Choosing a School

Before I knew which city I would be in, I knew that choosing a school would be easy. That's because while randomly searching the Web for info on language schools, I found this great book, Learning Italian in Italy.

The authors are a British couple, two doctors, who took a year off, moved to Italy, and drove around the whole country visiting every language school they could find. They weeded out the bad ones and only put recommended ones in their book.

Turns out that there aren't many language schools in Venice anyway, but the one they recommended, and the one I plan on going to, is Istituto Venezia. Here's what they say:

"The school is on the first floor of a restored palazzo, near the pretty cafe-lined Campo Santa Margherita. St. Mark's Square and the hordes of tourists are a short vaporetto ride away."

"There are extracurricular activities most afternoons and some weekeend outings are included in the price. The school has free Internet access in the afternoon and students are given a discount card for local shops and restaurants. There is a collection of Italian videos that can be watched after classes."

Not exactly glowing praise, is it? Well they're doctors, not writers, so I can forgive them for their lack of mellifluous prose. (For some schools, they go out of the way to mention that there is an Illy coffee machine. What's that?) The point is that they have been there and recommend it. Good enough for me.

I've fired off an email to the school asking for more info. Hopefully they'll respond in English!