Languages News - Italian

Dante Alighieri Poetry Recitation Competition 2025

On Wednesday 25th June, 71 students of Italian from years 9-12 participated in the 2025 Dante Alighieri Poetry Recitation Competition.

Students were asked to meet in Piazza Italia, in Lygon Street and were escorted to the University of Melbourne via Lygon Street stopping at iconic restaurants and shop fronts where once many Italians set up businesses to cater for those Italian immigrants who first arrived in Australia, many of them in the 1950s. King and Godfree is an example of one of these iconic landmarks. 

It was taken over in 1955 by Carlo Valmorbida, one of Lygon Street’s Italian food pioneers, helping to introduce the likes of parmesan cheese, olive oil and pasta to the wider Australian community. 

We were very fortunate that the rain, and hail, held off for us to meet and walk to the university.   We were even fortunate to be blessed with sunshine on a day that was forecast to be grey, cold and wet all day. 

For our year 9s it was their first visit to the University of Melbourne and their first time in the competition. 

We are very proud of all our students and their efforts. It is always wonderful to see them sitting in the lecture theatre, while waiting for their turn, listening to each other practise and supporting their peers. A very proud moment. 

We were reminded today, how wonderful our students are. The feedback from the judges was that our students are very well behaved and beautifully mannered. They were also impressed at how beautiful their pronunciation was. A credit to the students. 

Thank you to the Italian team, who have been helping and supporting the students to learn their poems.

Thank you to Prof D’Andrea, Prof Graziano and Ilaria who came along to help support and supervise the group. 

CO AS IT Italian Historical Museum Visit

Later in the afternoon, the Year 12 Italian students attended a presentation on Italian immigration at The Italian Historical Society, a centre where they document, preserve and promote the history of Italian migration and settlement in Australia. Students were given a tour of the museum and shown old photos, videos, poems, letters and belongings.

This topic will be studied by the student’s later next term.

Joyce Conidoni

Languages (Italian) Coordinator