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From BARCELONA

We had the great honour to go to Italy to exchange cultural and pedagogical experiences in the Comenius project. Our enthusiasm rose when we started to prepare and organize the travel and all the tasks we had to do: flight tickets, hotels, gifts, collect the children’s work, and so on…When the day arrived we were very excited and animated. The trip to Vietri di Potença was already the beginning of the adventure because we had to change many trains to arrive there from the airport. When we arrived at the dark train station in the late afternoon, a small presentation waited for us... The welcome ceremony was brilliant! The headmaster (President) and all the local authorities waited for us to present a festival of dances, songs and the Italian anthem sang on the most passionate way. The serious atmosphere broke during the dinner thanks to the delicious typical meat which was served in the decorated dining room in the school. After the tiring and long journey, we went to take a rest.

Next day, after a nice awake, a bus waited to take us to the marvellous, wonderful and well reserved Sassi de Matera. The visit affected us so much that it turned to a strange sensation between happiness inspired by the beauty of its eternity, urbanism and spirituality of the churches. We listened with all our ears and we learnt many cultural explanation about the locality. The lunch in the brotherhood was delightful thanks to the nice place and the gastronomy. We continued the marvellous trip with happy belly to the Greek Church consecrated to Hera en Metaponto. The formality of the day burst in the bus when we started to sing, take the rhythm, laugh…and “Volare oh oh oh, Cantaré oh oh oh oh, ... “, “Felicitat ... “ and we all were very enthusiastic about learning Italian, Catalan, Hungarian and Polish. Everyone sang typical songs of the four participating countries. After a quiet dinner…we took a rest and saved some energy for the next day.

After a lovely morning, we travelled through a precious highland with the school “guagua” to arrive at Lucania de Savoia where the smallest and the eldest students of the school waited for us with different attractions and a welcome flower. We spent all the morning visiting different departures of the school and contemplating what the children had to do in the kindergarten. We changed our pedagogical experiences and ideas with the teachers. We had lunch at the school and went to a trip to the picturesque and well maintained towns of Basilicata region. The reception, the show, the dinner, the campfire and the dance in the town square during the night were so enjoyable that it would be hard to forget. Many families and neighbours joined to us. We also have to mention the most spectacular and delicious gastronomic cake “la porqueta” which mimicked the shape and the colours of the Comenius emblem.  We spent the last morning with the visit of Vietri school. We enjoyed the colourful and abundant picnic what the families had prepared to us and spent the afternoon with the teachers and the students in the precious monastery in the sunny and worm weather. During the nice meal we talked about pedagogical aspects and organizations in the participating countries. When we finished, we gathered together to talk about the schedule of activities for the next meeting.

In the end our hosts surprised us with an exquisite, fantastic and exciting dinner. We said goodbye with many hugs, nostalgia and the hope to meet again in Barcelona.We took advantages of the weekend to visit the chaotic, gross and so on, beautiiiiiiiiiful Napols. We walked around the runes of Pompeii as the closing event of the journey. It was the bow on the present of the unforgettable and fantastic adventure.

Thanks for all.