Dear ICS community, in 2014, the ILP recognized an overall increase in enrollment of over 60%. We are very happy that more people are able to enjoy our "corner of Italy" in Maryland!

Our primary goal is to offer authentic immersion into Italian language, literature, cinema, opera, art, history, cuisine, and our way of life. We also enable you to experience the Italian lifestyle when you travel and hope that more of you will take advantage of our "course + trip" ideas and our "study abroad" recommendations. We will gradually add suggestions on places in Italy, whenever we feel positive that it will be a good experience for you.

We also are proud to widen our offering with the teaching of Latin, the origin of our language, to deepen the history of our civilization, and the teaching of Art (Drawing still life) and Cooking (in English and in Italian) to develop your talents, with the support of our Italian instructors. We are lucky to have such high level instructors, not only for these three new additional classes, but for all of our courses, including kids and teens' classes. Please visit our page http://www.italianculturalsociety.org/italian-language-program/ and scroll down the menu to read about the schedule and the details of the classes.

For this term, I would like to point out:

· a new class for teenagers, on Thursday 4:00-5:30 pm (A1)

· "La cultura italiana dell'800 e il processo di unificazione della nazione (C2)", an advanced level course, for whoever is interested in deepening cultural aspects, on Fridays 10:00-12:00

· "Book reading- intermediate level (A2-B1)", on Thursday 12:15-1:15. We have two advanced level reading classes, and we thought it will be useful for intermediate level students to start reading, at their pace, in order to improve their knowledge of the language.

· "Italian culture – Cinema (B2-C1-C2)". After the success of "Italian culture-Storia", we propose now a panoramic history of the Italian cinema, for students with Intermediate/Advanced reading comprehension skills

· "Italian through cinema", "Food/wine pairing" ... and much more!

Classes in Friendship Heights are starting today and classes in Rugby ave. will start on Wednesday, January 7th. You are still in time to register.

Finally, I would like to thank all of our teachers and our students for this successful year. I wish all of you a joyful 2015, and I welcome all of our new students to the adventure of learning and enjoying the Italian culture together with us!

Buon anno! Francesca Casazza

Source: Italian Cultural Society