Food trip to an Italian Restaurant in Philadelphia

The Department of Transnational Italian Studies is delighted to announce a field trip to L’Anima Restaurant in Philadelphia for a culinary experience led by professional Italian chef Gianluca Demontis. 

The tasting menu will include a three-course dinner of authentic staples in the Italian cuisine accompanied by soft Italian beverages. The chef will offer historical contextualization and explanation in Italian about the history and the making of the menu, and a Q&A will follow. The event is organized within Luca Zipoli’s course “Intermediate Italian through Culture II” (ITAL B102) and is open also to students not enrolled in the class via RSVP. Limited seats are available. 

Please contact lzipoli@brynmawr.edu for RSVP and more information.

The event is co-sponsored by the Tri-Co Philly Program.

Start time and location: 5:15 pm at L’Anima Restaurant (1001 South 17th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19146).

Instructions: take the PAO #5438 train that departs from Bryn Mawr at 4:22 pm and that arrives at Suburban Station at 4:53 pm. On the way back take the PAO #9547 train that departs from Suburban Station at 7:15 pm and that arrives at Bryn Mawr at 7:43 pm.

Abstract:

On December 10, 2025, during its twentieth session held in New Delhi, India, the “Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage” of the UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) decided to inscribe “Italian cooking, between sustainability and biocultural diversity” on the “Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.” This deliberation marked the first time an entire national cuisine has received this distinction, recognizing it as a diverse combination of multiple culinary traditions connected by techniques and practices that emphasize respect for natural ingredients, conviviality of social gatherings around the table, and transmission of knowledge, skills, and memories across generations. This field trip explores the distinctive features of the diverse culinary, cultural, and social traditions in the Italian peninsula by reflecting recent trends in “Food Studies” scholarship and by blending experiential learning with second-language practice in Italian.