14 JUN 2023

Campus reunion season 2023 kicked off in fine style on the evening of June 9, with Lynn and Michael Aeschliman, Bill Eichner, Zuleika Tipismana, former faculty Nilda Lucchini, and more than 40 alumni and guests from the classes of 1999 and 2000 in attendance. Likened more to a family reunion than a high school reunion, Casa Fleming was brought to life with ’99 and ’00 yearbooks on display, logo items on platters, and a throwback-photo slideshow rolling in the salon. Mrs. Fleming was surely looking down upon her alumni, glass raised, as the group moved from salon to garden sipping wine and prosecco before catching up over dinner by candlelight. Alessandro Nelli ’00, now a restaurateur, came all the way from Sydney, Australia; Tommaso Basili ’00, Italian sitcom and movie actor, made the trip from Rome; and TASIS couple and former classmates Su Yi Chao ’00 and Chia Wei Yang ’00 came with their children from Taipei. Many others made the trip from as far as Canada, the UK, the US, Mexico, and the Netherlands! 

TASIS brought these alumni back to where their friendships started. Warm exchanges erupted through the group as each alum stepped through the main gate onto campus. Life updates and even more reminiscing ensued during the back-to-campus tour and presentation in the Palmer Center led by Director of Institutional Advancement Bill Eichner, now in his 40th year at TASIS! Attempting to corral cats characterized much of the walk through campus, but we made it through the new and familiar old buildings (e.g. De Nobili and Hadsall) nonetheless. Casa Fleming’s garden door marked the final destination, and drinks and “stuzzichini” all around started off the reunion dinner. Someone decided that a speech was in order, and Milos Markovic ’00 obliged by expressing his joy at being back at TASIS and, above all, at being together again.

Sincere thanks to class agent Tatiana Balmelli-Lucchini ’00 for tenaciously rescheduling this reunion until it stuck. Many thanks as well to Class of 1999 class agent and current TASIS parent Wilma Faissol Pinto, who invited the group back to her home for drinks and organized a fabulous weekend reunion itinerary that included drinks in Piazza Riforma, dinner at Pizza Mary, lounging at the lido in Gandria, and dinner on Saturday at Grotto dei Pescatori in Caprino via taxi boat.

Happily, some of these alumni will be back to campus to drop off their children for our summer programs in June and July and the academic year in August. We are grateful that many TASIS alumni choose to send their own children to TASIS–keeping it all in the family! We also hope to see many of them, especially those who couldn’t make it to this reunion, at the all-class reunion on Friday, November 17, at The Yale Club in New York. This group was already talking about a 25-year reunion just a few short years away: stay tuned for when and where!