Italian universities

[Ilovefatrascals]

Dd thinking of studying Italian at uni which would involve a year in Italy. Anyone have any experience (good or bad) of studying there? If so, which cities? She's heard that the unis don't provide accommodation for overseas students and she's fixated a bit on this. I'm hoping that by the time she goes (third year) she will have matured.

Italian universities don’t provide accommodation for locals either. Plenty of rooms to be found. What is she studying?
smaller and less touristy cities like Padua, Bologna, Pavia, Trieste, Pisa are famous student towns and offer a good quality of life. Generally there isn’t a huge quality difference in Italy, I would stay North if possible.

Milan will be very expensive to live in, and IMO is not a particularly nice town. But it has good universities especially for economics and fashion (surprise!).

@Ilovefatrascals Can I say this kindly - don’t study Italian on its own. Do Italian and another MFL. It gives broader skills for work and 2 countries for study abroad. It’s a better experience.

My DD did her second semester abroad in Italy. She was at Bologna. The UK unis will have a list of unis they work with. DD had friends in Milan who were very happy. Agree with staying north of Rome though. DD considered Verona, Venice, Bologna and Milan. Bologna was competitive at her uni. They had to write an essay on why Bologna

You will need to be a self starter in Italy. Most students live at home and the unis are huge. Bologna has 88,000 students and 5000 exchange students . Padua 66,000. They are impersonal and old fashioned in many ways. Add disorganization into the mix and you have the magic of Italy.

My DD stayed in a hotel for 4 nights while she searched for a room in a flat. Italians see student rentals as a little side hussle and DD lived with a female lawyer and 2 other students. The flats are advertised and not difficult to find. If DD is unsure, go with her to choose. My DD sorted it out herself and travelled to Bologna from her first uni in Switzerland.

There was a big difference between the Swiss and Italian unis. Bologna is top of the Italian state unis but classes are large and students don’t always concentrate. Think back row in the cinema! Plus eating. Or constant fag breaks. Room changes or lecturers not turning up was a constant annoyance. Then there’s the exam system! You do need a certain amount of resilience in Italy. However travel opportunities are amazing and DD enjoyed it but she would not live there again.

So DD would be wise to do two MFLs if she can. As the Italian students live at home and have their school friends, they don’t necessarily see exchange students as interesting. DD’s friends were exclusively international. If DD is worried about year abroad don’t forget she will be 20 when she goes. It makes DC very self reliant though.

My DD studied Italian and linguistics and spent a year at uni in Genoa. Pros ... on the Ligurian coast, cheap compared to many other cities, excellent social programme for Erasmus / overseas students which made it very easy to settle in, decent uni, cheap direct flights from UK (RyanAir from Stansted). Not really any negatives, except that exams are all oral, which is true of all Italian unis. Like @TizerorFizz 's DD she enjoyed her time there, did lots of travel, but came back knowing she would not want to live in Italy.

The accommodation situation is very different from the UK, but workable. Everything happens much more quickly and with less formality. When DD went people generally seemed to book into a hostel for a few days when they arrived, while they looked for a place. I think she got all the info about how to go about it from a Facebook group. You rent a room within a house or apartment, so you don't get to pick your flatmates. DD found a room in a 2-bed apartment in a converted palace (not as grand as that sounds!) in the oldest part of the city, sharing with an Italian in her 20s who was working in Genoa and went home to Rome a lot. She didn't have a lease or any sort of contract, didn't pay a deposit, and rent was paid by leaving cash in a drawer in an anteroom! It cost considerably less than she was paying for a shared student house in Leeds. She thought about 50% of her Erasmus friends out there had similar informal tenancies.

Bologna is pretty much the Oxbridge of Italy, so places there do tend to be limited. I think there were only 2 spaces there for DD's cohort. Apparently they had real difficulty finding accommodation as Bologna is becoming more of a tourist city and AirBnB was draining the property market. What they did find was poor quality and cost a lot more than DD's too in Genoa. I have an Italian friend who studied at Trieste. The uni is on a campus outside the city, which is lovely but has extreme wind in the winter! DD had friends at Bergamo who enjoyed it there.

