Italian

Italian is the language of Dante, Petrarch, Leonardo da Vinci, and Verdi, the tongue in which the Renaissance found its voice and in which some of the most enduring achievements of European civilisation were expressed. Studying Italian at degree level means developing deep fluency in a living language spoken by some 60 million people, while also engaging with a literary, artistic, musical, and cultural heritage of extraordinary richness. It means reading Machiavelli's political thinking alongside contemporary Italian fiction, watching Fellini and Rossellini as well as the latest Italian cinema, and understanding the complex history of a country that unified late, was scarred by fascism, and remains one of Europe's most dynamic and contradictory societies.

At the University of Edinburgh, this four-year full-time programme takes you to an advanced level in Italian across all four skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. You will develop rigorous linguistic competence alongside the critical tools needed to engage with Italian literature and culture at a sophisticated level. Edinburgh's Italian programme benefits from strong academic expertise and the university's broader commitment to modern languages, and the city provides a lively intellectual environment in which to develop your studies.

Italian graduates from Edinburgh and similar institutions enter the job market with a range of options. International business with a presence in Italy, cultural institutions, publishing houses, fashion and design companies, and organisations working in the arts all recruit Italian speakers. Diplomacy, the civil service, journalism, and the European Union are further destinations.

Translation and interpreting, both literary and professional, are established career paths. Teaching Italian, whether in schools, language schools, or private practice, is a significant employment area. Postgraduate study in Italian studies, comparative literature, European cultural policy, or translation is a natural next step for those who want to specialise or pursue academic careers.