Practice Italian in Florence with Real Native Speakers
Erasmus term ending, your tandem partner moves away, aperitivo hour never lines up. Practice Italian from Florence, on video, on your own schedule.
Create your free accountNo card needed. Exchanges between members are always free.
Florence is full of people who want to speak Italian and can't find enough hours to do it. Erasmus students packed into via Bologna dorms are gone by December or June. American study-abroad kids from the Lorenzo de' Medici or SACI programs stick to English with each other in Santo Spirito. Locals in San Niccolò or Le Cure work regular hours and only free up around aperitivo time, 7 to 9pm, when everyone's out but nobody's actually sitting down to correct your subjunctive.
Even when you do find someone, Florence makes logistics annoying: the historic center is walkable but small and clogged with tourists near the Duomo and Ponte Vecchio, so a lot of people actually live out in Scandicci, Sesto Fiorentino near the engineering campus, or across the river past Porta Romana. A 'quick coffee to practice' turns into a tram ride on the T1 each way, and half the meetups planned on some Facebook exchange group get cancelled the day of because someone's stuck at Novoli for a lecture.
Doing it by video removes the geography problem entirely. You get a fixed slot with a native speaker or a language partner instead of hoping the right person shows up at the right bar this week, and you're not losing forty minutes to the tramvia just to get thirty minutes of actual conversation.
Words you will actually hear
| Here | Elsewhere | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Icché | Cosa | "What" — the classic Florentine question word, used constantly and completely absent outside Tuscany. |
| Bischero | Sciocco / stupido | A fool, but affectionate; also the name of a street near the Duomo (via de' Bischeri). |
| Grullo | Ingenuo / stupido | Naive or a bit silly, said more with pity than insult. |
| Ganzo | Fico / bello | Cool, neat — used for a person, an idea, or a thing. |
| Bimbo/a | Bambino/a | Kid — but Florentines use it loosely for teenagers and even young adults, half-joking. |
| Aoh | Ehi | An interjection to grab someone's attention, said constantly on the street. |
| La hasa (for "la casa") | La casa | The gorgia toscana: Florentines soften the hard C into an H sound, the accent's most recognizable feature. |
| Bono | Buono | Good, or hot/attractive when describing a person — drops the U from buono. |
| Un ci vengo | Non ci vengo | "I'm not coming" — Florentine speech often drops the initial "non" down to just "un". |
Classes coming up
Times in your own time zone. This list changes every day.
Exchanges looking for a partner
How it works here
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Sign up and say your level
Two minutes. If you do not know your level, we place you in the first class.
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Pick a class or an exchange
Classes are led by a native teacher. An exchange is with another member: half the time in their language, half in yours.
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Join by video, nothing to install
From your phone or your computer. If you cannot make it, cancel and get your place back.
Questions about this
What time do people actually show up to practice?
Most locals are free after work, so evenings around 7 to 9pm fill up fastest, same window as aperitivo. Students and remote workers tend to have more flexible daytime slots, especially outside exam periods in January and May-June.
Do I need to meet in person somewhere in Florence?
No. Everything runs on video, which matters here because half the people worth practicing with live out past Scandicci or up near Sesto Fiorentino, not walking distance from the center. You just book a slot and log on.
What level of Italian do I need to join?
Any level. Group classes are organized by level with a native teacher guiding the session, and one-to-one exchanges get matched so both people can actually hold a conversation without one side carrying it.
How does the cost work?
The small-group classes with a native teacher are paid, since you're getting a professional running the session. The one-to-one exchanges between members are reciprocal instead: half an hour in your target language, half an hour in theirs, so there's no fee involved on that side.
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