Hi,
I am fairly new to bonsai and I was thinking of going to the "Bonsai university" at the Crespi centre in Parabiago and wondered whether anyone has heard anything (good or bad) about it or even been there.
Their courses go over a year and you have four weekends distributed over the year where you attend. They give you bonsai material to work on and apply what they have taught you in theory. You take the trees home with you and take them back for each new lesson.
I very much like the idea that you have trees that you keep on working during the course so that there is a continuous follow-up with the material you worked on and you can see and learn what you did right or wrong rather than going to different work shops where there is no "curriculum" that builds up on what you know. I don't speak Italian but they said that that was not a problem...
Here is their site if anyone is interested:
http://www.crespibonsai.it/eng/crespicup2004.htm
Regards, Ravenna