Do you want to study Italian and you prefer an authentic experience? Do you want to learn Italian with an insight into the Italian Life Style from inside? Why not study in Sicily in a house in the countryside, 5 minutes by car from the beaches of Giardini Naxos, 10 minutes from the Alcantara Gorges, 15 minutes away from wonderful Taormina and half an hour from Etna?
Why study Italian at the teacher’s home?
Home tutoring or studying at your teacher’s home, can be the right solution to satisfy your desire to learn Italian in an informal, familiar, authentic context. Sharing the life of a normal family, being in constant contact with functional Italian with daily absorbing of spontaneous Italian is the right and natural way to learn the Italian language in order to live day by day in Italy.
Whose home and who is your Italian teacher
I’m Alessandro and since 1990 I have been teaching Italian for foreigners. First, in Florence, as a teacher and then, since 1992, as founder and director of the Language and Culture Center BABILONIA in Taormina, the first Italian school for foreigners in the South of Italy… Do you want to know why I founded the Italian school for foreigners BABILONIA? Let me share why BABILONIA – Center for Italian Studies
I have always been involved in teaching the Italian language and I have trained generations of Italian teachers. My teaching is a communicative approach: learning a language is like learning to swim. You can learn “in theory” but if you do not dive into the water, you will never learn to float and swim! Only in Italy and with your host-family can you totally dive into the sea of the Italian language and learn to swim in it!
Where is our home located?
My family and I, my wife Katarina and my son Jurko, live on the hills of Gaggi in the Alcantara Valley, a few kilometers from the famous Alcantara Gorges, immersed in the greenery of the Sicilian countryside, in the company of our cat Boh and our 2 dogs, Oliva and Blondie. Our house is 5 minutes by car from the beautiful beaches of Giardini Naxos, 15 minutes from the wonderful Taormina and half an hour from the enchanting Etna.
Your independent cottage in our garden: an oasis of peace and relaxation where to study
In the garden, 10 meters away from our house, there is a little cottage, an independent studio (about 55 square meters) with bathroom and kitchen waiting for you, whether you are single or a couple.
In our garden of about 1000 square meters, we have a vegetable garden where we grow tomatoes, eggplant/aubergines, zucchini/courgettes, peppers and fruit trees (peaches, oranges, pears, cherries, medlars, figs, lemons) with which we make our jams along with about fifteen olive trees with which we produce our oil. In addition, we have a hundred Syrah-grape plants, a Sicilian grape variety, with which we produced a few bottles of wine last year, our “Syrah cchi Syrah”
What can you do while you’re here?
Our house is an excellent solution for anyone wishing to spend a relaxing holiday with the opportunity to rent a car upon arrival at the airport, to visit the many treasures of Sicily :the Greek temples in Agrigento, the archaeological park of Syracuse and the baroque island of Ortigia, the teeming Catania, the baroque pearls of Ragusa and Modica, the enchanting Aeolian Islands, the enchanting beaches, the archaeological treasures and the many natural reserves and to combine a pleasant period of relaxation with the study of the Italian language for one, two or three hours a day. Of course, we will help you, day by day, to build your visits and excursions calendar.
Our proposal for a study-stay in Home
As stated, I have almost thirty years of experience in teaching Italian to foreigners and, in addition to teaching, I have always trained all teachers at BABILONIA – Center for Italian Studies.
If, for you, learning Italian is not just memorizing word lists and learning grammar rules by heart but diving into the Italian language in order to understand and speak Italian to Italians, my family and I will be happy to welcome you to our home.
It is important to know that we only host one single person or a couple at a time, so the attention towards you will be exclusive!
The experience we offer is unique. In consideration of the fact that we can accommodate only one person or a couple at a time and that the demand for this type of study-stay is always high, we recommend to register at the soonest!
Who are our Italian courses at your teacher’s home for?
Italian lessons will normally take place in the afternoon to give you the opportunity, in the morning, to be able to go on excursions and visits to Sicily or, more simply, enjoy the beaches in the summer season.
During the course we will practice all 4 language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing and we will deepen the various phonological, functional and morpho-syntactic elements.
All levels are available, from Beginner A1 to advanced C2 levels. Before your arrival, we will send you a test to get a better idea of your level of knowledge of Italian.
All teaching material will be provided and, if you have specific requests for certain semantic areas, including professional ones, we can organize tailor-made lessons for you.
And if you like cooking, you can also add a “home cooking course”, I’m a good cook, you know?!
Tips and suggestions.
Our advice is to rent a car at the airport in order to be able to be totally independent during your stay, considering that our house is in the countryside, especially if you want to explore as a tourist. Otherwise, we can organize a taxi pick up from the airport or train station to bring you to our house and then you can rent a car in Taormina or Giardini for your travels and excursions.
So are you ready to schedule your Home-Study stay in Sicily? Studying Italian at your teacher’s home can be the right formula for you: personal welcome, didactic competence, holidays and culture, healthy life and relaxation, good food and good wine and the warmth of Sicily to keep you company!
