Study Abroad in Rome: Housing & Meals

During your time in Rome, you will live in either a shared room in an apartment or as a paying guest in a private home. Housing assignments are based on housing requests submitted to AIFS at the time of acceptance. Student housing is not co-ed.

Student apartments

These are located in different areas of the city center, in buildings where other Italians live. By living in an Italian residence, and not in a dorm, you will be immersed in the Italian life and establish relationships with other Italian natives 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 to 8 other AIFS-Richmond 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 purchase a cell phone for a reasonable price), clothes dryers (Italians use clothes lines), Internet, air conditioning.

All apartments are located within 30- to 45-minute transit (by metro, bus and/or foot) to the Study Center.

Upon arrival you must pay a deposit of approximately 320 euros for utilities directly to the landlord. Please note this fee is per person, not per apartment.

Paying guest in an Italian home

As a guest you will have a key to the apartment and can come and go as you wish. 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. In many homes, students have the use of only the bedroom, bathroom and limited use of the kitchen. Italian hosts do not usually allow free use of the entire apartment. The program fee is based on a twin-bedded room shared with another AIFS student. Students in Italian homes do not pay for utilities.

AIFS always arranges the best accommodation available for students. Changes in housing will be considered only in the event of health and safety issues.

Meal allowance

You will receive meal vouchers for 10 meals per week (five breakfasts plus five lunches or dinners per week). Vouchers can be used in a large number of restaurants, cafés, food stores and supermarkets.