Danielle Randall student of Ole Miss - University of Mississippi tells in Chicago about her amazing experince in Salerno

Growing up, I always had a fascination about Italy: the culture, the food, the history, and the people. When I started college at the University of Mississippi in the United States, I was thrilled to learn they offered an Italian minor with the option of taking your intermediate level courses in Italy. Studying at Accademia Italiana and living in Salerno was one of the best decisions I ever made.

During my time studying at Accademia Italiana, we had tours to see the ancient ruins of Paestum and Pompeii. We visited museums in Naples, historic churches and cathedrals, and a medieval castle. We had tours of a mozzarella cheese factory, a ceramic factory, and we even learned how limoncello is made. Most of these excursions are arranged and planned by the school. If you're interested in doing something outside of these planned excursions the staff is more than willing to assist you in planning any travel arrangements and excursions of your choice.

At Accademia Italiana, the lessons are very high quality. The instructors are very patient and work with you on your efforts to learn Italian. They made the classes very fun and interactive with games, songs, movies, and lessons on a nearby pier. The staff takes great personal care of their students. If you have any room and board problems or concerns, they will step in and make sure all is well.

Salerno is a great city to study with amazing sightseeing. The city is in close proximity to other beautiful and charming cities. Amalfi is about a 45-minute ferry ride away, Positano is about an hour, and Capri is about 2 hours. The city is also close to Ravello and Sorrento.

Living in Salerno is pretty inexpensive with low outside expenses like lunch and dinner being reasonably priced. Lunch at some places can be as low as £3 - £5 per meal. Of course, nicer restaurants will cost you more but if you are on a strict budget it is definitely feasible for you to eat in Salerno on a conservative budget.

If you want to study abroad and get school credit like me, Accademia Italiana will work with you to ensure your language class meets your home institutions language curriculum. I was able to earn two-semester credits of intermediate Italian in just four weeks.

Overall, I had such an amazing experience studying at Accademia Italiana and living in Salerno that I decided to enroll in a six-month language course and internship program upon my graduation in May. In the morning, I will be enhancing my Italian skills and in the afternoon I will be assisting the marketing team with their promotional campaigns and projects.