Help A Family In Italy Learn English

    Live like a local with a screened host family and receive free room and board.

    Tutor In Italy

    Overview

    Tutor English abroad in Italy and live as a local for 1 to 3 months when you help a family in Italy learn English. Don’t worry if you’ve never done this before!  Your new host family is more interested in learning conversational English than they are grammar.  You'll have so much fun living in Italy by simply speaking English the way you normally do at home. Also, you have a unique opportunity to learn or improve your Italian! In a matter of hours, you're walking around your new community like a real Italian citizen. It won’t take long for the locals to start recognizing you and for you to consider your host community your new, temporary home.  It’s real and authentic. Get to know the locals.  Wake up each day and feel a connection.

    Immersion And Sustainable Culture

    This is an immersion opportunity to learn Italian and enjoy the Italian culture and food for 1, 2 or 3 months. You'll live as a local with a carefully screened host family and you'll become a part of the community. This is not an "Airbnb" experience for a few days where you live locally but as a tourist. You're an invited guest for at least a month or longer.

    What really happens? Genuine engagement, not just commoditized “experiences.” You'll live as a local. You won't live locally as a tourist in an apartment.

    For up to 15 hours a week, you'll speak to the family in conversational English. In return, you'll receive free room (a private one for you) and board. Typically families are looking for you to speak English with them over a meal or for a certain amount of time during the day.

    Fee

    $1,129

    Visa

    You will enter Italy on a tourist visa. 

    Start Dates

    Flexible. Actual arrival date is coordinated between you and your host family. Positions available year round. (Starting in August or December is not usually available.)

    Eligibility

    • At a minimum, be 18 years of age. We also place a lot of mature travelers looking for a different way to travel and connect with new people and explore different cultures.
    • Be a native English speaker.
    • Hold a passport from the USA, UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand or Australia.

    Costs

    $1,129

    The fee you pay to tutor in Italy goes to our 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity, The GeoVisions Foundation. Be sure to speak to your tax preparer to see if any of these fees can be deducted as a charitable donation. The fee partially covers the cost of providing accommodation, meals, insurance and pre-departure & in-country support while you're in Italy. 

    What We Include

    • Personalized placement with a carefully screened host family. In other words, a place to call home in Italy.  Our unique matching system ensures a great fit.
    • A comfortable private bedroom for the duration of the program.
    • Meals each day except when you’re not at the host home.
    • Local support in Italy.
    • Pre-departure materials.
    • Comprehensive medical insurance if you’re from the US.
    • Italian language immersion through your host family.

    What's Not Included

    • Your flight to Italy.
    • Meals when you travel or go out on your own.
    • Spending money for personal expenses, when you travel or optional activities.

    FAQ

    Please call us on +1 (203) 453-5838 if you have questions.

    We are asked the same questions each day, so we hope this page of Frequently Asked Questions will be helpful to you. Anyone in our office can answer your questions anytime you call. We want you to made informed decisions and we will be happy to talk to you anytime.

    How does GeoVisions choose families in Italy?

    Host families contact us because they want to provide room and board to a native English speaker who will help them with their conversational English.  When there are children in the family, mostly they need help with their English homework, but many times the adults want to join in as well.

    Families are screened. They have to show a need and a desire to host an English tutor.  And they have to pass a background check, an interview by staff in Italy and agree to a home inspection and provide photos of the home (inside and out).  Tutors are promised their own private room but there are times a bathroom might be shared. Families provide meals except when the tutor is traveling.

    Does GeoVisions provide materials to help me be successful? How am I supported?

    Tutoring information is available on the GeoVisions mobile app.  We encourage tutors to also be creative and find tutoring techniques that they are comfortable using and the match well with the host family members that they are tutoring.

    Can I choose my location?

    For the most authentic experience living each day in Italy, you cannot choose your exact location. What you can do is tell us the area where you’d like to be and whether or not you’d like a large city, a small town or rural placement.  And we’ll try our best.  Remember … the host families choose us when they need a live-in tutor and so timing is everything.  There are many locations that you may not have considered prior to applying that are fantastic places in Italy.  (We can tell you about many tutors that have loved their locations!)

    What if I don’t like my placement when I arrive or I have host family issues? Can I move?

