The school

In June of 1999 we took a 2-week Italian language course at the Societa Dante Alighieri Comitato di Siena and had a wonderful time. The method of teaching was very intense but equally fun as well. No tests, no grades, we just had to be prepared every day for class (which ran from 9-1 M-F) or we would have been hopelessly lost. We had to be very focused because from the very moment we walked into class no English, or any other language was spoken but Italian. And all of us were beginners, some 12 students in the class: 3 Aussies, 2 Swiss, 1 German, 1 Japanese, 1 Brit and 4 North Americans. The results of just 2 weeks of work were pretty amazing; we could certainly understand a great deal of the language, although our conversational skills were still woefully inadequate. It just whetted our appetites.

Anyway, we enoyed ourselves so much that we decided to do it again but we wanted to spend far more time learning the language so that we felt more comfortable in everyday, casual conversation as well as honing our reading skills. That meant looking for a program that was longer and would give us the skills we were looking for, in the right location (for us that meant Siena), and that didn't cost an arm and a leg.

In Siena there are two major universities: the Universita di Siena and the Universita per Stranieri di Siena (the University for Foreigners). While the latter school does provide significant language instruction, we wanted the more relaxed, easy-going atmosphere of a private language school -- no tests, no grades, no pressure just performance in the classroom. There are several smaller schools in Tuscany, such as the Cultura Italiana in the Maremma (they also have schools in Arezzo and Bologna as well) and Il Sasso in Montepulciano, but we wanted to be closer to the city so our choices narrowed down to essentially four: Dante Alighieri, the Scuola Leonardo di Vinci, Saena Iulia, and Center for Study Abroad.

Well we opted for Dante Alighieri. We have such fond memories of those two weeks in the summer of 1999, largely because of our two instructors, Chiara and Chicca were absolutely fantastic and made the experience truly memorable.

So it's off to the old school for us. The program we have enrolled in is a long-term intensive program of 20 hours per week (4 hours per day M-F), for 8 weeks. Afternoons and weekends are free. The school is located very close to the Piazza del Campo and have upgraded their facilities in the bargain, adding a snack bar and Internet access terminal as well.

If you are looking for programs in Italy and haven't yet quite decided where you might want to be located, consider starting with the Study Abroad website. They have an extensive listing of schools, including North American university study abroad programs, with very brief descriptions and links to their respective websites. Most importantly they do provide locations to help you narrow your choices. Also take a look at Shawguides for language study.

As for study materials you might want to check out Multilingual Books where they offer software for your computer to help in studying Italian, and there's Transparent Language who also offers a wide variety of software as well.