One man believes that he is a former Roman. One is using his music to survive culture shock. Another is a lifelong student. For the next few weeks, though, they are all connected through one common love, the Italian language.

These three men are among the 30 to 40 students from various countries who study Italian at the Atrium-Istituto di Lingua Italiana in Cagli in a typical year. Students come from countries as diverse as Japan, Germany, Holland, China, the Netherlands and North and South Korea, for reasons as varied as their countries.

“Because we are a private school, our students aren’t generally academically oriented. They come for pleasure and hobby,” said Donna Galletta, administrator of the Atrium. Students visit the Atrium for one- to four-week sessions throughout the year to study the Italian language, and art history, Italian literature, Italian economics and politics, and cinema.

The students who study at the Atrium participate in classes with one to five other students. There are few books, as the professors teach mainly by saying and doing. Because the program is an immersion program, the students are completely immersed into Italian culture. They live with host families who speak only Italian and they speak only Italian while in class. Since these students are often unable to speak their native language with others in Cagli, they are able to learn and accept Italian language and culture at a much faster pace.

John Swenneker hails from a small town about 100 kilometers from Amsterdam. The tall man, with a penchant for joking with his professors, has spent most of his life helping banks to change their computer system processes. Swenneker studied for five years to earn a business degree in the Netherlands. But his greatest love is the city of Rome.

He has also traveled to the United States, France, Sweden, Britain, Germany, and Austria, and he can speak French, German, English, and Dutch. His favorite part of traveling is studying the culture and history of the places he visits.

He has been to Italy seven times. Most of his traveling has been concentrated in the north, where his favorite two regions are Toscana and Umbria, but Swenneker loves Rome so much so that he believes that he may have been a Roman in a former life. He says that the first time he visited, he felt as if he were home.

Swenneker chose to study at the Atrium rather than in Rome because he wanted to avoid large classes in the big cities. He found the Atrium while searching online for a Netherlands agency also called Atrium when the Cagli Atrium popped up.

Swenneker lives in a studio apartment above a family in Cagli. While in Cagli he likes visiting neighboring towns like Assisi and Gubbio. He especially likes Gubbio because it still looks like a medieval village.

One reason he studies Italian that music is one of his hobbies. He plays the keyboard, the bass guitar and the drums, and he is very interested in Italian music. He says that Italian is a musical language, like a song.

“Italians have a passion with which they live. The Italians say ‘Cosi, cosi,” he says. In Italian, “Cosi, cosi” literally means “So, so,” the term is often used to portray the feeling of, “It’s ok, don’t worry.” It is this laid-back passion for an enjoyable life that attracts him to the Italian culture.