Montepulciano-Italian Exchange 2011

During our Easter holidays, 14 of my Italian classmates and I went on an Italian adventure! We all arrived punctually at Gatwick airport (with the exception of a few!) brimming with excitement and nerves for the week ahead. As we boarded the plane we had loads of questions like, “How do you say nice to meet you?” and “What’s the Italian for I like your trousers?”

As we stepped off the plane we all put on our sunglasses and took off our cardigans, appreciating the warm weather, before boarding the coach to Montepulciano. Drawing up to l’autostazione, the coach station, was probably the most nerve-wracking experience of our lives; 16 Italian girls staring up at the coach, giggling and laughing to their friends. With quick hugs and mutters of “good luck!” and “see you tomorrow” we descended the coach to meet the people we were about to spend a week of our life with.

The next few days were filled with sight-seeing and gelato-eating. We got to visit the beautiful cities of Firenze (Florence) and Siena. We uncovered more about the fascinating history of Italy, visiting Etruscan tombs and San Gimignano with our school friends, and spending lazy afternoons in parks or on large terraces with our exchanges and their friends, speaking Italian and being spoken to in English.

A memorable day was our visit to Bagno Vignoni, where the hot water from underground springs flows directly into the pool. The water supposedly has healing qualities for the mind, body and soul, and we all felt relaxed and refreshed after gliding through its soft waters for a while. Also memorable was our trip to the Italian school. Needless to say, life at the Liceo in Montepulciano is vastly different from that at JAGS. For example, none of the students seemed to write down anything in lessons or do any homework for the whole week that we were there with them! The school day finishes at 1.30 leaving students the afternoon to themselves.

The trip was very enjoyable and useful for improving our Italian skills. Although our Italian teachers are both Italian, and speak to us in Italian, to be completely immersed in the language was a new and challenging experience, and it was extremely useful to see applied Italian, and reassuring to discover that pronouns, which have been a source of concern to our class this year, are in fact widely used and very helpful! We all hope to keep in touch with our exchanges and some of the group have made life-long friends. We both strongly recommend this trip to everyone studying Italian.

Calypso April and Octavia Cogher, Year 10

The Italian Exchange

Lo scambio Italiano era molto divertente e interessante. Abbiamo imparato molto ed abbiamo fatto nuove amicizie. Abbiamo alloggiato vicino a Montepulciano con le nostre correspondenti italiane. Durante lo scambio abbiamo visitato molti monumenti interessanti e molte città in Toscana per esempio: Firenze, Siena, Pienza e Chiusi. Abbiamo visitato il Duomo e la Piazza del Palio a Siena; Piazza della Signoria,  and Palazzo Vecchio a Firenze; Bagno Vignoni, Pienza e le tombe etrusche a Chiusi. Ogni giorno il tempo era molto bello, e abbiamo preso il sole. Abbiamo anche imparato a parlare molto italiano con le nostre correspondenti. Abbiamo potuto visitare una scuola italiana. Le lezioni erano molto differenti dalla scuola in Inghilterra. Siamo molto emozionate per la visita di ritorno delle nostre correspondenti che verranno a ottobre o novembre e vogliamo mostrare loro Londra.

Esme Lim & Claudia Bench, Year 10