Yeah, the southern part of Switzerland is pretty much Italian. I went to Lugano for the weekend (awesome place btw) and it was pretty much all italian-speaking.
(1) The language school was awesome. Seriously one of the best things i have ever done in my life. The school was located in an old palazzo right in the centre of the city. I had classes five days a week from 9am-12:30pm, with a 15 minute break in between at 11am. Some of my friends had classes starting in the afternoon, but they were for a more advanced level. The entire class is conducted in italian and english/other languages are pretty much forbidden. It takes a little while to get used to this but i found it to be a superior way to learn the language. All of the teachers were excellent and the whole course was very professional. I was there for ten weeks and the total cost was approximately €1500. Not cheap, but worth every cent.
(2) It was a little bit challenging for the first week or so, but after that i didn't really have many problems. Italian is one of the simplest european languages to pick up and a few simple phrases will get you by.
Una birra, per favore,
grazie,
parla inglese? vorrei..... (I would like.....) etc are easy enough to learn. The language school organised an apartment for me with a great landlord called Tony who spoke english the day before i started classes so that made things easier. Bologna is not as touristy as places like Rome or Florence so english is less widely spoken. However, people at the Vodafone shop, my taxi-driver etc spoke some english so it was OK.
(3) I met lots of young people through the school, flatmates, friend's flatmates etc so i had an excellent social circle while i was there. Going to class five days a week with people in a foreign city, you quickly make friends and find some people to hang out with. I made lots of great friends from Sweden, Germany, England, Switzerland, Brazil and even some aussies through the school. Most of the students are girls, and hot.
I also met a few italian friends who i still keep in contact with, including my old flatmate Giordano who i will be staying with again when i go back this year.
(4) Un****ingbelievable. Italian women are amazing. All of them look like they stepped straight out of the pages of a fashion magazine. Dark hair and dark eyes =
for me. Sexiest women in the world IMO
(5) Readily available. The school had 5 computers with free internet but not really a place where you can sit 8-tabling Pokerstars all day. The main town square in Bologna had a free wireless hotspot so i always saw lots of people with their laptops surfing the net. The main mobile networks in Italy (3, Vodafone, Wind, Tim) have some good deals on wireless internet, that would probably be the best way to go.