Guest post written by Venetian Lessons in Love author Jenna Lo Bianco
Jenna Lo Bianco is ‘The Italian Teacher’, a passionate Italianist, and also a writer, educator and advocate for Italian language education in Australia. With nearly sixty publications to her name, Jenna is trusted to write about all things Italian. She is a past Fellow of the International Specialised Skills Institute and Italian Australian Foundation, and has written and consulted in educational publishing for more than a decade. Jenna may appear to live in Melbourne, but her heart and soul are Rome’s most permanent residents. Her first two novels, The Italian Marriage and Love & Rome, were published in 2024.
About Venetian Lessons in Love: An appassionata enemies-to-lovers Venetian romp by bestselling Italian-Australian author Jenna Lo Bianco.
After the publications of The Italian Marriage and Love & Rome, I thought long and hard about my next move: Book 3. I sought a diverse setting, a place that would contrast against the city bustle and noisy chaos of Rome, and the rural countryside setting of Umbria. In fact, it was the first scene that came to me – a flashback to 2006 involving a tragic water accident on Valentine’s Day – that made up my mind. From that point, there was no turning back. Suddenly I needed the water, the canals, the bridges and narrow dark calli of Venice that I couldn’t get from any other Italian setting. It had to be Venice.
Once I had my location, I had to think about tropes. Having already written a fake relationship, a marriage of convenience, a love triangle and a friends-to-lovers story, I was ready for a palate cleanser of sorts. I was dying to write something grittier, more tense, something that would ride the line between sarcastic, playful and yet also poignant. In my early plotting the idea of an enemies-to-lovers plot came to mind, and it ended up being the winner. It was the most perfect match to pair with the backstory of main character, Lucia Trevisan, who finds herself at a difficult point in her life – the ownership of her Italian language school is being threatened, she experiences continued interest in her private life after a tragic accident orphans her at the tender age of eleven, and she finds herself tied to a viral Instagram post after an anonymous kiss at a masquerade ball on Valentine’s Day. In short, I make it very difficult for Lucia during this trying time. It was so enjoyable to write, honestly. I would sit down and ask myself, ‘How can I make things hard for Lucia today?’.
In so many ways Venetian Lessons in Love is my love letter to the Italian language teaching profession. It’s a celebration of language and culture, a moment to highlight the nuanced work of language teachers, and a cheeky opportunity to pick at some of the trickier, more difficult aspects of our jobs. And yes, I use our, as I am an Italian teacher by trade, with fifteen years of experience under my belt. I know that fellow teachers, learners of Italian, and others with a passion for the language and culture will relate to so many moments in Venetian Lessons in Love. (Perhaps with a giggle, perhaps on a frustrated sigh, thinking about verb conjugations, marking, homework…) And I hope it will also teach readers lots of new vocabulary.
Across my professional career in education, I have written Italian textbooks and consulted in educational publishing, facilitated professional development for teachers of languages, and worked and researched in the field in Italy. I have also had the great pleasure of spending time studying and researching, shadowing my own students, and observing classes in private language schools in Italy, too. All this experience combined, plus a healthy dash of imagination, helped inform and shape the creation of the fictional school in Venetian Lessons in Love, La Scuola Rosa (The Pink School), and the main character, Italian teacher, Lucia.
I hope readers enjoy Venetian Lessons in Love for its twists and turns, the ups and downs, the humanity in Lucia’s passionate cause to save her language school, and for the vulnerability she must learn to show when faced with ongoing adversity.
Grazie e buona lettura!
