{"id":19013,"date":"2025-09-04T14:42:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T18:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/?p=19013"},"modified":"2025-09-06T13:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T17:56:13","slug":"school-days-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/school-days-in-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"School Days in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tItalian Translation<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Fall in Italy brings so many good things\u2014truffles, chestnuts, olives, pumpkins\u2014and school! Did I say school <\/span>\ud83d\ude09<\/span>? School certainly is a good thing in Italy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Education in Italy is a little different from education in the U.S. It is compulsory until children are 16, and the school week usually is six days long, from Monday through Saturday. The typical hours are from 8:30-1:30, with a 15-30 minute break in the morning. Most schools do not have a lunch break and do not serve lunch. After school is over for the day, children go home for their lunch, which is served much later than in the U.S. Italians value the importance of meals shared together with family\u2014even during a school day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Subjects taught are Italian, English, mathematics, natural science, history, geography, social studies, and physical education. Some schools also offer French, Spanish, visual arts, and musical arts. Parents can choose to send their children to a primary school (non-compulsory), scuola dell\u2019infanza, for ages 3-6, if they want to. Scuola primaria is ages 6-11, scuola secondaria di primo grado is ages 11-14, and scuola secondaria di secondo grado is for ages 16-19.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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The younger students used to have to wear a bib, or apron, to school, but no longer. In Positano, they wear polo shirts with the name of the school on the shirts. All students carry backpacks for their schoolbooks and schoolwork, and Positano schools have cleverly decided to side-step the issue of status designer backpacks, by giving each child a backpack made from recycled blue jeans. How egalitarian!<\/span><\/p>

When we were last in Rome, our lovely guide Giovanna introduced us to her young son, whom she drove to his school on the back of her moto\u2014to escape the city traffic gridlock. We toured his schoolroom and were delighted by the vivid colors and cheerfulness of the room\u2014 testimony to enthusiasm for learning. When I was growing up in Napoli and Bari, my neighboring Italian friends all attended Italian schools, and I enviously watched them go off to school. I was sure they were having more fun than I was, being home-schooled (yes, I learned to read <\/span>\ud83d\ude0a<\/span>). Every day, I looked forward to the time when my friends came home from school and we could play kick-the-can or ride our bikes together\u2014but how I wished I could have gone to school with them!<\/span><\/p>

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For some of these tips, grazie mille to my amica, Carmela Cavaliere, hospitality maven at the luxurious Villa Francesco in Positano, Italy\u00a0click here. <\/a><\/span>Yes, she\u2019s the very same Carmela that appears as a character in my Adult\/Young adult mystery novel that takes place in Positano, SECRETS IN TRANSLATION (Fitrzroy Books, 2018), for which she was a wonderful help for research. On Instagram, she will enlighten you at @carmencitaitaly80.<\/span><\/p>

Author of over thirty traditionally-published books for young readers, Margo Sorenson spent the first seven years of her life in Spain and Italy, devouring books and Italian food and still speaks (or tries!) her childhood languages. Her most recent Adult\/Young Adult novel, SECRETS IN TRANSLATION (Fitzroy Books, October 2018), takes place in Positano, with heroine Alessandra, whose being able to speak Italian helps her to feel at home in Italy, once again\u2014and solve a mystery that threatens those she loves. Of course, it would make a great gift for adults and teens alike! For more information on ordering these and Margo’s other books(for younger readers, remember SPAGHETTI SMILES and many fun reads!\ud83d\ude0a), please visit the link here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Italian Translation Fall in Italy brings so many good things\u2014truffles, chestnuts, olives, pumpkins\u2014and school! Did I say school \ud83d\ude09? School certainly is a good thing in Italy.\u00a0 Education in Italy…Read More <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19013"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19081,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19013\/revisions\/19081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}