di Sofia Maiocchi ed Emma Tosca
26/5/2022
Finally, we can tell you about the wonderful experience of being away from home for a week. We went on an exchange trip to Zaragoza, in Spain. We left on Wednesday, March 23 and we returned to Italy on March 30. One thing that may have unsettled us a little at first, was that we were staying each in a different family. Although we were not on the other side of the world, some things were different, such as for example dinner time: in Italy you eat around 8.00 pm while in Spain you start eating at 11 pm. We tasted various types of food such as tortillas, but our favorite will remain the chorizo, a kind of salami similar to Italian.
THE FIRST HOURS IN ZARAGOZA
The first day was very quiet, we went to school and we worked in groups on the figures of people who marked history by getting Nobel Prizes and we had an escape room about these characters.
INSIDE THE WALLS OF THE PALACE OF ALJAFERÍA
One of the mornings we spent in Zaragoza we went to visit the palace of Aljaferìa, which is an Arab castle-palace of the eleventh century, where we did an activity: the teachers gave us a card with various parts of the structure that we had to photograph.
DISCOVERING NATURE AND HISTORY
Between the beauties of Zaragoza we explored first there was the park of the Stone Monastery, following the path in the middle of nature and passing under beautiful waterfalls. Afterwards we went to make a short visit to the monastery. Another very interesting visit that we did was the city of Belchite, abandoned because of the bombings of the Spanish Civil War. There was a guide who took us inside the walls of the city and in the meantime explained the history at the time of the civil war.
And after almost a month after our return to Italy, we met our Spanish friends again.
As soon as we got off the bus, we immediately took them to eat a good ice cream and we took them as guides to take a tour of Castel San Giovanni, which although it is not a city as big as Zaragoza it is still beautiful.
FIRST DAY IN ITALY
As in Spain, in the early days we attended a workshop at school about hidden figures like Anne Frank.
One of my favorite works is when, after listening to Mrs. Antoniotti’s voice, we took some printed pages from Anne’s diary in English and used the technique of caviardage.
DISCOVERING THE MULINO LENTINO
We did not immediately enter to visit the mill, but first they took us for a walk to Nibbiano where they told us about its history. After an hour, we returned to the mill, where we ate the batarò. There were those for who one wasn’t enough and ate three! In the afternoon we relaxed in the garden around the mill, while groups were waiting to make a small tour and listen to the story of the little village.
TO PIACENZA TO MEET LIBERA
One morning we went to Piacenza, taking the train from Castel San Giovanni and some from Sarmato. As soon as we got off we did a tour of Piacenza directed by Ms. Ceruti, to get to the cathedral square where we had a snack. Around 11 am we went to St. Brigida’s church club, to talk with Lorenzo Piva who is part of the Libera association. We had lunch inside this club, and then the teachers left us free to go and have a walk in Piacenza. We took advantage of it to go shopping.
THE FINAL GOODBYE
On the last evening we went to the scout base where we ate pizza all together and then, the Italian teachers, gave the project certificates to the Spanish students and everyone got a small gift, that is a t-shirt with the symbol of the project. Finally the next morning we students said goodbye thinking about the 2 weeks spent together.
This experience in our opinion was beautiful. We hope to see our Spanish friends again soon and stay in touch. Because like Ms. Ceruti said, we can meet in a few years and talk like we’ve never been apart.
La Voce dell'Olubra - Giornale online 