activities
Cooking and fine food are an integral part of Italian culture and our cuisine is world renowned for its use of simple but delicious ingredients. For many students, one of the highlights of their stay here is the opportunity to take a cooking class with trained chef, Signora Lalla who will teach you how to make tasty, traditional Tuscan dishes in her cucina. After the class, you get to try your dishes over a glass of wine and take the recipe with you to impress friends and family when you get home!
If you are a fan of opera and classical music, you may like to consider combining your language course with a singing or music class. We can organise for you to either learn or improve your basic singing techniques under the tuition of a trained Italian opera singer. If you prefer playing an instrument or would like to learn, we can arrange for you to take a class at the music school of Arezzo (www.scuoladimusicale7note.it)
Join us on a trip to the beautiful Podere di Pomaio, a local winery that produces delicious organic wines, for a tour of the vineyard and cellar before enjoying a special wine tasting with owners, brothers Jacopo and Marco Rossi. If you are tempted to buy some wine to enjoy later, you can take advantage of a special discount. We also organise olive oil tastings at Podere di Pomaiao (www.pomaio.it)
I should explain that my main motive for going to language school is to structure my vacation in a pleasant way, make friends, be in a pleasant location in Italy. I also hope to improve my Italian of course, and slowly I am doing so, but I don't have an urgency about it.
I would rate everything at the school itself as being Excellent.
I am VERY HAPPY with Monica, my teacher. She did a good job of running the class, was very pleasant, and VERY patient. I have been to some schools like this before, and in those schools there seemed to be an unspoken understanding that the students didn't have to work too hard, and the teachers didn't have to work too hard either. Not so here! Monica really seems to care, and it certainly caused me to try harder also. I spent a lot of time on homework, and was happy to do so. I wish had been able to learn more quickly; at my age, 75, I find that it is difficult to learn a language.
As a single traveler an important thing for me is to find other students at a school who are interested in meeting outside of class to do other things like dining, exploring. I am very satisfied with the school in this respect. I have met several wonderful people over the last two weeks and have had many good times.
I also participated in some of the programs that the school organized, and overall they were very good. I especially enjoyed cooking with Lalla and the trips to Lucignano and Poppi. I also independently went to San Supulcro with my new Australian friends and enjoyed it very much.
I liked the city of Arezzo. It is big enough to be interesting but not completely flooded by tourists. There are many excellent and reasonably priced dining choices and there always seemed to be plenty to see and do.
Overall I have had an excellent experience at the school and would recommended it to anyone. I think it is the best of the 4 or 5 schools that I have gone to. In fact, if I come to Italy again next year I will choose to come here again