Learning Italian while Traveling Solo in Italy

If you grew up in an Italian American family that spoke Italian, you were fortunate.  Many of us lived in a family that fought to become American and the Italian language was never spoken to the children.
Often we would hear adults in the kitchen punctuating their speech with words I would not translate until I was living in Italy during college.
Have you tried  cds, classes, Rosetta stone or even Skype ‘live’ lessons to become fluent in Italian?  Now you can immerse yourself in Italian life while traveling Home to Italy and learn Italian.
There are thousands of schools listed on any on line search.  Most towns and cities in Italy offer an institute of Lingue.   On my yearly trips Home to Italy I try to take a short course if I am staying in one location longer than a week.   Let me share a few different experiences you can have in Italia.

The staff and students face away from the windows because the view is too distracting!

Sorrento, Italy, Sant’ Anna Institute    www.sorrentolingue.com
While spending several  months in Sorrento I joined the program for adults at Sant' Anna Institute.   Adult students from all over the world and at all levels of proficiency, attended  classes and participated in a variety of cultural activities offered.

Contact Olga Stinga for details on your Learn venture

For information on your learn adventure, info@santannainstitute.com 

Individual or group lessons are available.  In addition to their 50+ program this year they offered a December program including a home stay with a host family….a total immersion during Christmas.
Full day language tours are offered.  Cultural events offered to students include  local art shows, concerts, visits to Pompeii, Herculaneum,Naples the Amalfi coast, Capri, and  cooking lessons.  Olga tells me they just added a voice course with a local soprano. Share your interest with Olga and SASI should be able to find an Italian experience for you.

Puglia, Italia.  PARLIAMO ITALIANO in Puglia

Enjoy a one or two week Italian Language Immersion in Puglia for Italian language lovers.  Participants will combine not only Italian lessons but also the exploration of Puglia:  one week in the  South, the Salento, one week in the Trulli area in the North.

In addition to conversation lessons by two local instructors, students will enjoy a special activity “caffè con amici”. organized conversations with local Italians to improve vocabulary and spontaneous speech.
  photo credit:  http://sudandfood.style.it/files/2012/04/Cisternino.jpg

All levels of Italian language are welcome, as well as students of any age.  Accommodations are in self catering flats.  Contact info@yltourcongressi.com for dates and cost.








 


Venice:  Learn Italian with a weekend homestay  
The perfect combination of travel treats:  cooking lessons, language classes while living with a family 

   Experience life with a Venician family, learn Italian and take a cooking lesson, the perfect immersion!

I met Monica Cesarato last November after several months of online chats. Nothing prepared me for the ‘dynamo’ who took me through the streets and alleys of Venice on a ‘quick tour’ of a Venice, to neighborhoods I had never visited.

Monica seemed to know every shop and building, sharing anecdotal history at every step. You are not a tourist when you see a town or city with a local.

This homestay includes all meals in her family home, 12 hours of Italian language lessons, a 3 hours cooking course in a real Italian kitchen and a 3 hour Tour of Venice.

Spend a weekend as an Italian not a tourist! Your stay with Monica will be a memory that will remain. A trained teacher and an accomplished cook as well as a guide for your visits to Venice, contact her at http://www.monicacesarato.com/blog/homestay/




Learning while traveling is the perfect activity for a solo traveler.   Instant new friends when you join a group for language lessons, a cooking class or a tour of the hidden treasure.   

Love the NO SOLO SUPPLEMENT

 

The Herald Sun just posted this on line:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/travel/holiday-ideas/save-on-single-supplement-plus-more-cruise-specials-for-britain-fiji-norway-and-venice/story-fnjjv4qv-1226799156918

 

SAVINGS FOR SINGLES

SOLO travellers who book by February 28 with Cruiseco can enjoy savings on a selection of reduced or no single supplement fares on select twin cabins and suites with Fred Olsen Cruise Line. For example, sail on the 880-guest Boudicca on a 14-night Southampton return voyage "In search of the Northern Lights" via Alesund, Tromso, Alta, Bodo and Bergen departing March 8, single fares start from $2958. Or cruise the Norwegian fjords aboard Balmoral from Southampton return for 11 nights departing May 6. Single fares start from $2878. On-board gratuities are additional and payable on board.

See cruising.com.au

Does your Stuff keep you from traveling?

Before I started longer term travel 2+ years ago, I decided to sell my house and stuff so I could travel far and for more than the meager 1 or 2 weeks that I considered sufficient for a 'vacation'.

Back at the  property for a few months, this is the 3rd time I am sorting, donating and selling some of the tings that I can never take with me or afford to store.  

How VERY interesting to find the items I could never give away 2 years ago are now not worth the effort to sell! 

What do you do with a full dark room set up?  A pottery wheel?  Ski boots?  
Well every time I sort the boxes they become less important.  I am now down from perhaps 75 storage boxes to 25 and counting!  

But the bigger question is:  Has the financial need to sell my house so I can travel more, really been a crutch for WHY I don't travel more……  just did 14 international weeks this year along with the 8 to 10 domestic weeks so I am much closer to my goal.