

This is the part nobody talks about: the unspoken codes
underneath the language, the difference between speaking
and being understood.

The full conversation with Marcella Carpenter is on YouTube — link in
the comments.

italianbylara.com

29/04/2026

"Sometimes I was sending messages I didn't mean to."

This is what my student Marcella told me, months into our work
together, when she finally understood what had been quietly
sabotaging her relationships in Sicily.

Marcella moved with her family from Florida to Ragusa.
Her Italian was good. Her intentions were good.

And yet — at the school gate, with the teachers — she was occasionally being read as cold, distant, or even rude.

Not because of her grammar. Not because of her vocabulary.

Because the same words can carry completely different weight
depending on the cultural context underneath them. Tone,
silence, indirectness, the difference between what is said
and what is meant.

This is the part of language learning that no app can teach
you, and that most textbooks never even mention. It is also
the part that, once you finally see it, feels like the real
beginning of fluency.

I sat down with Marcella for a long conversation about her
journey — from Duolingo to private tutoring to the moment
she realized language alone was never going to be enough.

We talk about:

— Why apps and books leave most adult learners stuck at the surface
— The unspoken rules of Sicilian communication that no class teaches
— Her personal story as a student, and how it shaped the way she
now learns
— The first concrete moment she knew our work was actually working

If you live in Italy, plan to move there, or simply work in
multicultural contexts where reading the room matters as much as
speaking the language — I think you will find something useful here.

italianbylara.com



https://youtu.be/AxgiZAqY5TA?si=ozlRQ33bDNbdKGEb

1 like, 1 comment. "Learning Italian to Build Community in Sicily: Marcella's Story"