Giuseppe

Giuseppe Rossi was born in Florence and grew up in Oltrarno, on what people across the river called the wrong side of the Arno. He lived in Milan and then in Venice, and today he lives in Rome, which he calls the only Italian city that doesn't play itself. He studied linguistics first and computer science second, works as a data scientist and teaches Italian, which he does not consider a second job.

Giuseppe learned to cook from his grandmother, weighing flour by hand and never with a scale, and he still cooks that way. His signature dish is risotto alla milanese, learned in Milan, which his grandmother never quite forgave. He returns to Barcelona whenever he can, loves "The Name of the Rose" and "Life Is Beautiful", and relaxes by a fireplace with a book, which is what he misses most about Florence.

A year in Spain during university changed Giuseppe's path. He went for computer science and came back for languages. He teaches through Italian films and novels, and he lets students meet the grammar before he explains it. When a student is in a hurry, he says "Piano piano si va lontano", slowly you go far. To a nervous speaker he says to make mistakes out loud, because a quiet mistake has to be corrected twice.