My wife is wanting to look into hosting a student from Italy for the next school year.
Any advice, or things to look into/out for with it?

Thanks.

It has been some time, but I have had AFS students from Mexico, Argentina, and Russia before. Email me directly if you want to chat.

Had “exchange students” from Mexico break into cabin at the ranch many times. I wasn’t hosting them, either. At least not intentionally.

My parents had hosted German students a few times and in most cases it was a good experience and they kept in touch/still keep in touch. The only one that was mildly negative was when they got a girl who was a complete introvert and really just preferred to be left alone which was a little awkward at times but she also did not bathe often (ever) and had bad BO.

Thanks, we hit a bit of a hitch, in that the new high school (first year open for the next school year) for our house isn't taking any exchange students for next year. So, the idea may be DOA, my wife is checking the school we're zoned to currently.

A girl I dated in college originally came here as a high school exchange student.

She came back looking for a husband, but luckily I managed to escape. Another US citizen was not so lucky.

Moving forward, current HS is taking exchange students.
Should make for an interesting experience.

We hosted a German exchange student when I was about 13. It motivated me to learn German and I went to Germany as an exchange student when I was 16. I still keep in touch with a lot of those folks and go back just about every year. My oldest friend, who is a woman from Austria, was in our exchange student's group back in 1984. We've visited each other 20-30 times over the years and her teenage son is coming to visit AZ in a few weeks.

OP, if you have no kids, I don't really see the point in hosting an exchange student, especially if it's a female. Lots of potential for issues there. But it can be such a great experience if you have kids of your own who are curious about the world and foreign languages. It was the best thing I ever did.

We hosted a German exchange student some years back. He was actually born in Romania.

It was a good experience.

We also hosted a French exchange student for a summer. He did not speak a whole lot of English and my French was really rusty. It did not go too badly.