Mari Liis and Italy

When we arrived to Italy then everybody was very excited. It was so hot outside and we wore too warm clothes. In the bus it felt like we were in the sauna. First day was tiring but we were happy. My family was very friendly and kind. They had very big house.

On the second day we had a trip to Torino. The nature was so beautiful. Unfortunately I felt sick but some hours later it was better. I ate in some pizza restaurant with the teachers. 

In the evening we went to Saluzzo to a bar and had fun together with other students.

Also, we went hiking to a big mountain. The view was amazing on the top of the mountain. I felt freedom and happiness because I reached to the top. 

In my opinion, Italians eat healthier than we in Estonia. They have really big fields and fruit gardens. They only had forests in the mountains and it was a bit strange to me.

For two days we were sunbathing. Firstly, on the river and secondly near the Mediterranian sea. The weather was so good and we enjoyed it very much.

I am happy that I had an opportunity to take part of this exchange project and met these cool people from Italy.

Laur writes

We started travelling to Italy on Wednesday, we flew to Torino via Frankfurt. From Torino we took a bus to Saluzzo and after a little welcome-party, I met my host´s parents. 

They were very friendly, but unfortunately, they did not speak any English. My host´s name is Alessandro. At his home I also met his sister.

Alessandro´s family was very generous and caring. During lunch and dinner, they offered me a wide variety of Italian foods. I ate different kinds of pastas, pizzas and also some cheeses. Overall the food was very good, although it was quite different from Estonian food. During dinner I also got to taste wine, which was very good. I love wine.

As the days went by I also learned some Italian words and got to know more about Italy. Alessandro and his sister were very informative, they taught me a lot about Italy. During the last few days I could even understand a little bit Italian, although most of it was through body language.

During our time in Italy, we visited a lot of different places. We visited the Mediterranean Sea; a local river, where we grilled some meat; and the regional mountains. I think I had the most fun in the mountains. It was very thrilling to climb these enormous mountains and afterwards we could even almost slide down from them.

In conclusion I had a very wonderful time in Italy, I think this experience will always stay in my memory. I hope that one day I can come back here.

Emotional Kadri

My week in Italy was by all records extraordinary.  It was an unstoppable flow of unforgettable memories. I felt like I had lived another life for  seven days and it was one very perfect life.

To be honest at first I wasn’t interested in going to Italy at all. For me travelling was something very uncomfortable and unpleasant. I didn’t fancy flying by plane at all and I was rather afraid of airports. It was mostly due to my mother that I agreed to go Italy at all. It must seem very funny- I mean, who wouldn’t want to go to Italy. Well everybody knows I’m kind of odd and I’m also fond to staying at home.

There were other reasons for my lack of interest to going to Italy as well. First of all there had been lots of trips this school year and I had already missed a lot of lessons. I was also going to have my exams this year and I didn’t have much time for preparing. But my mom told me to stop worrying and go to that damn trip and I did as I was told.

Well, it’s seems I need to be very grateful for my mother’s endless demands to go to Italy. Never in my whole life could I have expected to have such a great week.  Every day was a whole new experience.

First of all Italy was mind-blowingly beautiful, where ever you looked it was incredibly pretty.  Starting from the crimson poppy flowers on the road edges and ending with worn-out old villas that had red rooftops. Everything was green and there were roses blooming in the gardens. Coming from the grey spring of Estonia it felt like I had stepped into another season.

The moment I stepped out of the airport in Turin started a bloody battle- Kadri VS Italian weather. Unfortunately I manage heat very badly and it had been a big fear of mine. I stressed for days about what to back to Italy so I would survive. Luckily Italian weather was kind to me and if we don’t count my few sunburns and unfortunate battle with heat in Milano I did very well.

My host was a very energetic girl named Marta. Marta was the most Italian person I could imagine, her voice could be heard over mountains and her profile reminded me of every Italian renaissance painting I had seen. She was also unimaginably kind goodhearted, I felt at home starting from the first day. Marta lived with her mother, so for the most part the household was filled with three women.

My favourite part of Italy was surprisingly the day in the mountains. Mountain hiking wasn’t easy at all. It was quite dangerous and very hard. I am still very surprised that nobody broke a leg or fell down from a high edge. But still I loved it, I loved the feeling of standing on the top of the mountain, I loved the incredible views that opened all around me, I loved the cold wind and I loved the feeling of tiredness in my legs. I felt bit unhuman and I felt unimaginably happy, there was something in the air and there was something on my heart.

I came back from Italy a thousand times richer when I went, I came back with a thousand perfect and beautiful memories. My heart is filled with memories that will stay there for a lifetime. I will forever remember the warm nights in Saluzzo, the perfect day on the beach, the beautiful cathedral in Milano, all the good food at home and all the kind people I met.

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.

Keitlin

The 17^th May was starting nice, when we were ready to start our trip to Saluzzo, Italy. The bus rides and plane flights were boring and exhausting but when we finally saw our Italian friends, then all the bad emotions fade away and we ran to hug them. We ate some of their traditional food and then we got to our houses.

I was hosted by Michela and her super nice family. They welcomed me with warm and lovely greetings. Even though her parents couldn’t speak English, then Michela was nice to translate sentences between us. I also loved all of Michela’s siblings and friends, specially her sister Debora who was a very funny and great person.

I got to see so many nice places in Italy, like mountains, which is very extraordinary for us, Estonian people and also other landscapes and city’s which were the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. Also the culture and food were everything! I love pizza and pasta!
I am very happy that I went to Italy and as I promised to my lovely Marta and Michela, I will go back there and enjoy everything again.