Seven days, six nights at a gorgeous private villa in the vineyards below Etna. Long Sicilian lunches, the mountain, the sea, time to do absolutely nothing, and Italian running through all of it.
The villa
Dimora Cottanera sits among the vineyards on the northern slopes of Etna, the Cambria family's country house restored as a beautiful twelve-room retreat. The rooms are spread between the original villa, courtyard and garden, with old rural buildings, lava stone and the estate's historic wine press sitting comfortably alongside the contemporary restoration.
Outside, the vineyards stretch towards the mountain, with an infinity pool overlooking them and enough space for the week to slow down properly. This is ours for six nights: breakfast in the morning, the pool when we come home, long dinners at the villa and nowhere else we need to be.
The week, day by day
This is a sample itinerary and may shift slightly with the season, the weather and what our partners can offer on the day.
A transfer from Catania, and then nothing you have to do. Bags down, time to settle into the villa, swim, unpack or simply stop for a while. Aperitivo as everyone comes together, followed by the first long dinner of the week. By the time you head to bed, Sicily has properly begun.
A transfer from Catania, and then nothing you have to do. Bags down, time to settle into the villa, swim, unpack or simply stop for a while. Aperitivo as everyone comes together, followed by the first long dinner of the week. By the time you head to bed, Sicily has properly begun.
A private morning high on Etna with a volcanologist, in Italian: lava fields, old craters and the extraordinary landscape of the volcano. Then a long lunch on the mountain, the kind that quietly takes the afternoon with it. Back at the villa, nothing is scheduled: the pool, the shade, and dinner when you are ready for it.
The morning starts at the market: what is good today, what we are buying and what we are going to do with it. Then a private cooking session with a Sicilian cook, followed by the lunch we have made. The afternoon is deliberately empty: the pool, a treatment, a book or nothing. Dinner is out, somewhere local, on a terrace.
A private yacht for the day along the Sicilian coast. Swimming, quiet coves and long stretches of doing absolutely nothing. Lunch is aboard: Sicilian, generous, with wine and Champagne, and the afternoon disappears somewhere between the water and the shade. Back at the villa in the late afternoon, with dinner at home that evening.
A slow morning at the villa before heading into Etna wine country for a private tasting with food alongside it. These are wines grown in black volcanic soil, shaped by the same landscape we walked through earlier in the week. There is time to taste properly, talk, stay a little longer over lunch and let the day take its time. Dinner afterwards is unhurried.
A private cultural encounter in Taormina, in Italian: the Greek theatre above the sea, the town's history and the stories that have accumulated here over centuries. Lunch, then the afternoon is yours: time to wander, shop, have an aperitivo or head back to the villa before dinner. The week finishes around one exceptional table.
Breakfast on the last morning, one more coffee, the last of the conversations. Bags into the hall, goodbyes, and the cars for the airport.
Languages have always been, for me, a quiet kind of superpower.
I've spent most of my life moving between languages, cultures and places, and nearly fifteen years teaching other people to do the same. But what has kept me fascinated all this time isn't really the language itself. It's what happens because of it. The people you would never otherwise have spoken to. The joke you suddenly understand. The table you become part of. The moment a place stops feeling quite so foreign because, for once, you understand what is happening around you.
That's what I wanted these weeks to capture.
Sicily gives Italian a different kind of energy. It is there in everything: around the table, at the market, on the mountain, in the stories people tell about where they come from and what they make. There is always something worth asking about, and usually someone worth asking. That is what I love about spending a week here. The Italian has a reason to come out. You use it because you want to know something, taste something, understand someone or join the conversation, and little by little it stops feeling like something you have to prepare for.
I'm there with you throughout the week. To coach you when you need it, give you confidence when you hesitate, laugh with you when the Italian goes spectacularly wrong, and spend real time together. More than anything, I want to bring you into the Italian I love: the Italian of people, places, food, stories, jokes and conversations you suddenly find yourself part of. Whether you arrive with a handful of words or years of the language behind you, I'll meet you there.
And somewhere along the way, almost without you noticing, something shifts.
You stop thinking quite so hard about the Italian. You just start speaking it.
What's included
Flights and travel to Sicily; travel insurance, which is required; spa and wellness treatments; and personal spending.
Dates are being confirmed. Register your interest below and you will hear first.
The Founding Circle is reserved for the first four guests to join each new departure. It is not an early-bird discount. It marks the people who choose to be there at the very beginning of a new Learn&Co immersive experience.
Founding Circle guests receive:
Four guests, Maria, one exceptional restaurant and a proper evening together.
Sicily, in full
Kind words
“I wish I could bottle that week.”
I was slightly nervous about coming on my own, mostly because I had no idea who else would be there. I needn’t have been. By the second day we were already laughing about things that had happened that morning and nobody seemed particularly keen for lunch to end.
I loved how easy the days felt. We did loads, but there was still time to swim, have another coffee, sit around talking or do absolutely nothing for a while. And I spoke so much more Italian than I normally would.
I was genuinely sad to leave. I’d made friends, my Italian was better and I’d had an absolutely brilliant holiday.
Before you ask
No. There is no classroom and no timetable of lessons. There are short, informal preparation moments before some of the experiences, picking up the words and expressions that might make what comes next easier. The rest of the week is simply the week, with Maria and a Learn&Co Italian specialist beside you.
Any level, including very little. We ask about your Italian and what you want from the week before you travel, so the support is right for you from the first day.
Nobody is streamed, tested or seated by ability. The support arrives differently depending on where you are: a beginner gets the sentence they need, a more confident speaker gets pushed into the harder conversation.
Absolutely. You can take a room of your own, and the week is designed to work just as naturally for someone travelling alone as for couples or friends.
Yes. Rooms can be shared, and the villa has rooms of several different characters.
Seven days and six nights.
There is a morning on Etna on foot, a market morning, a day on the water and a day in Taormina, which means old streets and steps. The rest of the week is deliberately unhurried.
No. The sessions are entirely optional.
Several afternoons have nothing scheduled in them, and the last afternoon in Taormina is yours. We would rather leave gaps than fill them.
No. Flights and travel insurance are not included.
Group transfers on arrival and departure are included.
Meals across the week are included, from breakfasts and dinners at the villa to lunch aboard the boat and a final gastronomic dinner. Tell us about any dietary requirements when you register and we'll work through them with the chefs and venues.
Rooms run from classic doubles to suites, taken as your own or shared. Preferences are agreed before you travel, and the Founding Circle chooses first.
A conversation about your Italian and what you want from the week, and preparation built around it.
We'll review your request, confirm the dates and your Italian, and make sure the week is right for you. Only then will you be invited to take a place. Nothing is taken at registration.
The other Italian week: a different landscape, the same idea.
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Every Learn&Co week, in France and in Italy.
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