Liceo Statale " Carlo Porta", Erba, Italy

 

Web page of the school - http://www.liceoporta.gov.it/

 

This high school is situated in Erba Italy. The school is in the beautiful historical building. Leopoldo Pollack built the Villa Amalia in Erba between 1799 and 1801, it is an Italian neo-classical residence, one of the most important in Brianza, and it was consecrated in 1498 and was for many centuries a place of worship and prayer of the community of the Franciscan friars. In 1798, it passed into the hands of the Marliani family. Only after many years was restructured as a school, in fact all students see it as a museum.

 

Villa Amalia in Erba, that is now the school and a public site, is the luxurious residence to which Marcello Mastroianni retires in the film “Allonsanfan” by the brothers Paolo and Emilio Taviani, after having been released from prison for contributing to the start as the revolutionary uprising to unify Italy and liberate it from foreign domination. The neoclassical facade with the characteristic portico, the atrium with stairway leading to the noble floor, the huge park and even the kitchens were used in various scenes of the film.

In the past of Villa Amalia,  something similar to the story set there by the Taviani brothers really happened: Maddalena and Marco Aurelio Marliani, the children of the first owners of the villa, Rocco and Amalia, that were both members of the secret society, like the two characters in the film. Other scenes were shot in other places in the province of Como.

 

The school is divided in four sections: the noble floor, where the class of the students involved in this project is, there is the floor where the bedrooms were when the school was a house; the cappuccino is the floor below the mentioned one; on these two floors there are  classrooms in which students study social sciences. Then there’s the courtyard and it’s a part of the school where students study social sciences: they study Law instead of Latin. These classrooms were the stables of the house in the past. The language high school is situated on the upper floor, with the language lab and ICT lab.

The courses of High School Carlo Porta are the school of Human Sciences and the high school language. The school of Human Sciences, also known as ex-magistrali, it is composed by two courses: the traditional and the socioeconomic. The School of Human Sciences focuses on the study of social sciences (humanities) that are, psychology, anthropology, sociology and philosophy. In the traditional course, in addition to these subjects, there is the study of Latin language. In the socioeconomic course, they study law and economics, and Spanish language in addition to English language.

 

The School of Human Sciences allows access to any university faculty, in particular Modern Literature, Philosophy, Sciences Education, Sciences Communication, Psychology, Sociology, Foreign Languages and Literature, Social Services Science, Nursing, Speech Therapy.

The third course is the Language High School, specialized in the study of languages and related cultural expressions, including five languages in the whole course of study: Italian language and literature, Latin for two years, and three foreign languages and literature.

 

The professional graduate of the high school language are those related to the intensive use of foreign languages: translators and interpreters, communication and linguistic and cultural mediation with way out in the diplomatic field. Diploma permits access to any university faculty in particular Modern Languages - Modern Literature - Modern and Contemporary History - Psychology - History and philosophy and can fit easily into work (advanced services).

 

The school has 120 students and about 20 teachers. The students are involved to many competitions, projects, activities. The area of the school and surrounding is beautiful and it positively influences students and all the school staff. The web page of the school is www.liceoporta.gov.it. Students like not only architecture of the school but also going to school, learning new subject matter and working hard to learn new knowledge.

 

A video of the town - Erba - filmed by some students during Christmas holidays