[For my Fall 2021 Italian Writing Workshop at Florida Atlantic University, I assigned a composition titled Primo amore – First Love. My student Calli Abisognio wrote, wonderfully, about Italian Language. I asked her to translate her work from Italian to her native language, English, so that everybody can enjoy it. Emanuele Pettener]

When this lingua rolls off of my lingua,it makes me tremble with pleasure, with elegance, with satisfaction. The saliva melts as I pronounce the words sweetly, slowly, musically. I play a song with my mouth. Every syllable is a note, every sentence a verse, every speech a song. It is like seducing the listener every time it happens—every time I speak the Italian language.