Location
  • Italy
    • Florence
    • Siena
Term
Academic Year, Fall, Spring, Summer
Subject Areas
Anthropology Archaeology Art History Arts Business Communications Computer Science Economics Education English Environmental Studies European Studies Finance Food Science and Nutrition Gender Studies Global Studies History Humanities International Business International Relations Journalism Language Studies Liberal Arts Linguistics Literature Marketing Mathematics Medieval Studies Philosophy Political Science Psychology Public Relations Social Sciences Sociology Visual Arts +25
Need-based funding, Merit-based funding, General grants/scholarships, Payment plans, LGBTQIA+ funding, BIPOC funding
Health & Safety

Program Details

Program Type
Provider
Degree Level
Bachelors
Housing
Apartment Host Family
Language
Italian

Pricing

Price Details
The CET program fee covers tuition, housing in the city center, activities and excursions (day trips), medical insurance, and course materials/textbooks. The program fee does not include transportation to/from Florence or Siena, visa fees, meals, homestay fees and a refundable housing deposit.

Still wondering how to budget for your time abroad? CET offers scholarships, and CET staff is happy to provide advice on keeping discretionary purchases to a minimum (i.e., they can tell you where to get cheap eats).
What's Included
Accommodation Activities Classes Wifi
What's Not Included
Airfare
What's Not Included (Extra)

Personal expenses may include but are not limited to toiletries, laundry, personal travel, entertainment, gifts, and local transportation.

Dec 09, 2024
Apr 28, 2025
33 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

CET Italy programs offer a culturally immersive experience with individual attention from professors and staff, first-rate academics, and the chance to embrace local culture. Choose from a wide variety of electives ranging from Marketing to Economics, Art History to Psychology. CET Florence and CET Siena both offer homestay options with local families, or the choice to live in an apartment with other CET students. Both of these programs offer wonderful cultural experiences such as cooking classes, museum visits, local engagement, and more!

Video and Photos

Diversity & Inclusion 💙

CET believes in making study abroad accessible to students of all races, religions, origins, abilities, gender identities, and sexual orientations. We’ve gathered experiences from BIPOC students to share as resources such as the Identity Abroad pages, Perspective Pieces, and Identity Abroad Support Networks. We are also dedicated to becoming a more anti-racist organization by transforming our workplace, programs, and industry with our Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (JEDI) Action Plan.
CET supports and welcomes students of all identities on our programs. We provide program-specific information under the cultural climate section of our Identity Abroad webpages for LGBTQ individuals in each of our program locations.
CET makes every effort to offer accommodations comparable to that of the students’ home institution. Disclosing early helps us to make proper preparations. The accommodations offered at each program can be found on each program location's Identity Abroad page. These pages can provide a good idea about what classes are like in terms of workload and class time. Initiating one-on-one conversations with Student Service Coordinators can also help inform students' decisions and determine if a program will be a good fit.
CET makes every effort to offer accommodations comparable to that of the students’ home institution. The levels of accessibility, from wheelchair accessibility to extra time on exams, are under each program location’s Identity Abroad page. Initiating one-on-one conversations with Student Service Coordinators can help inform students' decisions and determine if a program will be a good fit.

Impact 🌎

CET is an environmentally conscientious organization at our headquarters in DC and programs all around the world. In each of our centers, we adopt local measures to reduce our carbon footprint and contribute to sustainable practices. As part of our ongoing efforts towards sustainability, we’ve partnered with Cool Effect, a nonprofit focused on reducing carbon emissions through scientifically-proven, hand-selected carbon projects worldwide. For each trip taken by one of our staff members, travelers, or students, we donate to support three carbon projects chosen by staff volunteers every year.
When we set up a program overseas, we become a part of that local community. And as a community member, we are responsible for contributing to local initiatives in meaningful ways. Our website lists some local philanthropic organizations that help us fulfill this responsibility—they host our students, and we support their missions.

Program Highlights

  • Academically engaging courses that suit a variety of majors
  • Group excursions around Italy
  • Out-of-classroom learning & assignments
  • Italian language classes
  • Live in the beautiful downtown areas of Florence or Siena: apartment or homestay options available

Popular Programs

View of Florence
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Students in Siena

CET Siena is for those who want to dive in to the Italian lifestyle. Study Italian language and choose from a wide variety of electives. Visit a contrada to learn about the Palio horserace one day. Choose to live with local roommates or homestay. Students from all colleges and universities are welcome!

Program Reviews

4.76 Rating
based on 71 reviews
  • 5 rating 80.28%
  • 4 rating 15.49%
  • 3 rating 4.23%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Academics 3.8
  • Support 4.65
  • Fun 4.65
  • Housing 4.45
  • Safety 4.85
  • Growth 5
  • Support 5
  • Fun 5
  • Housing 5
  • Safety 5
Showing 57 - 64 of 71 reviews
Zoe
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Spontaneous Trip to Elba Island

Halfway through the semester, there was a clear planner of our group of friends and that person was not me. At the same time as the "planner" of our group went to Oktoberfest with another group of friends, my favorite professor abroad mentioned an island her and her family enjoyed visiting. Thus, I became the interim planner and a fairly spontaneous and unorganized one at that - having decided to go only a couple days before leaving. Waking up for a 5:30 am train ride and then a 15 minute transport on a boat, the four of us made it to Elba Island. As unplanned as this trip was, it was equally as perfect. We stayed in an Air BnB overlooking the ocean, met locals who were willing to lend us their bikes, experienced rocky instead of sandy beaches and even went scuba diving (for me) and snorkeling (my friends). We may have been the only ones on this island who's first language was not Italian and it was a truly beautiful glimpse into an undisturbed region of Italy.

