Italian Language Immersion

Arrive at Rome’s Fiumicino airport, then head into the heart of the city to your lodgings via shuttle.  Your educational student tour will begin with enjoying your first taste of Roman cuisine at tonight’s welcome dinner at a typical trattoria. Wander the streets and take in some of the most beautiful sights and squares at night. Toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain, have a tartufo in the Piazza Navona while studying Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers and rest at Bernini’s Barcaccia Fountain, which is shaped like an old boat, while admiring the grand sweep of the Spanish Steps. 

Your Italian language immersion with the Leonardo Da Vinci School begins with morning and afternoon lessons, part of an intensive five-day program structured to give you maximum exposure to Italian, all within the context of being able to apply it in real life in one of the most historic and beautiful cities in the world.  

Tonight take an evening guided tour of Ancient Rome and the Colosseum, with a tour of the Colosseum with its rich history of gladiators and animal contests, and a stop overlooking the Roman Forum lit up at night.  Have dinner near your hotel and practice your new language skills!

After your day’s language lessons, take advantage of the many museums in Rome that offer late hours.  Tonight, visit the Capitoline Museums with their outstanding collections of classical sculpture, located atop the Capitoline Steps designed by Michelangelo and with the bronze statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius standing nobly in the center of the Piazza del Campidoglio.

As your language skills improve, test them out with lunch with fellow students at a local ristorante.  Then after classes, head to the Vatican City, the world’s smallest state, to take in the grandeur of St. Peter’s Cathedral with its amazing works of art, including Michelangelo’s stirring Pietà and the baldacchino designed by Bernini.

Afterward, head along the Tiber river to the Castel Sant’Angelo, built as a mausoleum for the Emperor Hadrian. Visit the museum and admire the views overlooking the Vatican and St. Peters from the exterior walls. 

Your language skills continue to improve with day four of instructional lessons.  Reserve tickets online so that this late afternoon or early evening you can visit the Borghese Gallery in the lovely Villa Borghese gardens, one of Rome’s most celebrated art museums, boasting masterpiece collections of paintings and baroque sculpture.

Wrap up your last day of Italian instruction, then join your classmates for a walk around the atmospheric Trastevere area, located on the West Bank of the Tiber river, south of Vatican City. See the fabulous mosaics inside the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, then enjoy a farewell dinner at one of the typical Roman trattorias, sampling such typical dishes as suppli, rice seasoned with meat sauce and mozzarella, coated with bread crumbs and fried, spaghetti alla carbonara, Jewish artichokes and Saltimbocca alla Romana.

Have a final breakfast at your hotel using your new language skills once more this morning, then head out to Rome’s airport for your flight back home.