    Before you depart, we connect you via email, phone and Skype with your new host family. You’ll have all the details you want before you ever leave home.  GeoVisions spends a great deal of time on match-making. There needs to be a “connection” between you and your host family.

    After you arrive if you begin having issues with your host family, we have a way to start the process to fix things or, change your placement, if necessary. This is extremely rare, but we’ve done this long enough to know things can come up on all sides.

    Can I be placed with someone? I’d like to travel with a friend.

    Unfortunately, host families needing a tutor generally have the room for one extra person in the home. So we are unable to provide a homestay for anyone except the tutor. If you want to apply with someone else, they would be placed with another family. We would try hard to find a host family so you would be close to one another, but we could not guarantee that. If you’re set on traveling with someone, take a look at our other program types, because we do have those kinds of placements.  Give us a call and ask.

    Gallery

    Here are a handful of photos to give you a sense of this program.

    You can also find more photos, stories, and video through our Facebook Page, Instagram and YouTube channels and our Blog.

    As you view more photos and video, consider the program benefits. A second home with new friends, becoming more independent and confident, improving your Italian since you're now living like a local and helping your host family realize their goals of speaking English. Add an international reference to your resume which helps with future job applications because of your experience tutoring English to a family in Italy and you're ahead of the game.

    What Our Home Tutors Say (Click to see all reviews on GoAbroad.com)

    10 Rating With 5 Starts T

    I am on the program now and wanted to write that things are going really well here, I couldn't be happier with my placement!The family is so friendly and accommodating and the kids are adorable. The tutoring is very informal, mostly I go with my host mother to pick up my host brother and sister from school, then spend time with them in the afternoon and evening and help with any English homework they have.I'm really happy to be in Rome, it's a huge city with so much to see! I don't know now if two months will be enough :)

    2 Months Not Enough Time! Jaime, July 31, 2018

    9 Rating With 4 half stars T

    I couldn't have asked for better! They were really understanding with my travel arrangements because I got sick before getting to Italy. They were friendly and accommodating , they really made me feel like one of the family. Can't wait to hang out with them again, either in Italy or Australia. Definitely recommend the whole experience, except it is harder for Australians then USA with organizing details due to time difference.

    Great Memories For A Life Time! Jenine, September 17, 2018

    10 Rating With 5 Starts T

    I'm an older participant and was worried that GeoVisions was too geared for the younger crowd. I was pleasantly surprised at how eager Marybeth was to have me in the program and she placed me in Northern Italy, with a great family. They offered to include me on a lot of things they did, but I also wanted my own time to explore Italy and be on my own.If you're older and you want to do this program, GeoVisions will take you. Just make sure you're upfront with your host family in the beginning that while you want to be there with them, you might take off for a few weekends and go off on your own. It also provides some needed space between you and the family.The kids I tutored thought of me as their Grandpa, and that was fine with me. I always felt included and I highly recommend the experience for an older crowd, not just a younger one.

    Go With The North. Isley, August 17, 2018

    10 Rating With 5 Starts T

    Since I have done a month abroad in the past, I am very aware that the experience can be wonderful or disastrous. In this situation, it has been absolutely wonderful. From the moment of my arrival, my host has done everything possible to make me feel at home. She is very competent in all matters of housekeeping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. therefore, I always felt very comfortable and cared for. She has been very willing to share her culture with me and made my stay here very interesting. She is also a very good student. I feel that we have accomplished a lot in my time here.Also, my host is a very caring and loving person. She has always taken into consideration the fact that I am old enough to be her mother, and has been very patient with my health issues. I can't say enough good about her. GeoVisions did such an excellent job of matching me with her. I will always be grateful for the opportunity to get to know her and her father, and I wish for many wonderful and amazing things to come her way as a result of her desire and effort to learn English.

    Absolutely Wonderful. Barnette, May 17, 2018

    10 Rating With 5 Starts T

    Well my program was truly amazing! I loved every minute of it, loved the town I was in, the family and oh goodness the food. I got to better my Italian and learn some dialect as well, I left family there when I came back :). Aside from teaching the two boys, I got to volunteer at a local elementary school and made amazing friends there. :) during my free time I also got to travel around and took sooo many pictures ...

    Oh Goodness The Food. Daniel, September 16, 2018