Location
Throughout Italian history, the Emilia-Romagna region has played a vital role in the nation’s economic, cultural and political life. Since Roman times the corridor of prosperity that runs from Parma and Bologna to Rome has produced an entrepreneurial spirit responsible for one of the world’s most sophisticated and ecologically well-balanced economies. Pitzer has selected the city of Parma as preferred program sites in Emilia-Romagna to provide you with a high degree of integration into Italian family life and community.
Host Institutions
Pitzer in Italy is affiliated with the University of Parma and the Toschi Art Institute.
The Core Course
Studies in Italian Culture
Using the city of Parma as a case study, you will explore topics in Italian history, politics, economy, religion, art, literature, and culture through a series of lectures by area scholars and specialists as well as take study trips to other parts of Italy. The course also incorporates the family stay, community projects, and other more experiential components of the program to put a human face on the material presented in the lectures and readings.
Intensive Italian Language
Intensive Italian is offered at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels at the University of Parma. Becoming fluent in Italian, however, is not just a classroom exercise. It is part of your everyday life through interactions with your host family and local Italians. The competence you develop in Italian will be one of the treasures of your Pitzer in Italy experience. If you are already fluent in Italian, you may enroll in a university course in the spring or in a specially arranged course in the fall in lieu of language study. All students on the program will audit sessions of courses at the university toward the end of each semester as part of their intensive Italian studies.
University Courses
As a spring semester participant and if you have completed at least four semesters of Italian language or have the equivalent competency, you may enroll in courses at the university.
Directed Independent Study Project
The program provides you with two options for independent study: research projects and studio and performance art projects. Guided by local scholars, specialists, or artists, and program staff, projects require a significant analytical component in the form of a written report as well as other discipline-appropriate documentation of learning. The program strongly recommends you select a project that involves field research, oral interviews, ethnography, and other techniques that facilitate cultural immersion and use of your Italian over those involving primarily library research. Topic selection may be limited due to available resources and local conditions.
Study Trips
To deepen your understanding of topics covered in the core course, you will travel to various locations in Italy. Destinations may change from semester to semester, but past excursions have included:
Venice
Visit Basilica di San Marco and the Palazzo Ducale. Explore the canals, churches, museums, shops of Venetian glass and handpainted masks along the winding backstreets.
Florence
See Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia, visit the Galleria degli Uffizi, the Duomo, and the Battistero in this historic city of art and culture.
Rome
The Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, Galleria Borghese and Fori Imperiali are only a few of the highlights of this famous city. Lectures on art history and history help frame a deeper understanding of ancient and modern Rome.
Family Stays
The heart of the Pitzer in Italy program is being a full member of an Italian family with all its privileges and responsibilities. Through your family, you have the best opportunity to be incorporated into the social fabric of the local community. You witness the real rather than the theoretical culture and, as a consequence, come closer to knowing what it means to be Italian. Most families speak little or no English, though younger family members may be studying English in school. They usually live in apartments with amenities similar to those of an American middle class home. You will find there is less privacy than you may be used to and that there is the expectation that you will spend time with the family.
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