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A father’s memoir of creating a dual-language household to prepare for a stint living abroad—and all of the ensuing challenges and rewards

After living in Modena, Italy, for three years, Eric Dregni and his wife, Katy, had a dream of returning one day—future children in tow—to give their kids the experience of living abroad. When their children finally arrive, they decide to raise them with a global perspective in a bilingual household: Katy speaking only English to them and Eric speaking only Italian.

Despite their extended family’s confusion about their experiment, they persist through their three kids’ childhoods, sending them to an immersion language camp and working to prepare them for life abroad. Eventually, the family packs up and moves to Florence, where the bambini can stop to see Michelangelo’s David on the way back from school, indulge in fresh pasta and gelato, and learn how to argue like real Italians. Sooner than anyone would like, three months of la dolce vita comes to an end, and they head back to Minnesota, trying to bring a taste of Italian culture home with them.

A fast-paced memoir/travelogue, Raising Bilingual Bambini is Dregni’s passionate testament to the value of an international perspective, loving tribute to the family’s time together in Italy, and bittersweet reflection on what it meant to return to Minnesota (that is, until their trip to Sicily several years later). Writing with his signature humor and sincerity, he offers a heartfelt story about family and finding a home together in a new place.