Study Abroad in Rome: Housing and Meals

Share a room in student apartments or live as a paying guest in a private Italian home. Accommodations are located in different areas of the city. You will receive meal vouchers to subsidize breakfast and lunch (or dinner) Monday through Friday at selected restaurants, cafés and food stores (except during trips). Housing is a 30 to 45-minute direct bus or underground ride from the Richmond Study Center. You should budget approximately 40 euros for an unlimited monthly pass on the bus and underground system.

Phones and internet access are not provided in the apartments. Students are encouraged to purchase a cell phone to share with roommates for approximately 30 euros or rent one locally for a reasonable cost.

Paying guest in an Italian home

You will live in a double or single room in an apartment with a key so you can come and go as you wish in respect of other family members. There is privacy for study and yet there is also a certain amount of contact with the Italian hosts. A large number of Italian apartments are occupied by a single person, so you are likely to be housed with a single woman or professional couple. Only a few housing arrangements are possible with families with young children. In many homes, students have use of the bedroom, bathroom and limited use of the kitchen. Italian hosts do not usually allow free use of the entire apartment. Living in Italian families offers the most linguistic and cultural benefits while in Rome. The fee is based on a twin bedded room shared with another AIFS student.

Student Apartments

These are located in different areas of the city center, in buildings where other Italians live. By living in an Italian residence, you will be exposed to an immersed Italian experience, participate in the local everyday life in Italy and establish relationships with other Italians in the building. Each apartment is privately owned and is unique in atmosphere, size, design, facilities, floor plan, and number of bedrooms.

A typical apartment will be shared with 2-7 other AIFS students and contain a combination of double (2 students per room) or triple (3 students per room) bedrooms. Up to four students will share one bathroom, and all students share the kitchen, sitting area, and washing machine.

Each apartment is equipped with: basic kitchen supplies, furnishings, blankets, two sets of sheets per student. Apartments are not equipped with: towels, telephones (students can rent a cell phone for a reasonable price), clothes dryers (Italians use clothes lines), Internet, air conditioning.

AIFS always arranges the best accommodation available for students. Housing assignments are finalized before students arrive in Rome and are based on preferences listed on online housing forms. Students’ personal data and addresses in Rome are registered with the local police upon arrival in accordance with Italian anti-terrorism laws.