What exactly is "immersion"? It's neither your nose in a book (you can do that without leaving the States) nor your head in the clouds (that's for the tourists). Immersion is discussing 21st-century Florentine politics over the morning newspaper; it's dreaming in Italian, waking, and then interpreting your dream in Italian; it's walking down streets that Dante trod, finding marble dust under your fingernails, feeling opera in your blood. Immersion is allowing Florence to inhabit your consciousness, to furnish your thoughts -- not merely to stay for a holiday and move on.

Fall Orientation

To ease the transition into Italian culture, you participate in a five-day orientation. In the relaxed atmosphere of a medieval town away from Florence, you get acquainted with each other and begin the intensive language study that will support your entire experience. For this orientation, you'll be joined by faculty and friends of the program. Field trips into the Italian countryside give you a sampling of the history, food, folklore and landscape of the region. A walk through the countryside to Collodi, the quaint hometown of Carlo Lorenzini, author of The Adventures of Pinocchio, is a popular and exhilarating introduction to Italy. Back in Florence, you'll move into the home of your Italian family and begin exploring the city, continuing the orientation process with tours and lectures. As you gain your bearings, you meet with your professors and the program director, make course selections, continue working on your Italian and fall into a rhythm of living that sets the stage for the start of classes.

Spring Orientation

Because of the short time available for an orientation period in early January, spring orientation will last approximately one week. This week will be spent in Florence, and will be filled with activities, excursions, lectures, social events, and Italian classes.

As a student

You're more than a student of Italian; your day is that of an Italian student. Arriving at the palazzo, you spend the morning with your professors, becoming more fluent in Italian with each class session. In the afternoon you attend your studio course—private voice lessons, perhaps, or portrait photography—and then review your progress in a history tutorial with a professor at the University of Florence. Or you take a tour of the Uffizi, then return to your studio art class captivated by the works of Botticelli, not with the desire to imitate the classical repose of his figures, but with a newly charged urge to create. At every turn, what you see in the city influences your course work -- and what you learn in class deepens your experience.

With the family

Your home-stay family might be a traditional family unit, a couple in their 50s with grown children, a single mother and her college-age daughter, or a young couple who enjoy hosting students, but they'll always be Italian—and they will be there to welcome you home for dinner. During the meal, you'll eat, drink and converse, expanding on another day of learning. And after dinner, during a break from your studies, you may find yourself joining the family to watch the nightly news—or perhaps a soccer game on TV—exploring yet another opportunity to develop your "insider's" knowledge of the language and culture.

"Starting Italian from scratch in September was a fantastic experience, contrary to what most people would expect. Outside of class, I was continually forced to explore just how much can be said with a 50-word vocabulary and miming, which was both fascinating and fun. I learned Italian differently from my previous languages; instead of translating constantly, I absorbed the words and found them flashing up with my thoughts in much the same way they do with English."
—Laurel Madar, Reed College