About Us

The Italia Institute offered its first Italian Language and Culture courses at The Winery in Fargo in 2007-08, and has since expanded to Detroit Lakes for courses offered at The Fireside in 2009 and 2011, as well as private courses in Battle Lake.

Our Italian-American founder, Michael Nelson, fell in love with passing on his passion for Italy after teaching summer Italian classes at NDSU. Michael previously spent a year studying at the University of Padua in northeastern Italy. He also received language training from the Universita’ degli Stranieri in Perugia and the Istituto Dante Alighieri in Florence.

From his home in Lakes Country, Michael serves as Midwest Campus Relations Manager of CET Academic Programs in Washington, DC, while also directing and teaching at the Italia Institute.