Yes, Bologna uni is older than Oxford. However that’s where the similarity ends!

DD did some written exams but the exam system did depend on what you studied. She did some orals too. However her uni here wanted work from her and was (I think) not concerned about her Italian or Swiss exams and work. That might have changed though. The idea was to study and immerse yourself in the culture. Her home uni did want evidence of this in the modules for them.

I am Italian. A famous university for studying italian as an international student is Perugia. Lovely historical city in the middle of Italy

Gosh thank you all so much for such helpful and informative replies! Italy sounds chaotically fabulous!
She is planning to study Italian and philosophy. I think she likes the sound of Bologna, Florence, Pisa and Rome, though I wonder if Rome will be overwhelming.

Bologna good. Florence more expensive and whilst wonderful it’s famously not very friendly. I was a student there and managed to make friends with very few locals.

RE accommodation by her third year she’ll have course mates who are also going and they can find a flat together surely? It’s so much easier now in internet times! (Harder in my day but i also clubbed together with course mates).

I’d avoid Rome and Milan - too big for just a year!

Milan is one of the better universities and is absolutely fine for 1 year. Size is immaterial to exchange students or no one would ever go to Rome or Paris or Madrid. @Ilovefatrascals Your DD needs to look at which unis in Italy her home uni has links with. Some will have a decent selection and others not so many. For both countries, DD chose the unis highest in the world rankings. Bologna is amazing for travel and has great rail links. Local trains are unreliable! They turn up when they turn up!

It can be tricky to make Italian friends at uni because they all live at home and know each other already. A few might be curious but DD found she wasn’t invited for coffee or anywhere with them. She even asked them to have a coffee but got nowhere. A friend a year later found it easier but the big Italian unis have a large international group and DD had friends from Finland, Australia, Belgium and elsewhere. The internationals end up being together.DDs landlady was a source of Italian friends.

It wasn’t at all like that in Switzerland
because the uni there had exchange accommodation and DD took a room where a student was in the USA. It was a large room in a perfect student flat with views of the Alps and a hammock on the balcony. Switzerland is organised though! Italy is great but DDs exams were messed up (as they were for other students) and it takes determination to wade through the chaos of misinformation. As DD is now a barrister it honed her advocacy skills.

I have very happy memories of visiting my friend on her year in university in Turin. Milan and Turin get very cold in winter, so worth making sure your DD understands that. My first trip was in Nov to bring winter clothes to my friend!!!
Sounds like it all very informal still!

I love going to Italy with DD who can speak Italian. Good service in restaurants guaranteed.

A really helpful thread - thank you for all the insights. DD is off to Italy next year.

@peanutbuttertoasty interested by your reflection re Rome. Do you know students who went there who had difficulties, what are the trip hazards?

My DD is considering spending her year in Rome, thinking of Sapienza. She is currently in a small beautiful city in the UK and would prefer to be somewhere bigger. We also have some cousins in Rome and it has good rowing which is important to her.

Lots of overseas students come to London for a year so I was wondering why Rome would be any worse the other way? She's bene a couple of times and likes it.

@Juja As I said earlier, my DD looked at the best uni she could get to on her uni ‘s list. I think they did have Rome and I cannot see what would be wrong with it. If you have relatives there, is DD already fluent? Doesn’t she want to explore elsewhere?

At school DD was told not to copy Romans as they have an accent that drops the end of words. Italians can be snobs about northern Italy if they come from there and Verona is the home of the best Italian - apparently! If she wants a bigger city, nothing wrong with Rome. My DD initially fancied Venice until I explained living in Venice was probably not possible! So looking at academics won over romantic notions.

@TizerorFizz That's helpful - DD is pretty fluent in French but Italian is ab initio. Rome relatives are quite distant cousins and DD has only been there twice.

I take your point about accents but think Rome is probably okay- but it is why I'm putting her off Naples! That said her French accent is pretty RP (whatever the French equivalent is) despite a year in Marseille which most Parisians are very snooty about.

She's visited Verona, Venice, Turin, Milan etc but seems to prefer Rome.

@Juja So nothing wrong with Rome!

