Cooking is a passion for Pina. And simplicity is the cornerstone of her dishes. Pina teaches cooking classes for Scuola Italiana di Portland as well as Italian language classes. She was born in the south of Italy, in Naples, but lived many years in Brescia, in the north. She earned her degree in nursing and practiced for over 25 years in the fields of psychiatry and psychology. Her passion for the study of humanities lead her to go back to school where she graduated from the Università Degli Studi di Pavia with high honors in Italian Language and Literature, with a thesis of Latin Paleography on the handwriting of the poet Giacomo Leopardi. Pina also loves music. She is a singer and guitarist and plays in different venues in and around Portland. She has published two CDs of her Italian music Io sono qui, and Napoli in Love.