A gondola ride in Venice is priceless…plus 90 euro.

Plastic bottles aren’t the only things I recycle–I compiled this list for my final presentation in my advanced Italian grammar class last fall!

MELISSA’S TOP 10 REASONS TO STUDY ITALIAN
(Translated back into English)

10. You can go to Italian restaurants and order in Italian.

9. You’ll gain deep insight into Bruno Tonioli’s cryptic critiques on “Dancing With the Stars.”

8. The opera will now be of some interest to you.

7. Italy isn’t the only place where you can go to speak Italian! There’s Switzerland, Argentina, and Australia, too.

6. I bet no one was expecting for you to know Italian!

5. You can study abroad in Florence or Rome. Both cities will allow you to easily travel around the rest of Europe.

4. Italian is rapidly becoming a popular non-native language for students to learn in the U.S. and Canada, so you’re not alone–you’re just thinking forward!

3. You’ll be able to read wine bottle labels with ease and authority.

2. Even if you don’t know Spanish or French, you’ll totally understand it! And that goes for Latin, too!

1. If you go to Au Bon Pain and you would like to talk about the ragazzo at the adjacent table, do it in Italian!

I totally enjoyed studying Italian in college, so much in fact that I went totally overboard with the electives. And because I was usually the only person in each of my classes learning for love alone (not for major or minor requirements), I always had to keep these reasons in my metaphorical back pocket to stay motivated when things sometimes got challenging.