Istituto Lorenzo de Medici (IDM)

I enjoyed art history - every week there were walking trips to see the places and artistic pieces covered in the course. I also learned a lot from the extensive in-class work in my drawing and painting fine-art courses. Video production was good, too - each student group had the opportunity to produce two video shorts.

Improvements could first be made in two specific areas: 1) my History of Italian Literature course was perhaps the only one I felt was lacking, because it did not make use of engaging material or instruction either inside or outside the class. 2) my Italian language courses would have been much more effective if we had had textbooks to work with. Instead, instruction was mostly vocal - and in one class, half the time in English - which did not prove to be the most useful strategy for the majority of the class. In general, the courses weren't extremely rigorous, and there was hardly any homework - but this I deemed appropriate for a study abroad program, since students have so many other things to do while they are studying abroad as well - such as seeing the sights, trying to meet people and make friends, learn the language, and figure out everyday practical things such as grocery shopping, transportation, and communicating with a landlord! My most intensive courses were those of the fine arts - painting and drawing, in my case - which consisted of 9-hour labs with live models. This was a necessary amount of time to spend in order to get involved in the piece you were working on, so I appreciated it. These long classes also only met once a week - which allowed plenty of time to work on outside projects.

I know nothing about art and I wasn't very interested in it, but how do you go to Florence and not study renaissance art? Take a beginners class to get your feet wet. I suggest taking a history class on Florence as well (Florence's 'Quattro Quartieri' was taught by Professor Bellini) so that you have an understanding of where the cities been and how it was shaped.

It's Italy. Everyone's friendly and willing to help, especially your teachers. Don't be afraid to approach them for help or insight. They will go out of their way to no end to help you and then probably invite you over for lunch on Sunday with the family.

I enjoyed all of my courses. However, I wish some of them were incorporated witht he local students and more international students. The students in my classes were 90% American.

No improvements that I can think of.

The courses are all great! But, too many annoying and spoiled Americans students. It's hard to find cool foreign students to chill with.

It's hard to study when you're traveling and hanging out all the time! But, I really enjoyed my courses, I learnt so much and the professors are really cool and sweet (they're like kinda family), not stand offish like in America. Classes were generally easy and not demanding, and American style with some papers and two exams.

Federiga Bindi for Political Science and Kim Coston for Marketing/Merchandising courses were excellent! Cristina for Intensive Italian. I felt as if I were one of the only students to end the year with an excellent grasp of Italian - and most of my fluency is thanks to making friends with the natives.

Too many people spoke in English at the school.

The only recommendation that I have is with the Italain language course that was offered. I feel it could of been more intensive, I found I was learning things about the language before they were tought in class. An empahsis on conversational and colloquial words and phrases was highly overlooked.

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