The History of Casa...

La Casa Italiana is the only residence at Stanford dedicated to the study and celebration of Italian culture and language. It opened in the fall of 1976, but the original idea dates back to 1975. After recognizing that there was support on campus for an Italian language theme house, Annamaria Napolitano (a senior lecturer in the French and Italian Dept.) brainstormed the details with a group of interested students and Casa was born.

Residents of Casa attend a seminar on Italian culture that includes lectures on history, religion, regional differences, gender relations, film, music, art, and sport. In addition, there are house outings to the opera and to Italian restaurants, for example. Residents also perform short plays in Italian for the Stanford community, and in the spring Casa puts on an Italian-style fashion show. The house also stages a number of pizzerias (usually two a quarter) when the kitchen and dining area is transformed into a pizza restaurant for an evening.

Finishing the entire first-year Italian series qualifies a potential resident for priority in the house, and as a result, the majority of the house has a background in the Italian language. This is in evidence at dinner every Thursday, when Casa has Tavola Italiana. At Tavola, Italian is the only language spoken and lecturers in the Italian Department often dine with us. A member of the Italian Department lives in the house as a Graduate Theme Assistant and, in cooperation with one or two student Theme Assistants and the house staff, is responsible for most of the activities mentioned above.