What would you improve about this program?
I would make the program more diverse. Specifically, I think this program would benefit with representation from a more diverse range of universities.
78 people found this review helpful.
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Emma
3/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Small City: Feel the Love

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What would you improve about this program?
Have more people enrolled in the program.. reach out to us more for social things on the weekends... plan more out-of-class activities
79 people found this review helpful.
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Arden
3/5
No, I don't recommend this program

Florence in 4 months

This program will most likely not greatly improve your Italian language skills as a beginner. The Italian lanuage class is only twice a week for an hour and a half. Because I already knew Italian I made a commitment to talk to people on the street only in Italian which helped. However for a beginner this can be difficult. Also the language class was not heavily focused in grammar, instead we mainly talked during class. I was the only one in my program who had prior experience with Italian so it was a one on one language course. All of the other people in the program said that they could not speak Italian after 4 months.

83 people found this review helpful.
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Casey
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

CET Siena Summer 2014

There is nothing I could say badly about this program. I was placed with my good friend from school In a home stay, with Stella, the most amazing Italian woman and basically my second mother at this point. The food was incredible, the wine delicious, the people were wonderfully friendly, and the city is remarkably beautiful. The group of students becomes very tight-knit and we would do everything together. We traveled on weekends, relaxed In the piazza, or just did our homework or had Italian movie nights together. The professors all deeply cared about not only our academic progress but our personal comfort and happiness as well. We would often meet them outside of class just to grab a snack or to chat about current events. Siena is a vibrant city with so much local culture and history to offer if you're open to branching out and experiencing it. Not to mention, they have some of the best pizza and pasta I've ever had in my life.. If you're presented the opportunity to study here, do not say no.

80 people found this review helpful.
Response from CET Academic Programs

Thank you for taking the time to post this positive and thorough review of CET Siena! It sounds like you appreciated all aspects of the program: the location, our housing arrangements, the classes, our incredible professors, our dedicated staff and the overall feel of the program.

We are glad you said "YES!" to studying abroad with CET in Siena!

Sarah Dixon; CET Academic Programs; sdixon@academic-travel.com

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Kristine
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

My Italy Journey

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What would you improve about this program?
I would have had more social events going on during the semester. It was great that we got a lot of time to study, but I was there to experience Italy.
75 people found this review helpful.
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Emma
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Great-- but not perfect

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What would you improve about this program?
The academics were much weaker than I was anticipating, but it provided for a lot of free time to be able to explore the city and relax.
See above review for more information.
74 people found this review helpful.
Response from CET Academic Programs

Thank you for taking the time to submit this review of CET Florence! We appreciate all feedback and take it to heart.
Since reading your comment about language partners not being offered as advertised, I’ve followed up with our Italy staff. The “Language Exchange aperitivos” that you mentioned attending were our staff’s method of giving students the opportunity to find language partners. Your perspective on this has made us rethink our own terminology. We realize the term “language partner” would cause you to expect something more formalized. We are working to change our promotional materials so future students have a realistic expectation of that immersion tool.
I’m sorry that the student make-up of many Vanderbilt students was overwhelming to you and something that you preserved to be a negative aspect of the program. While CET always advertises that we partner with Vanderbilt to run the program, I can imagine how you felt coming from a different institution. That said, we hope that this will become less of an issue as the program grows. Nearly 20% of the students came from other institutions last fall, and that percentage is even larger this spring – at 30%. It isn’t unrealistic to imagine that it could be even more balanced a year from now.
Again, we appreciate your feedback. It helps us to continually improve the CET Florence program. – Sarah Dixon, CET Academic Programs; sdixon@academic-travel.com

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Karen
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

The Most Memorable

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What would you improve about this program?
More class selections.
77 people found this review helpful.
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Cassie
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

The Sweetest Thing

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What would you improve about this program?
More class selections would be nice.
85 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers

Hi Kimberly, After you're accepted to CET Florence, we provide a packing guide resource on what to bring and what not to bring. Generally, you just need a laptop for coursework, clothes, and personal items. Your apartments are fully equipped with linens, blankets, pillows, towels, and kitchen equipment, so there's no need to bring any of these supplies from the US. Get in touch with us if you have...

The program had no classes that were specifically geared toward education, but the year I went (2014) we were all given the opportunity to teach English to Italian elementary school students. This would be great experience for a teaching major. Otherwise, the program was focused on Italian language, history, politics, art, and architecture. So humanities-based in general, which of course is great...