“Perché gli americani vogliono imparare l’italiano?” (“Why do Americans want to learn Italian?”) This was the question my friends asked when I told them that I was going to go from working on my Master’s in Italy to teaching Italian conversation at Bowdoin. My reply was aloof, well-hidden behind an exploratory and reassuring tone: “Hopefully I will able to tell you the reason when I am back.”

At that time, I told myself that I could say “pizza” with a faint American accent. That could always be my answer when I returned home if I did not find a better response overseas. I also imagined that Americans would be interested in studying Italian politics, perhaps, to handle their Berlusconi-style president’s policies and lovers. Back in August, I did not know that I could simply say that they wanted to understand all the dialogue in the Oscar-winning film “Call Me by Your Name.”