I have to say I know nothing about accents but DDs Italian teacher had strong views! I think Florence would also be good and some unis here link with Padua but it’s not a big city. Large uni and founded 1222 so old.

I would check on what the Italian says about finding accommodation though. Do they have any tips? Does her uni have 4th years who have been already? Some unis have an info evening. Also is there a study abroad magazine at the uni? Some do have them.

Surprised to hear that about Verona. I’d have thought it might be quite dialect-y. One of my teachers was from the Veneto and she couldn’t speak the same dialect as her Venetian parents. It’s almost another language but maybe different in Verona?
Tuscan Italian is normally regarded as being the most ‘pure’ and proper, for want of a better word. It’s where the language originates (Dante etc)

I only suggested Rome might be quite big for her because it sounds like your daughter might be slightly on the more timid side. Am probably projecting! I think with just a year it can be nice to get to know a smaller place really well and build more intimate connections. Can be a bit lonely otherwise (and i say that after 20 years in London!). Totally personal preference though

Also I’m bloody jealous… oh to be young and living in Italy!!!

I think she was from Verona and biased! Dante did live in Verona for a bit and his statue is there.

My daughter did 6 months in 2023 at Sapienza in Rome. She loved it, had an amazing time and is planning to go back to work there at some point in the future if she can. She is pretty fluent now as all her lectures were in Italian for her other subject. The only issue was accommodation - she had spent the previous 6 months in northern Italy so knew what she was dealing with (Facebook marketplace) but it was a struggle to find a room she could afford and she ended up in quite a gritty suburb in a flat with no contract and paying cash in hand - she was absolutely fine, had a lovely Polish flatmate and had no problems but the transport links were not great and the location would definitely not be for everyone. Other friends ended up using online accommodation sites which were much more expensive, and you have to commit online and pay before actually seeing the place. I think it all seems to depend on your budget.

well everywhere you go in Italy people speaks with a different accent or even a different dialect. As Italian, I laugh at the the idea of "Verona is the home of the best Italian". I don't think there is a place that can claim it is a home of best Italian...

@Lurea Maybe don’t take it seriously then!? It was a tongue in cheek comment but coming back with slang or localized accent might not be the best plan, However I do bow to your superior knowledge.

Regarding accommodation - it’s far better to to stay in a B&B or similar whilst DC look st rooms in flats. I know it costs more but is a safeguard against choosing a grotty property. Only a couple of days would be needed. DD was lucky that the first one she saw was great. She had shortlisted before she arrived in Italy but if you can get viewings, just do them in a day of two and decide. Her B&B owned wax very helpful too and looked after her like a daughter!

@graywall wonderful to hear Sapienza was a success. DD is hoping to do classes in Italian. Did your DD have to pass an Italian language test to be allowed to do her other subject uni classes in Italian? If so do you know what level? Thanks for the advice about accommodation and also from @TizerorFizz I'll encourage DD to speak to 4th years.

@peanutbuttertoasty That makes sense - I can see where you're coming from. Maybe also comments from the OP. My DD is confident and feisty - after leaving her rather unpleasant au pair role at 18 she sorted out a flat share in Marseille and biked around the city being an agency babysitter.

@Juja I've just asked her and she says she can't remember it being tested at all - not by her home uni or by Sapienza. I know she had 2 weeks intensive Italian upon arrival (organised by Sapienza) and that was tested to see what class level she was to be put in for those 2 weeks, but after that it was pretty much sink or swim as all she had was her other courses. She said that the course content (politics) was tricky so if her Italian hadn't been good enough it would have been a nightmare. I think what helped her was the fact that she did her secondary schooling in France so she was used to the more European style of assessment, and obviously she was bilingual already French/English.

Thanks @graywall that's very helpful. Please thank your DD.

I'll stress the need to get her Italian into tip top level before heading off - she's working hard on it.

@TizerorFizz I want to hope that everyone at university level will speak a good Italian without accent. As it has been said people from north of Italy are snobbish about central and south of the country. It is a bit like discouraging people to go and study in universities from north of England or Scotland because of their accent.

I have studied at La sapienza and it is a good university. It is often considered the best in the world for classics and ancient history. However, it is not a cheap city