Italy The Sights and Sounds of Italy

Orientation in Rome

Italy is a sensory experience. Spend three days exploring Rome. Hike from the Forum to the Vatican to see the vivid scenes in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. Stand in the Colosseum, imagining its dramatic history. Taste your first gelato at one of the cafés in Piazza Navona. By the time you leave Rome, you will be prepared to become fully immersed in Italian life and culture.

Sights and Sounds

Embrace la lingua italiana as you speak with shopkeepers in Tuscan markets, taste delicious regional foods, hear the excited chatter of children in ancient town squares, feast your eyes on Renaissance masterpieces, and feel the warmth of an Italian family and community.

Homestay

Travel to a small town and spend two weeks as the newest member of an Italian family. Prepare meals of fresh pasta with your host mother, spend time in the local piazza with your new Italian friends, and explore the narrow, winding cobblestone streets of your host community as you become fully immersed in Italian life and culture.

Sample activities:
Participate in a pizza making workshop; play volleyball on local beaches; visit a local high school; relax at outdoor cafés sampling artisan coffees and tasting fresh pastry.

Sample host communities:
Cosenza, Reggio Calabria, San Benedetto del Tronto, Taranto, Treviso

Language Training

Spend a week in a gorgeous Tuscan hill town immersed in Italian language, history, art, and architecture. Participate in small group interactive language classes with friendly Italian teachers, see the Leaning Tower in Pisa, feast your eyes on the art of the Palazzo degli Uffizi in Florence, and explore the historic center and medieval cityscape of Siena.

Sample language sites:
Lucca, Cortona, Volterra

Travel and Discovery

Your Italian adventure concludes with a whirlwind travel experience to bustling towns and cities. A few days in scenic Venice provide the backdrop for an incredible end to your Italian Experiment.

Sample activities:
Explore the streets of Romeo and Juliet’s Verona; trek the Cinque Terre perched high above the Mediterranean coast; tour historic Pompeii; create your own Italian ceramic piece or attend a mosaic workshop; ride water taxis through the canals of Venice.