Italian language courses in Florence, heart and birthplace of the Italian language

Italian language courses - Scuola Toscana

The Italian language

If you're serious about learning the Italian language, you should certainly learn it in Florence, the heart and birthplace of the Italian language. Florence was home to Dante, who Italians call il padre della lingua italiana, the father of the Italian language. Still today, the best Italian is spoken in Florence, Siena and Tuscany.

Italian was the first modern language historically to acquire literary status.
Until the 13th-14th centuries, Latin was still the language of literature. Books were written only in Latin, and the other European languages were only spoken.
At the end of the Roman empire, the Latin language left a legacy of different dialects in many regions of Europe, including Italian regions.
All these dialects descended from spoken Latin (called vulgar Latin, as opposed to classical, literary Latin).

In Italy, different regions adopted different dialects.

In the 14th century, the Florentine dialect imposed itself throughout Italy as the main, most prestigious common language. The reason can be summed up in one word: Dante.

The reason is because the greatest Italian writers of the 14th century, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, all used Florentine in their poetry and prose works. These works, read with admiration beyond Tuscan borders as well as within, have become models for the written language. These great authors' grammar, vocabulary and style were imitated by cultured and powerful people throughout the Italian peninsula.

Dante was particularly responsible for this, through his De Vulgari Eloquentia, a work written in Latin to argue the case for establishing a literary tradition in the so-called vulgar languages, the languages actually spoken by the people.

It was not until the political unification of Italy, completed in 1870, that the Italian language, up to then only spoken in Tuscany and by cultivated people outside Tuscany, became widespread among the Italian population, who had only spoken regional dialects.

Basically, the modern Italian language is the Florentine dialect of the 1300s.

You can get further information on Italian language courses or enrol, by visiting Weekend a Firenze website, where you'll find details of the Scuola Toscana, and the facility to enrol directly online on the Scuola Toscana courses from Weekend a Firenze website.

Here's the link:

Italian language courses - Scuola Toscana accommodation programme

Florence is one of the most attractive travel destinations for people from all over the world.
With Florence Discovery packages, included in the price is accommodation in a single room with use of kitchen facilities, in a variety of pre-selected locations in Florence.

You have these choices:

• Share an apartment with other students (usually one or two other students from our school or from other schools, Italian university students, etc.), or
• Live with an Italian family (options range from the single parent with small children to the traditional family including mother, father and children to the older retired couple).

Italian language courses - Scuola Toscana packages and prices

Florence Discovery Program has three different options, conceived and tailored according to your wishes, in 2 weeks units repeatable up to 24 weeks, always with a new programme:


FLORENCE DISCOVERY PLUS

If you want to make the most of your time: learn Italian and have a holiday as well. It offers:

• 4 hours per day class of Italian language and culture
• activities every day except Sunday
• accommodation in single room with use of kitchen, in an Italian family or with other students.

• 4 hours per day class of Italian language and culture
• activities 3 times a week
• accommodation in single room with use of kitchen, in an Italian family or with other students.

• 2 hours per day class of Italian language and culture
• activities 3 times a week
• accommodation in single room with use of kitchen, in an Italian family or with other students

Italian language courses - Scuola Toscana distance learning

Complete long-distance courses in Italian language are also available from Scuola Toscana via e-mail.
Not the usual, standard course you can find in a book or on CD-ROM, but instead a real, direct contact with a professionally trained Italian tutor from our Florence Discovery Program. The instructors will teach you the language at your pace, will correct your exercises, answer your questions, solve your doubts - a one-to-one, different experience.

If you already know some (or lots of) Italian, start with their test (see Check your Italian online on the Weekend a Firenze website, the link is below) and e-mail back your responses. The instructor will evaluate your answers and send you the first batch of explanations and exercises. If you are an absolute beginner, just email them what your goals are, tell them which languages you speak, and they'll start from scratch.

Every e-mail is a lesson, including: correction of previous exercises, answers to your requests or doubts, a further step in Italian through an explanation of a new topic and some reading, and a new set of exercises for the next lesson. A certificate is awarded at the end of the course.

To get further information or to enrol, visit Weekend a Firenze website, where you'll find details of the Scuola Toscana, and the facility to enrol directly online on the Scuola Toscana courses and distance courses from Weekend a Firenze website.

Here's the link: