The Italian Academy

I attended The Italian Academy in Siracusa for two weeks during the off peak season.
The school was based in a historic villa with large classrooms, beautiful grounds, and a terrace - where we enjoyed our break times in the sun.
There were about 20 people in the school at this time with about 5 classes.
The teacher was very friendly and engaging and accommodated the learning requests of the group.
The school organised optional activities during the afternoons including visits to nature reserves, cooking classes, and wine tasting.
I stayed in the old town of Siracusa and the school was a little walk from the old town.

Why did I become so fond of the Italian Academy?
Annalisa is a dedicated teacher with a good sense of humor. The location of the School is superb and
I thoroughly enjoyed our small group of four women with different international backgrounds.

The Italian language course in Siracusa was a lovely pretence to escape the Swiss winter.

I had two weeks of studying Italian at the Italian Academy. I was surprised by the excellent teachers and about the amount we were able to cover and learn within two weeks.
In the first week we were a group of 8 international people, In the second week we were only 3, but this was even more intense.
Both teachers Agata and Luisa were excellent- I liked Agata´s sense of humour.
The villa of the school and surrounding park is wonderful for having breaks and realxing during the break.

AS I was there with my friend 'Grete we were busy exploring Sicily and participated only at one activity, which was lovely: The puppets museum and the puppets theatre

The Italian Academy offers enough activities for students to get to know each other..

My accomodation was an appartment from the school- which was a nice only 15 minutes walk away.
Personally I did not like so much the furnishing of the living room of my villa "Arancio" was a bit like a "farmhouse parlor"
Whereas the furnishing of the villa "limone" of my friend was modern and lovely.
the appartments could be cleaner when accessed and there was a strange smell.
The price for the appartment is very reasonable and nice to give to students of the school.

This was an excellent experience I would definitely recommend to everybody!

The Italian Academy is situated in a beautiful garden and I loved the location. Our teacher was superb and I just loved her and how she could make us learn and understand so much, really great.

I did the cooking class and it was really the highlight.

I can not say nothing negative from this one week

I originally registered to study for a week at the Italian Academy in Siracusa three years ago. I was finally able to attend in June this year. It was worth the wait. The school itself is in a beautiful location in a beautiful city. The staff was very helpful and friendly. My teacher, Leonora, was always prepared and spoke very clearly. I had no problem understanding her. She has a good sense of humor and I enjoyed her classes. I was placed at the Intermediate level. The class was small, four to six people a day. The students were from several different countries (France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic) as well as the USA, and always had an interesting point of view to offer. During our daily break we shared a coffee and a pastry at a nearby cafe. I enjoyed many conversations in Italian with the French student in the class. He spoke better Italian than English, and I spoke Italian better than French. I discovered that he was being hosted by a family in the same building as I was.

I was very happy with my housing situation. I had opted for a half board with an Italian family, and enjoyed conversing with my hostess, Stephania, during my meals. She was very kind and helpful, and my accommodations were very comfortable. She corrected my Italian whenever my Spanish crept into the conversation. The apartment was about a 20 minute walk to the school. It usually took me 30 minutes to get there because I got lost often, even using GPS. But I was glad to have the exercise.

Several activities were offered after class, but I was only able to participate in a visit to the nearby Catacombs. It was very interesting. On my own, I was able to book a boat excursion on the Island of Ortigia, which was very near Stephania's apartment. I took advantage of the tourist Hop Off, Hop On bus, which had a stop very close to the school, and was able to visit many interesting sites.

I have nothing negative to say about the experience. I have attended a language school in Milan and one in Rome, and this school was by far the best. My only regret is that I didn't have more time to study there. I am sure my Italian would have improved even more.

First of all, all staff is very nice and helpful at the Academy.
The place is a pure asset - wow!

The rooms are ok; the garden is lovely. The teacher was good and even if nearly all was a repetition of what I had already known and learnt - I did improve my level.

The first week we had been 3 in the class, one - really nice - colleague however had great problems to follow and was certainly not placed in the right level.

The second week we had been 2 and thus the hours have been reduced.

I liked the methodology, did not get bored - however, it was not very challenging.

I truly liked the film-afternoon and did appreciate the Monday morning breakfast. The excursions and offer to cook was too expensive - 60 euro. I had in Naples similar offers at my school there at a much much lower price.

The school also offered a family where I stayed one week - the lady was nice, and the stay was ok.

I would not hesitate to recommend the school. I really enjoyed my time there, learnt lots and made some good friends. The whole package was excellent. The accommodation was ideal, the teaching very good indeed and the school promoted a good atmosphere of togetherness between the students. The social activities were also very good and Francesco at the school really took time to ensure we enjoyed them and experienced something authentic of the region.

i liked the Location very much. It was a old Villa, very good situated. one could reach it very easy by bus or by Walking from the Center of Siracusa.
The School was good organised. My teacher was a very good one, she had a professione, goodl education.
In one week I improved my Italien a Little bit. Four week would have been better. So my Italien would have been perfect.....

Classes - I expected to be a class member but my lessons were one-on-one. This had advantages - shorter lesson times, direct relationship with the teacher, instant feedback, personalized instruction, additional content covered. It also had disadvantages - no social interaction with other students, no learning opportunities through hearing other students responses.

Teachers - I had two - both excellent and easy to relate to. There was a tendency to cover too much content (a common problem in teaching limited time courses). I would have liked a slower pace with much revision to ensure I could use the content that had been covered.

Location and Facilities were fine.

Housing - I stayed with a lovely host family and I would strongly recommend the experience to potential students. It made a simple language course into a great learning experience. I felt like a member of the Siracusan community.

My class had a brilliant teacher, Louisa, very patient and clear and logical. Our lessons were very enjoyable and informative. Everyone at the school were very warm, friendly and extremely helpful.
I did feel that I might have benefited more from listening exercises as I did not really get much practice speaking Italian outside of the classroom!
I had organised my own accommodation which unfortunately turned out to be unsuitable and the school stepped in immediately and arranged a lovely apartment in Ortijia, which I was extremely grateful for.

I will start with what I did not like, because this will be said in one word: Nothing! What I liked were the classes and the way the Italian Academy tried to find out what I wished, hoped for even in my leisure time. The teacher met exactly what I wanted to learn, she looked for the fitting articles, books and essays. It was not only that I learned a lot and could talk a lot in Italian but I received many other ideas. During my first day at the Academy we had a talk about what I would like to do in my free time - and they created a personal program for me. And they even brought me into contact with a local lady in order to give me the opportunity to talk in Italian outside the Academy. They chose her so very well that we became friends. What can you say more about a stay at a language school where I just wanted to improve my Italian? They opened not only their teaching skills but also their culture and their hearts to us, the students. Thank you so much!!!