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.

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.

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.

Laura writes

On 17^th-23th May me and many other Kanepi Gymnasiums students had an amazing opportunity to take part of the students exchange with Italian school in Saluzzo. We stayed in host families and it really felt like my own home with my own people.

My host family was very sweet and friendly. I stayed in the family of Elisabetta. They took me to Torino and showed me as much as they could. I am very thankful to them and how they treated me. I started missing them the moment we drove away.

I was the most scared of the weather. I thought it was going to be bad or it would be raining a lot but it didn’t go like that at all. The trip was delightful and we got to enjoy the sun, mountains and even the Mediterranian sea. The sea was my favourite part of the trip even though now I am sunburnt all over my body. Good times.

As me and Merit also took part in the Italian exchange two years ago we already had our friends from earlier who we wanted to see very bad. I have kept in touch with my last host Gabriele for a long time, so we planned to meet with him and Alessandro (host of Merit).

We met in a restaurant where we had eaten also during the last visit to Italy. When they arrived we got extremely surprised as there walked in the boys and also Ionela and Gabriella who we got to know from the last time, too. We talked about our lives now and what we have been up to. It is crazy to think that they are already 20 years old and studying in universities.

Gabriella was the host of Heloona who is Kadris sister. She didn’t know it so she asked who is the cool girl with blue hair. After telling her that the girl is Heloonas sister she went absolutely crazy and basically started jumping around. Then Kadri walked by but we couldn’t scream her name because we were in a restaurant and it would have been rude.

I have been waiting for so long to see them again and finally it happened. Alessandro promised us to come to the next years Weekend Baltic festival and Gabriele  to visit me in Estonia.

It was definitely my favourite students exchange because I got to know so many new people and couldn’t forget the old friends. I hope my red skin will soon turn brown and the Italian people will remember us with only good words!