Many different students – paesani and not – benefit from their minors in Italian at Widener University, associate professor Thomas K. Benedetti has found. Engineering students – the largest contingent – become closer to all those classic architectural styles. Business, tourism and hospitality management majors get better access to Italy, one of the European Union’s top economies, and artisanal producers of Italian food, the nation’s top export.

Computer science, nursing and English majors learn how another language works. Political science and history majors delve into Italy’s rich political history and Italian character, with Benedetti explaining with a story about famiglia: Benito Mussolini’s son-in-law plotted to assassinate him, but Mussolini refused to kill him, saying he couldn’t let his grandchildren become orphans.