As a native English speaker with a history of learning Spanish, Portuguese, and French I was excited to learn Italian. In 2011, I thoroughly researched for best place to study Italian for 3 months. I ended up spending 6 weeks in Alghero, Sardinia (the big island west of the mainland), then 6 weeks touring the more common sites of Venice, Cinque Terra, Florence, Rome, and Tuscan Villages. It was a wonderful adventure.

I have a 90 day visa for Italy and now I want to go back to explore more – the food, the language, the people, and the natural beauty. I am considering Sicily.

The perfect scenario

It may not be likely that I can find my perfect scenario. If I had to describe what is perfect it would be to have an apartment of my own within walking distance or bus-ride to the beach. I would like to study Italian 3 hours a day 5 days per week. I would also enjoy cooking classes and on the weekends I would take the bus to visit other areas of the country. I would spend time cooking at home, eating at the homes of new friends, and enjoying local restaurants.

Let’s take a deep dive into Sicily and look at 5 cities to see how they compare!

In Spring 2011, I was inspired to travel through Italy. I read a lot about work and life balance and how each culture views conscious life-style design. Italians are celebrated (especially in the South) for their hedonistic ‘zest for life’. As a native English speaker with a history learning Spanish, Portuguese, and French I was excited to learn Italian.

WHERE TO STUDY ITALIAN?

For me, the location depends on weather. In summer, I wanted beach. I remember the oppressive heat on past visits to Florence and Rome. While those cities offer tremendous culture, I was looking for something more relaxed.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT IN A SCHOOL?

In the years previous, I had studied Spanish and Portuguese at various schools. When I had time between work and play, I would pickup another few weeks of classes. In total I probably studied at 6-8 schools. I had learned about the qualities I liked in a school.

I googled ‘study Italian in Italy’ and found tons of results. I narrowed down to a few dozens schools that met my broad location qualifications and gathered contact email addresses. I created a a form-email (see below) and contacted all the companies. Most replied, and most within 72 hours. In general, if a respondent answered nothing but sent me links to their website, I removed them from my search. Most respondents where very helpful.

Form Email Sent to Schools

Hello,

 

I am interested to study Italian. I will travel to Italy for 3 months this summer. I would like to study for 8 weeks in one location or 4 weeks in one location and then travel to another location for four more weeks. My goal will be to be comfortable and conversational in Italian; listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Please help me decide on where to study with the questions below. Thank you very much!!!

EXPERIENCE

I am 34 years old and a native English speaker. I travel full-time by myself as a software developer. I studied French in school and remember much, but am out of practice. I studied Spanish for the last 2 years and lived in South American. My Spanish skills are strong. I studied Portuguese for 3 months this year in Brazil and my Portuguese is almost as strong as my Spanish. I know no Italian.

DESIRED TIME/CALENDAR

I am in Peru now. I may arrive in Italy on June 1, July 1, or August 1. I will probably stay 12 weeks in Italy and study Italian for 8 weeks.

DESIRED LOCATION

I have visited Italy 2 times for a total of 6 weeks. I visited Milan, Venice, Trieste, Florence, and Rome. I enjoyed all the locations.

I would like to study Italian in a location that is warm-weather, has a beach within walking distance, and has a relaxed pace of life. A large city which is far from the beach, such as ROME, is not interesting to me. I would prefer to visit there after I complete my studies. I have never visited Italy further south than Rome, but I imagine that Sardinia, Sicily, or the coasts near Naples may be the perfect location.

DESIRED CLASSES

I would like group classes for 20 hours to 30 hours every week.

DESIRED ACCOMMODATION

I am flexible to rent a house/apartment, to live with a local family, or to find a hostel or inexpensive hotel.

My only requirement is to have a strong, reliable internet connection. I need this for work.

ACTIVITIES

I read often about life-style design, living in the present moment, and quality of life. Italy is a well deserved example of a culture with good balance and quality of life. I would love to learn more from the local people and culture about this.

Outside of my classes I may be working 10 hours to 40 hours per week. I require internet to work.

I would also like to spend time at the beach, enjoy walking/hiking, take cooking classes (single classes or a longer study for weeks perhaps), and study piano.

I am a programmer by trade, but I am an artist by education. Opportunities to draw and paint on my own personal time or in a classroom is also very interesting to me.

THE PERFECT SCENARIO

It may not be likely that I can find my perfect scenario. If I had to describe what is perfect it would be to have an apartment of my own within walking distance or a bus-ride to the beach. I would like to study Italian for 5 hours a day 5 days per week. I would also enjoy cooking classes and on the weekends I would take the bus to visit other areas of the country. I would spend time cooking at home, eating at the homes of new friends, and enjoying local restaurants.

