Extracurricular Courses in Florence at Parola School

Additional Cultural and Educational Classes About Italian Culture

Get to know Italy, with its cultural heritage and great art through our extracurricular lessons in Florence.

In addition to language classes, Parola Italian language school provides its students with a wide variety of additional courses in Florence to experience Italian culture outside the grammar and conversation classroom.

These supplementary lessons go into depth and detail regarding Italian culture and art. And they are very helpful to understand our society.

Note that Parola school is also able to give these cultural lessons with its online courses.

Most Important Topics About Italy

Our language center covers the most relevant topics regarding Italian culture and art such as Italian society, Italian politics, Italian geography, art in Italy, Italian food and wine, Italian music, and opera.

Moreover, Parola school gives its presentations, taught by our native Italian teachers, at the school’s headquarters in the heart of Florence.

Drawing Technique Course (En Plein Air and Indoor Sessions)

Florence is the city of art, therefore it is natural to offer a hands-on drawing course and take advantage of the location. In this course, students learn how to study and compose basic drawings of the human body – the most challenging of all artistic subjects.

Students practice drawing both indoors and En Plein Air utilizing locations such as Piazzale Michelangelo, Ponte Vecchio, and other famous Florentine piazzas to improve their artistic skills.

This extracurricular course is offered for a fee.

Humanities Lectures in Florence

To complete students’ understanding of the Italian language, our school offers courses in humanities studying the deep connection of the language to history, social changes and culture.

This course is offered for a fee.

Italian Literature

This course discusses the most significant periods of Italian literature with special emphasis on the fourteenth century highlighting authors such as Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarca. Moravia, Sciascia, Pasolini, Calvino, and Bassani are also discussed while exploring authors of the twentieth century.

Additionally, we provide courses on contemporary authors such as Niccolo Ammaniti, Alessandro Baricco, Antonio Tabucchi, and Umberto Eco.

This course is offered for a fee. Please contact our office.

History of Italian language

The Italian language and socio-cultural attitudes go hand-in-hand – each effecting the other for centuries. Parola School offers an Italian language history course exploring the most profound social and historical aspects that formed the language.

We study Italian both on an everyday basis through idioms and dialects as well as at a more academic and historical level. Students can also learn the use of Italian in its advanced elements.

This course is offered for a fee. Please contact our office.

Music Courses in Florence with Parola School

Parola Italian language school is affiliated with a school of Music in Florence, which is open year-round. This course is designed for students who are particularly interested in Italian music – specifically in operatic music.

School participants can learn and enjoy opera or folk music lyrics while studying the Italian language and other cultural aspects of Italian music.

This course if offered for a fee. Please contact our office.

History of Italian Opera

This course explores the history of opera from its origins to the present. Topics that are discussed in these supplementary classes include: the origin of opera with Monteverdi; the development of opera in Italy during the 17th century; Opera seria and Opera buffa; the Neapolitan school; Mozart’s Italian operas; and Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, and Puccini. The course also examines the contemporary trends of Italian opera music.

This course is offered for a fee. Please contact our office.

Contemporary Italian History

This course covers the following topics of Italian history: Fascism, World War II, the Post-War period, the birth of the Republic, the 50’s, the Italian Political Parties, the Southern region of Italy, the Mafia, the crisis in the traditional political parties, the Kickback Scandals, the Second Republic, as well as discussions on Italy in the current era.

This course is offered for a fee. Please contact our office.

History of Florence And The Medici

This course is of particular interest to students who wish to know more about the history and secret life of the Medici family, who ruled Florence centuries ago, during the renaissance period in Florence. For a hands-on experience of this history, the school offers guided tours as one of its free-time activities.

This course is offered for a fee. Please contact our office.

Italian Geography

In this course, we offer an overview of the Italian peninsula, from the Alps to Sicily, highlighting the physical features of the country along with the customs and traditions of the different regions.

This interesting and explanatory course allows students to understand the fascinating reasons behind why Italy is such a diversified country.

This course if offered for free.

The Most Enchanting Places in Tuscany

This course offers practical and entertaining suggestions for organizing weekend sightseeing trips including the main historical and artistic city centers of Siena, Pisa, and Lucca. The Romanesque country churches of Gropina and Badia a Isola; the great abbeys of San Galgano and Sant’Antimo. And the famous walled medieval towns of Pienza, Montalcino, Volterra, San Gimignano, and Lucca.

Also included are timetables for public transportation and helpful hints on how to navigate the cities upon arrival. Parola School also combines these field trips with special meals in trattorias (genuine Italian restaurants,) wine tasting, and other special events such as concerts or Italian literature readings.

This course is offered for free.

Italian Cooking

Parola School offers an Italian cooking course for students who love all aspects of Italian cuisine.

We explore the entire meal, from the antipasto to tasty Italian first courses (including various pasta dishes such as tortellini, lasagne, ravioli, and gnocchi), to meat and fish dishes, and finally dessert, this course takes students through the delicious world of Italian cuisine.

This course is offered for a fee. Please contact our office.

Tuscan Wines

Wine is a very important economic sector in Tuscany (home of Parola School). The Tuscan region offers some of the most important and well-known red wines of the world.

This course covers grape cultivation and harvesting through winemaking as well as wine tasting in order to learn how to recognize each wine and its special features.

This course is offered for a fee. Please contact our office.

Diction for Opera Singers in Italy

Under professional guidance, students learn to correct errors in diction and obtain useful suggestions for interpretation of each role. Also see our pronunciation course, which is held at Parola school.

This course is offered for a fee. Please contact our office.

Italian Pronunciation

This Italian pronunciation course is for those students who want to improve their spoken Italian and enhance their conversation skills. The course covers accent, rhythm, and diction as well as the rules of Italian phonetics. It is also possible take this course on-stream.

This course is offered for a fee. Please contact our office.

Contact Parola Italian Language School in Florence

For more detailed information regarding our supplementary courses in Florence, please contact the Parola Italian language school office.