A beautiful location on the banks of the Arno River. This international institute for fashion…read moredesign and marketing is owned by the Ferragamo family. It sits right next to the American embassy and has lovely architecture. A woman I met suggested I take a peek since I was interested in learning about fashion here in Firenze. There are two buildings in the Villa. The one with the information and administrative offices has gorgeous murals and decorative walls; even a hall of mirrors! Incredible tiny green park and a terrace space for the students to relax in. This is certainly an inspiring place to be exposed to fashion design. An international student body makes for varied perspective on designing fashion. Got some information to share with others back home. Nice to have seen the interior with the ornate classrooms and beautiful setting.

Study abroad students: read this. AI has an incredibly unhelpful & unreliable staff. Thankfully I…read morewent through Arcadia University's program, who had staff who was easy to contact & helped with any sort of issue. The AI staff doesn't pay much attention to study abroad students. We sign up for classes when we got to the program in Florence, and a lot of the classes they told our home universities they offered, they didn't actually offer. I would choose this program carefully. The apartments this program rents aren't very nice, or close to each other. My friends had bed bugs, and the program left it up to them to figure it out (after they put 4 people in a 1 bedroom apartment). But if you're the kind of person who wants a totally independent study abroad experience, with no attachment to your school, and want to be able to miss your classes that meet once a week up to 4 times, go for it. Study abroad classes are 3 hours long, once a wee -- if you're taking Italian, that class meets Monday-Thursday for 2 hours each day. Do not go on the study abroad trips they offer, unless it's a short day trip -- you won't wanna stay in the hotels they pick.