I have some questions here…

LOCATION

• What location or locations can you recommend for me to study Italian?
• What is the total cost? Per week? Per month?

SCHOOL

• Can I pay via credit card? How/when is payment made?
• What is the total number of students in your school learning each week?
• Do you offer help to meet locals who want to exchange languages over coffee? In previous schools this was free and called ‘intercambio’. I am interested to meet locals and learn/teach a bit like this
• What volunteer opportunities are there. Outside of studying my free time is very limited, but I’m interested to help out.

CLASS

• Please confirm the hours per week and the total price (including any registration fees and any credit card charges) for group lessons for two full weeks.
• Is class totally in the classroom? Or are there walking-tours or other activities?
• How many hours outside of class is expected for homework per day?
• What is your class size (# of students)?

ACCOMMODATIONS

• Do you offer accommodations? Can you recommend any?
• Do you offer solo apartments with internet and kitchen?
• Do you offer a shared apartment setup with internet and kitchen?

Thanks in advance,

 

-Sam

I received replies from 20 to 30 schools. From the information I learned, I compared prices, locations, class-size, activities available, and more. There were many exciting opportunities.

COMPARISON OF SCHOOLS

SELECTING THE ‘WINNING’ LOCATION/SCHOOL

After 3-4 rounds of emailing I went from about 20 companies down to 4-5. The remaining companies were located on Sardinia island or on Sicily island. I wrote to anonymous citizens on CouchSurfing.com to ask about their locations in comparison to the others I was considering. Most people were very helpful (and a bit biased toward their city, of course).

In the end I chose a non-city, beach location at a school with 20 hours per week for 6 weeks. The administrator was one of the first to email me during my process, and provided the thoughtful / helpful information. When I finally decided on the small city of Alghero, deciding for their school was a simple decision.

ALGHERO, SARDINIA

I read a few websites geared to summer tourism in Alghero.

Alghero is situated on the north-western coast of Sardinia within the homonymous gulf. A large part of its territory stretches on the Nurra plain; at the western point of it, rises the karst-formation of “Capo Caccia, Punta Giglio” and “Monte Doglia”. On its southern point, lays the vast tableland of Villanova Monteleone made up of volcanic hills.

 

Alghero has a sub-tropical warm climate with long dry summers and mild damp winters. Prevalent winds come from western quarters: trade winds mitigate summer heat. From fall to spring libeccio and western winds bring rain, while mistral wind may blow strongly any time of the year. Between december and february, for few weeks, eastern winds bring clear climate, nights are cold and days are sunny.

Algero Beach #1

Algero Beach #2

THE PINTADERA ITALIAN LANGUAGE SCHOOL

I enjoyed 4 great weeks of Italian study at the Pintadera school in Alghero. The city is historic and charming, the (Italian mainland) tourists fill the streets, the markets, and the beaches. It is a BUSY time to visit Italy, especially a beach city like Alghero, but I enjoyed the energy. I walked 20 minutes to school each day and studied 9am to 1pm with a coffee break at an outdoor shaded cafe. Each Monday some students came and went, which was disruptive. We relearned things a few times to accommodate new students, but it was indeed cool to meet a variety of people. I met students from Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, England, Spain (a lot), and others. The teachers were knowledgeable and fun. Overall I had 4 teachers – all of whom were far too critical when students made errors. With my experience studying language I see a good balance between free conversation and being corrected works best for me. Its important to know when we make mistakes as students, to create good habits, but correcting too much stunts conversation. At least a few of my classmates suffered, fearing to speak, from this. However I respect diligent correction as a strategy.

Cooking Class

Sailing Boat

The activities offered by the school included a tour of the city, a sail-boat cruise, and a cooking class. I participated in all. I found the activities to be priced too expensive (many at 20 to 60 Euro). Its an expensive town, an expensive country, and a language more commonly studied by older, wealthier students. This is compared to the backpacker trail in Latin American where students have little or no money. I really loved the cooking class. The teacher speaks only Italian and is incredibly fun and funny.

The apartment was not centrally located, but was otherwise amazing. It was a huge 3 bed-room apartment with full kitchen. I bought a 3G modem for internet since none was available freely from the apartment. There is a fantastic supermarket near the apartment and the closest (rocky) beach is 5 minutes walk from the apartment.

Overall, I really loved the choice of Alghero, and the choice of Pintadera. Italian is a very fun language to learn and the culture – laid-back & hedonistic and political & intellectual – was captivating.