Florence Cultural Activities

Italian Cooking Class

Prepare a typical Tuscan meal of several courses with your peers under the instruction of a professional chef. Your hard work will pay off: enjoy your culinary creations as you eat them for dinner! This is a lesson that keeps on giving: you’ll be able to recreate your meal for years to come, and savor the flavors of Florence. Tutti a tavola!

Guided Art Historic Tour

Your classes will bring you to many monuments in Florence to help you understand their art historical significance. These lessons will leave you wanting more… This activity will help you complete the picture. A CEA Art Historian will take you to one of the less-visited but important museums of Florence, to be sure that you see what you cannot miss!!

Volunteering Program: CEA C’È

CEA’s new Florence volunteer initiative, CEA C’È means CEA “is there” in Italian. Pronounce it ch-ā, and say it fast! It is a very useful phrase to know when conversing in Italian, and also gives the local listener an insight into the goals of this initiative.

CEA believes that volunteering allows you to see Florence “from the inside,” rather than as an outsider looking in. Give yourself the opportunity to experience your host city in a more profound way by volunteering on an occasional or constant basis throughout your program. Your experience can be enlightening and rewarding.

Group CEA C’È activities include: befriending neighborhood nonni, working with a large group of elementary school children to teach them about an American holiday tradition, and helping to keep Florence clean through the Angeli del Bello program.

The possibilities of getting involved in CEA C’È on an individual basis are endless. Speak to us when you’re onsite, and we’ll assure you that we’ll be able to find the right “fit” for you!

Libraries Tour and Treat

Your academic performance and experience in Florence is of great importance to us at CEA. We therefore want to ensure that you have as many resources available to you as possible, and this tour is designed to show you how to take advantage of what Florence has to offer you academically, outside the walls of the Global Campus. It’ll also help let you in on a little known secret: libraries are where the locals hang out! Pull out your books, hang out at the library, and make some new friends! After the tour, CEA will offer you to a seasonal treat.

Lunch at a Unique Trattoria

In a historic quarter of Florence, there is a wonderful trattoria that serves simple, genuine Tuscan cuisine at affordable prices. While the trattoria is run and coordinated by a professional cook, his helpers and staff are individuals with mental or physical disabilities. We will sit beside Florentine locals as we enjoy lunch together: CEA students and staff. Buon appetito!

Language Exchange

Speaking with locals will make your experience so much more fulfilling! CEA will help you team up with Italian students in a structured environment to be able to start using your Italian more—and for you to help them with their English. Our hope is that your short visits with the Italians will spark friendships, and you meet with them outside of class… You will be so happy you did!

Opera Night

Italy is known for its operas: the music, the lyrics, the stories… CEA will bring you to enjoy one of the celebrated Italian operas by the great composers Puccini or Rossini performed in a unique and suggestive space: an old Florentine church.

Soccer Game (Optional)

Italians are wild about their national sport: calcio (soccer). Attending a home game in the Florence stadium will give you a look into this important subculture of Italy. Be sure to wear purple, and cheer on the Fiorentina team…. Alé!!