Among the vineyards and historic villas of Valpolicella, there’s a bilingual 0–14 school that has caught the attention of Harvard experts and dreams of becoming a small Venetian Silicon Valley. It’s called Bambi&Bimbi Don Milani Middle School, and it was founded in 2012 by former footballer Damiano Tommasi—now mayor of Verona—together with a lifelong group of friends: Chiara Pigozzi, Graziella Pennisi, and Cristian Zivelonghi.

The school is located in the centuries-old park of Villa Mirandola, a 1700s Venetian villa, where winter glamping tents and classrooms designed for social distancing set the stage for high-tech teaching with interactive whiteboards, 3D headsets, and robotics.

Recently, the school completed its first cycle of primary and lower secondary education and is now ready to begin a new school year with a curriculum that blends traditional subjects with disciplines like art, theatre, circus arts, emotional education, problem solving, and active citizenship.

Joining the founding team is physicist and university lecturer Zeno Gaburro, who brings experience from the University of Illinois and Harvard, where he developed a patented optics technology later acquired by Samsung. He led the creation of Classeinfinita, a distance learning platform developed during the lockdown, which is still in use today. Entirely built in-house, it ensures privacy and high-quality audio/video through a load balancing system.

For the founders, however, technology is just a tool. What truly matters is relationships: between teachers and students, among students themselves, and between the school and its community. The educational model is inspired by the principles of Don Milani and places children’s cultural and personal growth at the center—an investment, they say, “in a form of wealth that’s less tangible, but more strategic.”

For more information:
www.bambiebimbi.it
Primaria.bambi@gmail.com