A semester in Italy..

bonanza
Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:00:03 +0000

My daughter spent a semester in Florence a few years ago and got a great deal out of it. Based upon my conversations with her and her friends in the program (My wife and I spent a week in Florence during her spring break), here is what I can offer:

1) Make sure the program is strong academically. My understanding is that there is a wide variation in the quality of programs in Florence, and many of them are not all that good. Fortunately, my daughter’s program was run by her university and used regular university faculty (mostly from the Italian Studies Program) who were also in Florence for the semester–thus the courses were at the same level and were as demanding as her normal classes, although the subjects were more limited and designed around Florence. Her courses for the semester were mostly in Art History, Italian language, and Italian culture. She actually worked pretty hard. But it was her impression that a lot of the programs catering to American students were easy. Maybe too easy.

2) If your D is living with a “host” family (which I believe is the most common arrangement), make sure they don’t speak English to her. My daughter only took a brief, 3 week course in Italian during a Winter Intersession period before going to Florence so, obviously, her language skills were not great when she arrived (she had, however, studied Spanish for 4 years, and there are many similarities). But because her host family would only speak to her in Italian, and would not respond to her if she spoke English, she was really forced to learn the language. Also, her friends in the program all agreed only to speak to each other in Italian. The bottom line is that she was quite fluent in Italian by the end of the semester. But she also had friends in other programs who learned very little Italian which, IMHO, is a huge waste of a great opportunity.

3) Encourage her to make Italian friends. I apologize if this sounds snobby or elitist but I know that my D and her friends largely looked down upon American students who just hung out with each other. This is easy to do because there are a lot of American students in Florence. The problem is that, if you mostly hang out with Americans, you might have a great time time but you won’t get a lot out of living in a foreign culture. My daughter and her friends made a point of finding out the most popular places for American students and then avoiding them like the plague. They tended to go to the places that the locals hung out, and spoke to them only in Italian (even when it was difficult to do so, since many Italians wanted to practice their English).

4) I don’t remember what they called it, but I know that my D purchased (actually I think her program purchased for her) a univeral ticket that got her unlimited admission to all of the art museums and other sites (mostly churches) where art is displayed. This not only encouraged her visit the wonderful museums a lot, but importantly got her to the front of the line at the very popular ones (like the Ufitzi). That saved a lot of time since the lines can sometimes be long.

5) She also purchased a railroad pass for the semester which allowed her to travel all over Italy–it made it very easy to get around and see other parts of Italy. It wasn’t terribly expensive for full time students.

I can tell you that my wife and I were very jealous. My daughter’s university owned a beautiful 15th C. villa on a steep hill just outside the city gates which is where all of her classes were held. She lived with a family in a 14th C. building adjacent to the Ponti Vecchio. They owned a wonderful Tuscan restauant which is where my daughter took most of her meals. It was one semester where I actually thought the experience was worth the exhorbitant tuition that schools charge these days.

I wish your D good luck. Make sure you visit her.