Written by Hanna Rahel

I had been waiting very long for trip to Italy. I had been to Greece before so it was not my first flight or trip to a country more far away. My first impression of Italy was that it’s a very warm country. Once we got outside in Italy, I felt the hot air breeze. It was very big contrast to Estonian weather, but I enjoyed it very much. Also the architecture was really cool. Italian houses look much fancier than Estonian and they all looked like proper villas.

I was hosted by Veronica and her family. Because we got along so well in January, we were both really waiting to meet up again. Her family was super nice and cool. She has mother, father, one younger sister, a dog and a cat. The first time I met her family was when they came to pick us both up. They all were there, even their dog  Aldo. Aldo was the star of the family. He is a young, energetic dog that loved to play and get any kind of attention. I even saw Veronica train him.

Their home was very comfy and family was really cool. Because they are Romanians, they mostly spoke in Romanian to each other. Her sister and father did also speak in English, but mother knew only Romanian and Italian. Even though her mother didn’t speak English, I got to communicate with her thanks to Veronica translating. Both of her parents were very nice. Her father the funny, joking type of dad and her mother was super sweet and caring. Also her sister, who’s my age, was really cool.

In Italy the first thing an Estonian probably notices is the landscape. Their mountains/hills are very high and our Munamägi is actually really funny next to them. We went to the mountains, but climbing them was hard. I did have blisters from our way to Italy so it also was a problem that didn’t let me climb for long. Their nature wasn’t as different as I expected. They do have very similar fauna, but they also have some plants and trees that we could only dream of.

One thing that I’ve always liked is Italian food. Although we make it quite often at home, we don’t probably make it in the very correct way. I also noticed that the stereotype of Italians only eating pizza and pasta is pretty true. Even though they call those pizza type foods differently, to me they are the same thing. Eating in Italy was nice but they ate so much. I’m not sure if it was just in my host family, but it felt like we were eating in every five minutes. I can’t complain much, but I did actually get fatter in just one week, so living there longer wouldn’t probably be very good for me.

Overall I enjoyed my stay in Italy a lot. i got tanned, or better to say sunburnt, which I haven’t experienced in forever. I also saw many new things and learned a lot about Italians and their culture. I would with no doubt visit it again and also see Veronica and her family. They were the sweetest and I will miss them very much.