An educational and mouth-watering field trip took place earlier this month in the Prudential Center; high-level Italian language learners at Malden High School embarked on a journey to Eataly in Boston.
Eataly is an Italian marketplace that features an array of cafes, counters and even has a restaurant that many locals and tourists enjoy. Eataly is big on traditional marketing, so all of the food you could buy or eat there has received certification as authentic food from Italy. There are locations all over the world, including Brazil, Japan, Korea, Turkey, and of course, Italy.
The trip took place on December 8th and lasted for a large portion of the day. The students left the school at 9:45 in the morning and later returned at 2:45 in the afternoon.
The two Italian teachers at Malden High School, Giuseppe Formato and Fredy Rodriguez-Diaz, are very passionate about Italian language and culture, and this trip was a great way to show that to their students through food and demonstrations. As teachers, they “try to expose students to different materials such as media or music.” Rodriguez explains. In their Italian III class, “students are currently learning about food and the role of food in the culture, which pushed [them] to seek this opportunity.”
Once the students got to the market, various activities followed. The class was taken to various food stands, where they tasted authentic Italian food such as mozzarella cheese and Margarita pizza. They were also given cannolis, which was sophomore Alejandra Fernandez’s favorite part.
She explains how when she went with her family, “it was just to eat at the restaurant” but with the class, they “went all around the market and gained a whole new experience.”
The two teachers came into contact with the Consulate General of Italy in Boston prior to the trip, and their office of education agreed to fund the field trip entirely. Normally, each student would have to pay 15 dollars to attend. “When we were offered this, we were very happy” Formato expressed, “As long as we got the okay from the school, we would be doing something that nobody else is doing, not only [at Malden High] but in all schools.”
Rodriguez had been to Eataly prior to the trip, but not just the Boston location. They had visited the location in Bologna, which is much bigger and grander than the Boston location. They got the chance to even make pasta by hand, and “it was an amazing experience,” they stated. “Having done it before, it’s something that I feel like [the students] would learn so much from.”
Students learn how to make pasta. 
More pasta!
Once it was all over, Fernandez remarked that “it was amazing and something you’d only experience once in a lifetime” All and all, this experience is definitely something that all the students and staff will remember for a long time, and they got to experience true Italian culture.
