Our mission
Italmente was founded in Milan, Italy, by a team of passionate specialists in language education. By combining our years of experience, we aim at providing quality online Italian language courses and sharing the language and culture of our country with students from all over the world.
Millions of people study Italian every day across the globe, and we wanted to make a difference by offering a state-of-the-art full-immersion into the Italian language from the comfort of your home.
To this aim, we created a modern and innovative platform that combines live online Italian lessons with the possibility to practice anywhere and at any moment with a vast collection of fun online Italian quizzes and exercises.
We also want to give our students a comfortable and user-friendly experience. We thus developed an appealing student’s dashboard where online Italian individual lessons can be easily booked on a calendar, where study materials can be easily shared by teacher and students, and where online Italian exercises can be quickly accessed to train your skills and put your knowledge into practice.
Thanks to our platform, you'll be able to learn Italian online with full flexibility, whenever and wherever you want.
All our Italian teachers are native speakers and have a specialisation in Teaching of Italian as a Foreign Language. And, not the least, they are passionate about sharing their language and culture with you!
Through all this, we will help you learn Italian at a fast pace, while having fun with our teachers and enjoying our immersive virtual learning environment.
Ti aspettiamo!
Our approach
As experts of teaching Italian as a foreign language, we believe in the effectiveness of the communicative approach, and we closely follow the guidelines of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
The communicative approach, supported by the international academic community of language didactics, is aimed at helping students achieve their pragmatic linguistic goals, whether they are travelling to Italy or communicating with one’s business partners.
Most traditional teaching approaches (unfortunately still often used in public schools and universities) focus on grammar and translations, forcing students to passively absorb knowledge from the teacher and to complete tiresome tasks that have no connection with the real world.
The communicative approach, on the other hand, puts the student at the centre of the process, helping them actively discover the new language in cooperation with their peers and achieve concrete goals through communication.
As a result, our online Italian lessons are fun and effective; grammar is still present albeit not being the main focus of the course, while students and teachers only speak Italian. This will help you quickly develop your skills and don’t lose motivation.
Our teachers
Eugenio Alimena
Mi chiamo Eugenio, sono italiano e sono nato al sud d’Italia, in Calabria.
I graduated from the La Sapienza university of Rome with a dissertation about Russian language and literature. While being a university student, I became interested in teaching Italian by attending the courses and sitting the exams of Linguistics, Didactics of Languages and Didactics of Foreign Languages. I began my teaching career in 2011 in Moscow, at the Lomonosov university and Ina public bilingual school.
I have taught students whose mother tongue is English, French, Spanish and Russian, and I have experience with children, teenagers, and adults of all levels.
While teaching in Saint Petersburg, I participated for three years in the PLIDA exam project, aimed at certifying Italian proficiency for foreign students.
I also obtained the DITALS II certification for Teaching Italian as a Foreign Language.
I love literature, theatre, music and traveling. I speak Italian, English, Russian and a little French. I love staying in contact with people and exchanging opinions and experiences!
To me, learning a foreign language means discovering a new world, and therefore during my lessons I love talking about life and culture in Italy with plenty of amusing information!
Our team
Francesco De Chirico
Founder & CEO
After obtaining his Undergraduate Degree in History at Milan State University, Francesco completed his specialisation in Teaching of Italian as a Foreign Language at the prestigious University for Foreigners of Siena.
He spent 4 years teaching Italian in Saint Petersburg, Russia, before completing his Postgraduate Degree in International Relations at King’s College London.
He then became Centre Director and Sales Director at the prestigious Liden & Denz Intercultural Institute of Languages.
The desire to share the culture of his homeland with students from all over the world and to put his teaching and management knowledge into practice were his motivations behind the choice to create Italmente.
“Preparation and experience are indeed pivotal in making a successful tutor, but the key ingredients are passion and motivation. Me and the team of Italmente have plenty of them, and we can’t wait to pass them onto you!”
Davide Zonca
Founder
Davide has always been passionate for technical subjects. He built his skills by attending first the Milan State University and obtaining a bachelor in Industrial Chemistry; he then moved to Paris where he completed his Master's degree in Chemical Engineering.
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Having an international soul, Davide moved right after university to Singapore where he joined an automation company working in the field of Semiconductors.
He now manages the company and keeps on cultivating his passion for technical challenges providing industrial solutions all over the world.
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Dreaming of exploring new horizons and new exciting terrains, Davide has decided to participate to Italmente to bring the best of his experiences to a new field.