Does anyone have any personal experience taking Italian language courses in Italy? I am looking for an immersion program I can attend for 6-8 weeks or maybe do a couple weeks in one town and a couple in another. I am open to the location. I have found quite a few online that look good but I would really like some personal testimonies, even if you only attended for a week or two.
I'm tri-lingual from childhood, but I do know, first hand, an awesome Italian school in Le Marche, on the small town of Castelraimondo. The school is Edulingua, and I know several students that went there, including some from my own family. I attended it for one month when I wanted to brush up my Italian before I attended university courses there. They are very professional, a.k.a., their teachers and instructors are not part-time bon-vivants doing a gig teaching Italian to the unsuspecting foreigner, but fully trained teachers with degrees in instruction, Italian language etc. and really capable. They offer a variety of accommodation options from student shared apartments more geared to the university-age crowd to some villas equipped with amenities and so. They have some "cultural programs" that take students to day or half-day excursion in the area and some extenuating day-trips to more far-flung locations by bus. Castelraimondo has a railway station, so you can travel by train. It's painfully slow, though - takes 1h in a rural regional line to get to Ancona or 40min to Fabriano where there are train services to big towns like Roma, Milano, Bologna, Lecce, Bari etc. Now, a recommendation. Whatever are your school choices, stick with one at least 3 or 4 weeks if you are serious about learning the language.