Customized programs developed in collaboration with visiting faculty and grounded in FSFA’s place-based practice—where Florence becomes a partner in learning.
Design Your ProgramFor over two decades, FSFA has designed immersive academic programs in Italy that grow out of sustained local practice and close collaboration with visiting faculty. Each program takes shape within our studios, classrooms, and daily engagement with Florence as a living culture—so learning is intentional, situated, and enduring.
Visiting faculty can focus on teaching while FSFA provides the infrastructure, local knowledge, and on-the-ground support that make sustained learning in Florence possible—housing, transportation, meals, student support, and emergency protocols.
Florence becomes a living classroom—engaged on its own terms, not as an extension of another campus. Students don’t just visit; they learn through daily contact with language, material culture, and community.
From 7-day intensives to full semesters, programs are shaped through dialogue—balancing visiting faculty goals with FSFA’s place-based pedagogy, academic community, and long-standing relationship to Italy.
All services exist in support of a single aim: learning that is sustained, intentional, and shaped by daily engagement with place.
Course-connected encounters with Florence’s living culture (studios, archives, neighborhoods, and daily life)
Accommodations and transportation coordinated to support steady rhythms of study
Pre-program consultations that align academic goals with on-the-ground realities and opportunities
Recruitment and enrollment support with streamlined registration and clear communications
Experienced on-site staff offering attentive, individualized student support
24/7 health, safety, and emergency infrastructure with established protocols
Local network of English-speaking healthcare providers and reliable referral pathways
Orientations and cultural context sessions that prepare students to engage respectfully and deeply
From shared inquiry to lived experience
We begin by understanding your pedagogical goals and how they might take shape within Florence's academic and cultural landscape.
FSFA’s faculty, scholars, and local collaborators shape each program, bringing depth through lived practice—so experiences are not “added on,” but integral to the curriculum.
Student safety and wellbeing are foundational to how we operate—supporting learning that is steady, humane, and sustainable.
Interested in developing a program that takes shape within FSFA’s academic community and Florence’s living culture? Share your goals, and we’ll propose a path that aligns visiting faculty leadership with FSFA’s rooted, practice-led approach.
Taking shape in conversation with place
Your program will appear here as we build it together
Interested in developing a program that takes shape within FSFA's academic community and Florence's living culture? We'll explore your goals together and propose a path that aligns visiting faculty leadership with our rooted, practice-led approach.
To begin: How long would you like your program to be?