AEF Sustainability Week 2026:

Deepening Commitment to Environmental and Cultural Responsibility 

March 9–12, 2026 | Florence, Italy

From March 9 to March 12, 2026, Accademia Europea di Firenze willhostits second annualSustainability Week, an immersive four-day event that brings environmental responsibility to the heart of education.This year’s Sustainability Week reflects AEF’s deepening commitment to sustainability not as a slogan, but as a lived experience across disciplines, daily practices, and global perspectives.

THE ARRIVAL

I didn’t know a city could look at me before I learned how to see it. 
Before I understood how to love it, Florence was already reading my soul. 
I arrived with my soul wrapped in silence, 
with words I didn’t yet know how to say to myself. 
I didn’t come to find anything. 
I came, perhaps, to lose myself. 
And in that losing… 
I began to recognize myself. 
And I ended up finding parts of me I didn’t know were waiting to be seen.

When I first stepped into the Accademia Europea di Firenze (AEF), I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I knew I would be studying in a new city, meeting new people, and navigating unfamiliar routines, but I had no idea how much this experience would shape the way I see myself and the world around me. Looking back now, my time at AEF was far more than an academic programme; it was a period of personal expansion, self-reflection, and genuine growth.

A typical day as an AEF student in Florence begins quietly, with the soft morning light settling over the city as I make my way to school for 9am Italian class. There’s something about walking through Florence that already puts you in the right mindset for learning a new language. The streets feel calm at that hour, the tourists haven’t fully woken up yet, and the cafés are just opening their doors. By the time I reach class, I’m somewhere between awake and still shaking off sleep, but Italian grammar waits for no one.

There are places you visit, and places that become a part of you. For me, Accademia Europea di Firenze (AEF) very quickly became the latter. When I arrived in Florence, I expected to learn Italian, experience the city, and maybe meet a few new people. What I didn’t expect was to find myself woven into a constantly changing, intergenerational community that felt more like a family than a school.