Italy

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“Beautiful, delicious and stimulating.” -2023 participant

Italian Immersion Experience

Umbria & Tuscany

April 20-27, 2024

June 8-15, 2024

$6500 per participant per week

Only $1500 for partners who are not studying

Includes all instruction, lodging, meals, shuttle to/from Rome airport

Ten (10) participants per week, maximum.

Click here to request registration form

Trip Details

Join us for a week of experiential learning in Italy. You will stay in an elegant hotel (Hotel Vannucci) in a small Italian city, Città della Pieve. You will be guided to communicate in Italian and challenged to complete and document an ‘errand’ in town every day, with your private teacher.

The $1500 fee for friends and family who are not studying includes all lodging, meals and group excursions.

For those who are studying, immersion and guided interaction with locals will help you improve your Italian. You will enjoy our excursions, activities in town, and private Italian class every day. We dine together every night.

Our expert team will make using Italian fun and rewarding. For intermediate-level, we challenge you to speak only Italian all week.

Every week has a maximum of ten students. You will accumulate over fifty hours of high-quality interaction in Italian throughout the week by speaking, listening, reading, writing.

The accommodations and meals are carefully selected for our clientele. All lodging, instruction, and meals (7 breakfasts; 7 lunches; 5 dinners) are included in the experience, and wine is also included. Un po’ di vino will help enhance your knowledge of Italian culture.

Testimonials

  • "After more than 30 trips to Italy, this was by far my best experience."

  • “The town is small, intimate, beautiful, and it has a fascinating street life.”

  • “The hotel was small enough that it felt like we were all living in a lovely house together.”

  • “Our trip leader seemed to be a close friend of every proprietor in town, his gregariousness made our interaction with locals even more comfortable.”

  • “The trip was an immense success, an authentic cultural and linguistic experience.”

  • "If I were to rate this course/trip on a scale of 1-10, I would give it a 10+"

  • “They made us feel like family, I felt very safe at all times.”

Examples of our excursions & afternoon activities:

  • Private tour of Giovanni Bulgari’s winery: Our friend Giovanni Bulgari welcomes us to his winery, Podernuovo, and we enjoy a wine tasting and unforgettable meal in his private dining room.
  • Private tour of organic farm: Our friends Alessandro & Nicola guide us on a tour of their organic farm, just like they did with Stanley Tucci on CNN’s  “Searching for Italy.”
  • Talk with prominent professor. One of Italy’s best-known Italian professors from the nearby university in Perugia will visit us to discuss his research and promotion of the Italian language, worldwide.
  • Italian cinema. Italian cinema viewings/discussions with a renowned film critic. In the comfort of his home, the film critic will describe and show some scenes from Fellini’s masterpieces. We will discuss your reactions to the clip before moving on the the next classic.
  • Truffle experience. Our friend, Michele, is a truffle hunter and chef. We will visit his truffle-hunting cabin and discuss/handle the tools of his trade. We then enjoy a meal together at his restaurant.
  • Cooking at the chef’s villa. A day with our personal chef. Our friend, Sabrina, invites us to her family’s country house to prep our lunch together. We will then savor our creations together on her family’s terrazza, overlooking the hills of Umbria and Tuscany.
  • Talk with chef and sommelier. Our friend, Christian Palazzi, takes us through his centuries-old wine cellar for a wine tasting before a meal at his charming bistro.

Typical Day

07:30am-9:30am: Breakfast

Breakfast served in hotel; hotel staff will only speak with you in Italian unless you request English.

10:00-12:00: Morning lesson

Private lessons and task-based assignment in town. After you complete your task, you review/improve the language you used to transact it.

Friends/family members not studying Italian can depart for a day trip, or just relax in the splendor of Umbria.

1:00-3:00pm: Lunch in town

For all lunches and dinners, you decide if you would like to sit at the Italian-only table or the “English allowed” table.

4:00-6:00pm: Excursion or Special Guest; Afternoon Lesson

On the days we don’t take an excursion, we invite a special guest to our hotel for a presentation and discussion.

Private afternoon lesson: This also functions as a wrap-up for all questions from the day’s excursion and/or special guest.

FYI: In Italy this time of day is known as “gelato hour,” un gelato per te?

7:00pm: Group aperitivo

Every evening, we meet for un aperitivo before dinner at some of the lovely cafes in Città della Pieve. You have the option to chat in Italian or English.

8:00pm-10:00pm: Dinner

Every night we will have dinner together at a local trattoria (one night we make dinner together at the townhouse we rent in town). There will be one table that is strictly Italian only, and one table where English is allowed.

Requirements

  • 21 years old minimum, unless taking the program with an adult
  • If you are interested in the language program, we welcome all levels from complete beginner to advanced.
  • Private Crash Courses at our schools in NJ, NYC and online.