About Us
Italingua Chicago was founded in 2014 after the co-founders met at an Italian cultural event.  A genuine friendship began and they both discovered they shared the same interests, especially a love of languages.  This applied not only to their native language, Italian, but extended to other foreign languages as well.

Despite being raised in different countries, both co-founders shared the same background and education.  Because of this common passion, they decided to establish Italingua Chicago to better assist the Italian-American communities in and around Chicago, the U.S. and abroad.

Located just outside Chicago's famous downtown and minutes from O'Hare International Airport, Italingua Chicago is well positioned to meet all language-based needs for our clients.
​Our office is conveniently located on the northwest side of Chicago, in close proximity to public transportation (CTA & Pace) and O'Hare International Airport.  Our office is one mile south of the Harlem Ave Blue Line/Kennedy Expressway exit, with plenty of free parking located in front of our office building.

Italingua Chicago, Inc.
​7125 W Gunnison Ave, Ste. 218
Harwood Heights, Illinois 60706
​United States of America
Picture

About Our Team

Cristina Garizio–Tinnirello (Cofounder)

Cristina is an experienced and certified translator and interpreter from English and German into Italian.  She studied foreign languages (English, German, French and Spanish) and majored in Applied Linguistics.  She graduated from the translation and interpretation program at the Scuola Superiore per Interpreti e Traduttori in Turin, Italy.  She then specialized in business, legal and technical translations.  In 2011, she obtained her Masters degree in Didactics of Italian as a Second/Foreign Language from the Universita’ del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy, and then moved to the United States, where she trained and specialized in teaching her native language to young students (kindergarten through 12 grade) around Chicago.  Her areas of expertise are, but not limited to: bilingual/multilingual education, foreign languages and teaching methods in early childhood education and online adult education.  She is also involved in the promotion of Italian Language and Culture Programs, helps in fundraising activities and volunteers at major Italian–American events in the Chicagoland area. 

Elisabetta Di Michele (Cofounder)

Lisa is a skilled interpreter and translator from English into Italian and vice-versa.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Italian and a Minor in International Business from Loyola University-Chicago.  She has taught Italian to students ranging from kindergarten through 8th grade in northwest Chicagoland.  She has also tutored children in Italian, prepared college students to study overseas and assisted adults that had an interest in learning Italian for business and travel.  Lisa worked as an Italian interpreter & translator for several years at various language service companies.  Her work included translation during legal proceedings and was done via phone & in-person.  While employed at a Patronato (a non-profit social institution providing services to Italians abroad), she assisted Italian-American citizens with their pensions, citizenship, passports and paperwork that required extensive knowledge of Italian.  She also worked closely with the Italian Consulate in Chicago.  Because of these experiences, she was motivated to launch a translating & language services company.