Italian schools in Palermo
Italian language schools in Sicilia →︎
1 selected schools in Palermo, Sicilia. Compare course hours, housing and accreditations, then write directly to the school you prefer.
Palermo at a glance
This is Palermo (Sicilia): the streets you'll walk every morning on your way to class, and the places where you'll need real Italian, the kind spoken at the bar and the market.
The Italian school in Palermo
There is one selected school in Palermo. Here are the numbers that actually matter: real hours, class size and lesson length.
| School | Real hours a week | Students per class | Lesson length | Google reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Itastra Università di Palermo | 15 hours | 12 | 45 min | — |
Where the schools are in Palermo
schoolsnot to be missedairportHover the green dots for details, click the red ones to open the school page.
Palermo Punta Raisi (PMO), 25 km away
More cities in Sicilia
Day trips nearby
At the weekend, without a car:
- Palermo (Mondello)10 km
- Cefalù58 km
- Trapani75 km
Trenitalia regional trains from Palermo station. Intercity buses from the station for towns the train doesn't reach.
Distances are as the crow flies.
The Italian you hear in Palermo
Two languages live side by side in Palermo. There is Italian, which everyone speaks, and there is Sicilian, not a dialect of Italian but a Romance language of its own, with eight centuries of literature behind it. People switch between them constantly, often inside a single sentence.
The difference you notice first is in the vowels: Sicilian has five where Italian has seven, so closed e becomes i and o becomes u. That is the accent you recognise in a second. Then there is the sound no textbook writes down: strada pronounced almost shtrada.
Words you will hear at the market: picciotto (lad, young man), camurria (a nuisance, a pain) and amunì, the «come on, let's go» that opens half the conversations in town.
For an A1 learner it is harder than Florence, but less than it looks: with foreigners, Palermitans switch to Italian without being asked. What you gain is your ear.
Three people from Palermo. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896), author of The Leopard and of the most quoted sentence in Italy. Giovanni Falcone (1939), the judge who changed how the mafia was fought. Letizia Battaglia (1935), the photographer who told those years from the street, camera in hand.
Frequently asked questions about Palermo
- How much does accommodation cost in Palermo?
- A host family with breakfast usually costs about €180–260 per week for a single room; a room in a shared flat generally starts at €150–220. These are rough figures: the price changes with the season, the distance from the centre and the meals included. Almost every school on this page books accommodation for you, so ask for a quote covering course and room together.
- How many Italian language schools are there in Palermo?
- We have selected one, with courses of 20 hours a week.
- How do I choose between the schools in Palermo?
- Look at three numbers, not the price alone. The real lesson length: 20 hours of 45 minutes are 15 actual hours, of 60 minutes they are 20. How many people are really in the class in high season, not the stated maximum. And the total including enrolment, materials and accommodation, not the weekly rate.
- Which schools in Palermo are exam centres?
- No school in Palermo is an exam centre: you sit the exam at a nearby venue, and the school helps you register.
- Do the schools in Palermo help you find accommodation?
- Yes, all 1 of them. Host family, shared flat or residence: the host family is the most useful for the language, because it makes you speak Italian every evening.
- How much does an Italian course in Palermo cost?
- Rates vary a lot and should be asked of the school. When you do, ask for the total: a one-off enrolment fee is almost always added to the weekly rate, usually 50–90 euros in Italy, and books, accommodation, cultural activities and exam fees may be charged separately.
Events this year
The city's big festivals, food fairs and cultural seasons through the year. They're not just entertainment: they're the best training ground for your Italian. At a local festival you end up ordering, asking directions, chatting with locals: the real language, the kind books don't teach. If you can, line up a week of your course with one of these.
Festino di Santa Rosalia In mid-July Palermo celebrates its patron saint for five days, with the triumphal float parading down to the sea and fireworks at the Foro Italico. Sicily's biggest festival: overwhelming and hugely popular. | mid-July |
Ballarò Buskers In October the Ballarò district fills with street performers, music and market stalls, in Palermo's most authentic alleys. Informal and chaotic: excellent for spoken Italian and for the dialect you hear around you. | October |
Before you leave for Palermo, start at home.
With the ti app you arrive in Italy already understanding what you hear: stories at your level with translation in 14 languages, exercises and a pathway from A1 to C2.
Half of the A1 path is open, no sign-up
★★★★★(6)by Alessio, a teacher since 2018
Start with A1 ↗︎Search for amo Italian
