Team of Instructors
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Maria A Chiacchio, Founder and CEO of the Italian Institute Ltd., created the Italian Institute in response to the increasing demand for Italian language and cultural opportunities in the Denver area. Although born in Sicily, Maria was raised in Como, Italy.
In 1992, she moved to Venezuela and successfully founded a non-proft organization that procures medical treatment and supplies for patients in need; this organization is still active and running successfully today. During this time, she also taught Italian as a foreign language to students of the Italian-American school, Agustin Codazzi.
In 2002, Maria moved to Denver and continued teaching Italian as a private tutor. She also provided translation and interpretation services to a wide range of Italian and American sports, marble and manufacturing companies. In the years to follow, Maria developed and subsequently established the Italian Institute to share her passion for the Italian language and culture with Italophiles.
In her free time, Maria enjoys skiing, biking, hiking, cooking and, of course, traveling to Italy. She also takes great pleasure in spending time with her son, family and friends. As many will attest, Maria is always happy to welcome her students and friends with a good Italian espresso.
Email:
Skype:maria_italianinstitute
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Biagio moved with his family from Florence, Italy in December 2009. He’s originally from Taranto in Puglia.
After high school, he joined the Naval Academy in. In 1991 decided to enroll in the Università di Firenze at the faculty of Architecture. In the meanwhile he enjoyed the interest on study foreign languages and cultures, travelling worldwide.
In Florence the interaction with other cultures developed his experience and fluency in different languages, teaching architecture and art’s history for different study abroad programs.
The experience with the American study abroad students made the interest on teaching Italian and he collaborated with Loescher and Einaudi Editor to published different exercise’s books and handbooks to be used in different study abroad programs.
In 2001 he earned the doctorate degree in Architectural Advance Structural Technologies at the Università di Firenze and published manuals in Architecture’s history that are still in use at the Italian Universities.
The approaching with the American Culture, started during his student exchange master program at The University of Pennsylvania. There he realized that his dreams and life belongs to the U.S.A.
After the University, different companies (Generali Group, Intesa Group and others) requested his knowledge in dialects, languages and foreign cultures as consultant in localize their software, web networking and marketing strategies in different Countries.
He also worked in Cernobbio, near Como as urban project designer for the City Hall and he travelled around Italy for his private firm’s clients for residential project or restore public interest buildings. Those travels help him to update his comprehension in the Italian dialects and their affinities with some common sentences.
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Caren is a bilingual journalist and writer with over 25 years of experience in teaching both Italian and English as a second language. In the 30 years he has spent in Rome, Caren has helped hundreds of adult students to learn to speak those two languages. This included teaching intensive, one-month language courses at the Vatican-run Università Pontifica Salesiana aimed toward preparing foreign students for the university’s entry exam.
In Denver, Caren has taught at the University of Denver (VIVA lifelong learning program) and the Colorado Free University.
As a journalist, Caren is a member of Italy’s official Ordine dei Giornalisti Italiani. He has worked as managing editor, correspondent or freelance writer for several Italian and U.S. publications, including Il Riformista, The Hollywood Reporter, International Daily News, International Courier, Daily American News Italy, and a number of other dailies and magazines. From 1990 to 2004, he was co-founder and publisher of the Italian Press Digest, a daily report in English on Italian current affairs.
Caren is also the author or co-author of several travel and wine and food guide books on Italy published in the Eighties and Nineties, including Italia & Italy (Italian Trade Commission); Wines of Siena (Trade Commission of Siena); Guide à la Dégustation (Office International de la Vigne et du Vin); Time Out Guide: Florence & Tuscany (Penguin Books), and Rome (Automobile Club Italiano). Rome has been translated in seven European languages and in Japanese. The U.S. edition was published by Everyman City Guides (1999); the French edition, by Gallimard (1998).
Caren is passionate about horses. During the day, you’ll find him riding horses in a ranch east of Denver.
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Eleonora was born and raised in Padua, Italy. She has a "Laurea" in Foreign Languages and Literatures issued by the University of Venice. She has taught English in Italy before moving to the United States where she has been living with her husband and son since 1991. She has a deep interest in language acquisition and has taught all levels of Italian language classes at the University of Denver (DU) from 1999 to 2009, in the Department of Languages and Literatures. The classes include language, reading, conversation, literature and culture. Since 1999, she has been working as an Italian instructor for adult learners in the Department of Modern languages of University College at DU. She has also led two study trips in the summer with her students to Northern and Central Italy. In her free time, Eleonora likes to volunteer at Italian events such as the Festival of Nations and Taste of Language at DU, or the Food and Wine Festivals at Belmar. She also enjoys swimming, cooking and traveling to Italy where she regularly goes to visit her family.
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Italy provides much opportunity for business:
- Italy's major industries include tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, and ceramics.
- Italy is the world's fifth largest industrial economy.
- Italy has more hotel rooms than any other nation in Europe.
- Italy's biggest trading partners are Germany, France, the United States, and Great Britain.
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