A celebration of Italian language and culture brought more than 70 students together at this year’s Italian night.

Binghamton University students taking Italian classes spent Thursday night enjoying the country’s culture, food and performances.

Dana Stewart, an associate professor who teaches Italian 241: Conversation and Composition and Italian 481A: Dante’s Inferno, organized the event.

“Every semester or year for the past several years, we have gotten together,” Stewart said. “It’s a chance for students of all levels of Italian to get together and celebrate their progress and celebrate Italian.”

With a room full of students majoring in Italian, taking Italian classes or who just like Italian culture, attendees and performers were able to display their knowledge of Italian language and culture.

“It’s fun for the beginning students to see what the advanced students can do, and it’s for the advanced students to give encouragement to the beginning students,” Stewart said.

Performances included poems, small skits and some songs.

Robert Milano, an undeclared freshman, wrote his own song in Italian for the event.

“Because I’m a musician, I took Italian because it would help me in writing and going around the world. I wanted to write a song because I love the language and its fluidity. It’s very romantic,” Milano said.

Alexandra Iannelli, a sophomore majoring in medieval and early modern studies, performed her own poem.

“The poem that I wrote myself that’s based off of Dante’s poem that we learned about in class,” Iannelli said.

Students from Stewart’s Dante class performed “Inferno” from Dante’s “The Divine Comedy,” and her conversational Italian students performed a song called “Sentimento Pentimento.”

“I came for my class to perform, and I’m also 100 percent Italian. I felt at home,” said Gina Natoli, a student in Stewart’s Dante class and a junior majoring in economics.

Allison Licciardi, an undeclared freshman, also performed a poem for the large crowd.

“It was really scary, but then once you’re up there, it’s really not that bad,” she said.

The event featured pizza donated by Endicott restaurant Consol’s Family Kitchen and traditional Italian cake and a cookie cake decorated with an Italian flag.

There was also a performance of an Italian Christmas story, a story about a student’s growth through speaking Italian and a skit about two girls who studied abroad in two different parts of Italy and ended up falling for the same guy.

Nino Samiani, father of Binghamton alumna Rachel Samiani, came to perform four songs for the crowd.

“When you hear Italian, you automatically think of family. So I’m going to sing a favorite song of my mother’s, my father’s and my daughter, Rachel,” Samiani said before he began.

Starting with the song “Speak Softly Love” and ending strong with the classic “That’s Amore,” Samiani said he was pleased to be able to perform for the attending students.

“It’s fun,” Samiani said. “It’s nice to see people want to learn about Italian language and culture. And being full-blooded Italian, I like to see that.”

This Italian night is an event that ties the Italian program at Binghamton University together with the local community.

“We have such a thriving Italian community here locally, and we’re interested in maintaining and strengthening that connection with the community, so we’re really happy to become involved,” Stewart said.