Ancoats was once called Little Italy – Manchester’s ice-cream makers and organ builders came straight from the peninsula. Join them in spirit with live online Italian lessons taught by a native Sicilian.
Looking for an Italian tutor in Manchester? Lessons are one-to-one over Microsoft Teams, tailored to you — complete beginner, GCSE revision, holiday Italian or reconnecting with the family language. As a private Italian tutor I charge £30 an hour, with no travel time and no course-book padding: we spend the whole lesson actually speaking.
Learn Italian from anywhere in the UK with live online lessons taught by Laura — a native Italian speaker from Sicily with over 20 years’ teaching experience, fully qualified with QTS, a PGCE and the Cambridge CELTA.
How online lessons work
- Live video lessons — real conversation with a real teacher, not an app
- One-to-one tuition — £30/hour, scheduled around you, Monday to Friday
- Small group courses — £15 per 1.5-hour session, 10-week terms from £150
- Interactive materials — custom resources, BookWidgets and Kahoot activities, all provided
Who they’re for
- Complete beginners building the foundations
- Improvers and returners who want structured conversation practice
- Students preparing for IB Diploma, GCSE or A-level Italian examinations
- Anyone with Italian family, travel plans, or a love of the language
Every lesson is tailored to your goals and level. As a specialist SEN-trained teacher, Laura is particularly experienced at supporting learners who find languages daunting — and at making every session genuinely enjoyable.
Ready to start? Get in touch for a free chat about your level and goals, or meet Laura in her welcome video — wherever you are in the UK.
Ready to start? Join the 10-week online beginners’ course — starts 16 September (£150)
Not ready yet? Grab the free 50 Essential Italian Phrases PDF
“Laura is a great teacher — warm, friendly, knowledgeable and encouraging. I really like the style of the lessons with a combination of conversation and worked exercises.”
— Jess Read all my Google reviews →
Manchester’s Italian connection
Manchester’s Italian story lives in Ancoats, once known as Little Italy — a heritage officially recognised with a plaque in December 2021. By the turn of the century, around seventy Italian ice-cream vendors worked here, founding the city’s ice cream trade; one of them, Antonio Valvona, patented the biscuit cup in 1902 — the earliest known patent for an edible ice cream container, and a forerunner of the cone.
Family and gelato — it all feels beautifully Sicilian to me. Learning Italian here isn’t starting something new; it’s picking up a thread the city has carried for generations.
Common questions
Do you offer in-person Italian lessons in Manchester, or is it all online?
All my Manchester teaching is online over Microsoft Teams. It’s a proper live lesson, not a video course — just you and me, talking, correcting and laughing in real time. I’m based in Gloucestershire, and teaching online means I can offer times that suit your week.
How much do Italian lessons cost?
£30 an hour for one-to-one lessons, tailored entirely to you. My ten-week online beginners course costs £150 and starts on Wednesday 16 September, 5.00 to 6.30pm — a small group, so everyone gets plenty of speaking time.
My family has Italian roots in Manchester — can you help me reconnect?
Yes, and it would be a joy. Manchester’s Italian story runs deep — Ancoats was once the city’s Little Italy — and I often teach people whose grandparents spoke Italian or dialect at home. We can gently turn those familiar sounds and phrases into a language you truly speak.
Did Manchester really have a Little Italy?
Yes — Ancoats was Manchester’s Little Italy, and a plaque erected in December 2021 officially recognises the community’s place in the city’s heritage. Around seventy Italian ice-cream vendors worked there by the turn of the twentieth century, founding Manchester’s ice cream trade.