The American University of Rome

Personally,I studied Italian while I was here and tried to use it, but there were a lot of "ugly Americans" who seemed to think that they had the right to expect America and all it's characteristics (not limited to the language)and were even unreasonable about the quality of English the Italians spoke. When in Rome, do as the WHO do??!! Anyway, communication was a part of my own adventure.

the univeristy is very disorganized in there office. there housing director is rude, and takes forever to contact you. maybe cause he knows he was wrong to place students in a crappy apartment for the price they pay. with that money i could of rented a nice apartment on my own near the spanish steps. and dont tell me no, cause my friends mother is a real estate agent, and she rents and sells homes. i trusted the university to take care of this for me, i chose the housing so i could be with other students and make friends. i wouldnt mind living with 4 or more students. i wanted to experience the college life, but i do not want to be taken advantage of when it comes to money. if you dont like your housing, speak up, dont let them fool you. dont be afraid to talk, and be takin advantage of. you should not have to be placed in a small cave apartment for all that money.

The whole university spoke italian and english for the most part so that wasnt hard. As for walking around downtown, it got a little trickier. You could usually pick out the people that would be able to speak english, and if not it was sometimes easy to figure it out. They would really try to explain things to us, so it was very helpful and fun!

Italian, aside from being one of the most beautiful languages spoken on this earth, was not very hard to pick up because the natives would help you with your language skills and encouraged the use of it. I was very fortunate to become friends with locals and have my family that lives there. This was the best for me, practice really does help.

Everyone spoke English, but there should have been more focus on Italian

The language factor is a challenge. Learn some Italian before you come.