Cultural Activities in Rome

Living in Rome - even if it is only for a short time - is a unique experience, full of opportunities. Rome is a lively metropolis, with an exciting cultural scene. The school's cultural program makes it possible to enjoy the city and its events while learning Italian.

The city offers a broad range of events throughout the year to satisfy the tastes of all age groups. It has the world's largest outdoor museum, hundreds of churches, countless monuments, museums, galleries, theatres and cinemas. There are frequent concerts of all types of music - opera, classical, jazz and rock.

During the summer, the city hosts the famous «Estate Romana» (arts festival), offering an impressive number of outdoor events, including concerts, dance, theatre and cinema. In this period, the Italian language school organizes evenings out where teachers accompany students to various events.

The following activities are offered on a regular basis:

• Introduction to Rome: the city, its services and cultural events.
• Guided tours of Rome: Art history itinerary; Italian architecture itinerary.
• Italian Cinema: Presentation and viewing of films of representative Italian directors
• Italian Literature: The new Italian writers.
• The Regions of Italy: history, culture, traditions, and life today.
• Italian Opera.
• Italian songwriters.
• Excursions during the week-end to Naples, Pompeii, Orvieto, Florence and to the seaside
• Excursions and visits to the city's glorious parks (Villa Doria Pamphili, Parco della Caffarella, Appia Antica)
• Evenings in trattorias and pizzerias
• Italian cooking
• Italian wines
• Sports: soccer and beach volleyball games

Participation in the school's Italian cultural program is free of charge. Students pay only when trips, meals, museum entrance or other paid events are involved.

Cultural Activities in Florence

Centro Machiavelli – TANDEM Florence offers its students extracurricular activities which are aimed at providing elements which can be useful for interpreting the modern day reality in Italy, for appreciating our historic and artistic patrimony and for orientation in our city, country and culture.

The activities also have a social function, creating occasions for exchange amongst students from different classes who meet and speak Italian in an authentic rather than an artificial situation.

On request, seminar topics can be extended into short courses with conditions and prices to be established according to the specific request. The school's tape and video library, which includes many films of the Italian cinematography tradition, can be used by students in the afternoon.

The school offers three different types of activities:

• Seminars on historic and artistic topics and visits to the major points of interest in and around the city
• Seminars and visits to understand the social economic makeup of the city and the surrounding area
• Recreational Activities: workshop of crafts or cooking, walks in the countryside, excursions to the seaside, dinners and concerts.

In the summer the activities are in part linked to the program proposed by the Town of Florence and to the opera season at the Arena in Verona.

The activities of the first two types are free; students cover their own personal expenses such as museum entrance or bus fare. Seminars are held in Italian using language that can be easily followed by foreigners.

Cultural Activities in Venice

Learning a language is much more than being familiar with its grammar rules: it also entails learning in-depth about the culture it represents. The Istituto Venezia offers you the possibility to improve your knowledge of Italian culture thanks to social activities organized in Venice.

At school

Thanks to the afternoon activities at school you can improve your language skills: there are grammar workshops, thematic lectures, discussions on films, literature or on italian songs.

The program is updated weekly in order to offer you a wide variety of choices. All activities are free. Only in some cases students pay for entrance tickets or transport.

Around the city

Thanks to the experience of our assistants we organise afternoon excursions and walking tours that allow you to expand your knowledge about Venetian history, art, traditions and daily life.

These are some examples of our activities:

• Artistic itinerary: museums and art exhibitions.
• Itinerary about the local handcraft: visit to the glass and mask workshops and the squeri (where the gondolas are made).
• Historic itinerary: walks around the historical areas of the city.
• Gastronomic itinerary: walks around Rialto market (one of the greatest markets in the world), visit to local bacari and trattorie, wine and food tasting, cooking lessons.

Open air activities

You can discover the city also by doing sport activities: trekking in the islands of the lagoon, trips by bicycle in Venice Lido, jogging along the canals, and in addition the possibility of becoming members of the CUS (University Sport Centre).

Visiting the surroundings

Venice is not the only destination of our trips, we also organise one-day excursions to some of the most interesting cities near Venice, such as Padua, Treviso, Verona, Ferrara, Riviera del Brenta Villas in order for you to enjoy the beautiful landscape around Venice and to explore the historical cities in the region.

Accommodation Options in Rome

The school offers participants a variety of housing options in central areas of Rome for the duration of the course.

Rooms in an Apartment with other students

These apartments generally have two or more bedrooms. The kitchen and bathroom are shared with others in the apartments. Participants in the language course live in an apartment with other students from our Italian courses and/or Italian students.

Rooms in shared Apartaments

Participants in the Italian language courses live with local residents (rarely families with children, more likely young couples or people living alone). The kitchen and bathroom are shared with the others in the apartment. Breakfast or half-board service is available upon request.

We recommend reserving the rooms as far in advance as possible. In both types of our shared apartments, you can reserve a single or double room in one-week blocks, specifically from the Sunday before the course begins to the Saturday immediately following the end of the course.

The rent must be paid at the beginning of your stay. Rent includes gas, electricity and sheets. Towels are not provided. If a room is not available in one of the student apartments, the school will reserve a room in an apartment with locals, or vice versa. Rooms are not booked for participants in the non-intensive courses. In the private local apartments, it is possible to request breakfast or half-board service. Requests for housing other than the types offered here can be made through our reception office.

Rooms in a Hotel

Upon request, it is possible to reserve a room, including breakfast or half-board, in one of the hotels of various categories near the school.