Lucka Dušková'diary

It was on 26th September and we got on a plane. I was extremely looking forward to getting experience from this journey. What experience and where did we go?
Gymnazium Pacov as a participant of a Comenius project and because I won a competition - My ideal future family – I became a member of a meeting in Italy. I went there with my schoolmate Michaela Plzakova and of course the coordinator of the project in our school Blanka Vondrasova. The name of the meeting was: „How young people spend their free time“. We involved all possible and impossible aspects to show how our schoolmates spend their leisure time.
As soon as we got to Rome and then to Pontedera we were accommodated in hosting families. The name of my family was Dal Canto and Misa stayed at the Fagiolini´s family. The first meet with foreign English wasn´t easy but soon I realized that sometimes it is also difficult to find some Czech equivalents, too . And thanks to great English of my Italian family I learned a lot of new information about this country, culture, customs and the life style.
Each meeting is connected with sightseeing and so was this one. The first day we saw The Leaning Tower in Pizza. In nearby cathedral and also baptistery there we could feel some really ethereal effect. In the afternoon we went to Luca, historical town with amphitheatre, St. Martin doom, St. Michele church or the birth house of Giacomo Puccini.
The second day we were welcomed by the headmistress of I.T.C.G. Fermi School and later on invited to a Vespa Museum where a welcoming by member of local government took place. In the afternoon we worked. Most of the coming countries showed their presentations -„How young people spend their free time“ (Greece, Poland, Lithuania, Romania and Turkey). The evening we spend in a table tennis bar with some Italian students.
The third day we were taken to Siena. I liked best the Piazza del Campo square. Horse riding competition takes place here every year. In the evening we got to San Gimignano, a medieval town. This town I like best of all. When we looked round we could still feel like in the Middle Ages.
Next day was devoted to Florence. It is a town of art and therefore of galleries, too. The first gallery wasn’t my cup of tea despite the fact there were displayed masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti. But the Gallerie dell’Accademia was more interesting for us - statue of David, photo exhibition, …
And the last day in Pontedera started with our presentation of „How young people spend their free time“. The presentation consisted of two parts. The first one – a photo book – showed free time activities of me, Michaela and our schoolmates in pictures and I accompanied it with my explanation. The second part was a “brochure” explained by Michaela. It showed the most interesting activities of us and mainly the meeting with Lukáš Vlček, called– "The breakfast with our mayor”. During this meeting we, students of Gymnazium Pacov, discussed all the interesting activities that happened in our town and also the activities which we would like to have here. I think we surprised all the others participants of appointment in Italy by our originality and creativity in solution of our needs. We handed out both our books to main participants in Pontedera. And I am sure that our work was one of the best.
This week in Italy brought me not only development in English and finding out new interesting places but also new friends who I´m in touch with. My host family welcomed me to Italy any time I´d like to. This year my Italian student Giada Del Canto and also Michaela´s friend Giulia Balestracci are coming to Pacov to visit us. It is because the next meeting is taking part in our town Pacov at the end of November. We help in organizing it and look forward to having here all the participants from 8 European countries very much.