Tarmo in Italy

Last week we travelled to Italy, Saluzzo to take part in a students exchange program. We arrived there on Wednesday and stayed there for a week. When we arrived in Saluzzo I was nervous, because my Italian host wasn’t there among other Italians. Luckily he arrived and everything was fine. His name is Alessandro and he is a cool guy. His family was very kind and welcomed me with warm hearts.

Whole exchange program was full of interesting moments and beautiful sights. On one day we had a tour of the beautiful city of Torino. 

 













 
The next day we went to the mountains and gazed upon the glorious landscape of Northern Italy. 

 Later we had a lasagne which was very tasty. 
On Saturday there was a small concert in Saluzzo and we visited market. Later that night we went to another town where there was a street party which was very cool and exhausting. Next day I hooked up with some Estonians and their hosts and we went to a river to barbecue. The weather was very hot and some of us had sunburn. The barbecue meat was tasty. 
On Monday everybody jumped in a bus and set course to Noli, which is a beautiful city at the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The water was very warm for Estonians so it was a relief that we could swim there. The view was also breathtaking and will stay in my memories for a long time. Tuesday was the last day of the program and it started in the school. 
We danced some folk dances and it made us sweat. 

Then we set course to Torino and flew to Frankfurt where we waited for 5 hours to catch a flight to Riga. The program ended when we all arrived in Kanepi.

The program was full of surprises and amazing moments. On many occasions the Estonians met up in Saluzzo at night and had a fun time. I will miss the beautiful nature and landscape and most of all I am going to miss the tasty Italian food, which consisted of pasta, pasta, pasta, pasta, pizza, pasta and lasagne. I hope that the students exchange programs will stay a tradition in Kanepi Gymnasium.

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.

Impressions from Kristen Kalev

My emotions of this exchange are very positive – except the fact that I have burned all my skin. From this trip I learned that Italian food is the best and the coffee is just amazing.

I stayed in the little farm and I was hosted by Tommaso. The family was very kind and they worried a bit too much. They had 6 cows, 3 dogs and many grass fields. The parents of Tommaso were doing farm work all day. Mainly I saw them making hay. It is very warm there and thanks to it potatoes are seeded 2 months before Estonians do it and the grain is almost ready.

Here was always very warm, even in the evenings and the nature was unbelievably stunning. It felt like Estonia´s midsummer. I was never bored there because Italians are very awesome and we had much to do all the time.

Every evening we had some typical Italian food and wine. All the dishes tasted very good – the only good pizza is in Italy and not to mention, Pasta – the best.