Welcome to our new website and we hope that you will enjoy reading about our activities.
Friends of Italian at Kent, welcomes anyone with a love of Italian culture, arts and language. Join their programme of talks, events and meetings for conversations in Italian.
To join the mailing list, attend a talk and/or subscribe to Friends of Italian at Kent click here
The Italian Society 'Friends of Italian at Kent' was set up in 1994 by members of the Italian degree course at the University of Kent, in order to pursue their passion for all aspects of Italian culture, language, history and all arts.
Six speakers were invited per year to talk to the members, plus other activities, which appealed to the wider public in Canterbury and beyond.
After the first Chairman Sarah Wheeler, and her Treasurers stepped down in (2024), their places are now taken up by Patricia Erskine-Hill and Valerie Ainscough. The same format of speakers and events, as well as Italian conversation sessions, continues.
Subscriptions: £30 pp or £50 couple
Talks are free to subscribers and £5 for guests
subscribe here
Talks and Events
2025 - 2026
23 October 2025
SARAH QUILL
A Room with a View: filming in Florence with Merchant Ivory
27 November 2025
ELIZABETH BUCHAN
Best Selling Novelist
Writing in a foreign land: Two Women of Rome
10 January (Sat) 2026
Lunch to Celebrate 'La Befana'
Café du Soleil
4-6 Pound Lane, Canterbury CT1 2BZ
22 January 2026
DR. JULIAN WALTHO
Chair, Canterbury Historical Association
Reinventing the White War: WW1 as presented by Italian cinema
26 February 2026
ROSS KING
Author; history and art history
Leonardo and the Last Supper
26 March 2026
DR MAGDALEN EVANS
Arts Society Lecturer and Citizens' Advice Witness
An Italian Honeymoon: Marianne and Adrian Stokes
28 May 2026
DR ALISON BARKER
University of Exeter
St George in Venice: Carpaccio's cycle at La Scuola degli Schiavoni
18 June 2026
SUMMER GARDEN PARTY
8 Cherry Avenue, Canterbury CT1 3AX