Ten excited English students arrived in Milan twenty-three minutes ahead of schedule on Thursday, 7^th of March. We were taken to the school, which actually took longer than it did to travel all the way to Italy, due to crazy traffic conditions. We were introduced to our Italian partners, and travelled to what would become our homes for the coming week.

To begin with, I was very nervous, especially when I found out that my partner was not even in the Freeway team, and her family spoke more or less no English. However, I cheered up slightly, when we sat down for dinner, and ate Spaghetti Bolognese and Chips!

We had to get up at 6:20am the next morning! However, it was worth it, as we had a great day out in Monza, looking around the posh expensive shops, (which was in some ways frustrating as most of us had no money to spend), and some beautiful buildings. For example the cathedral in Monza was beautiful, with 3-D painting effects, that looked amazingly real. At night-time Elin and I went to a pizzeria, with about 15 extremely crazy Italian girls. This was due to the fact it was ‘women’s day’ in Italy. Elin and I sat down, expecting to order a bottle of wine, or at least something alcoholic, (not than I’m obsessed or anything) to celebrate our arrival in Italy. However, the girls ordered a bottle of water! We were quite surprised, and throughout the holiday observed that this was a very dominant social difference between the two countries. There were many other social differences that my friends and I noticed. For example, in comparison to the fact that English teenagers drink more than Italians, the Italian students smoked much more, even between lessons in the corridors in school. The rules in England are very different and much more strict, especially in school as we are not allowed to smoke in school, and if we are caught doing so, there are strict punishments.

Another difference that we noticed was the heavy traffic conditions. Everywhere we went there were pedestrians, bikes, motorbikes, cars, buses, everything! It was always very busy, and whenever we had to drive somewhere we had to leave at least twenty minutes before the usual time so that we weren’t late.

Throughout the remainder of the visit, we travelled to many interesting locations. For example, the Racing Track in Monza, the cathedral in Milan and other places. The final day was maybe the best to remember, as we went to Venice, which was very beautiful. We walked around the city, visited the cathedral and also watched the glass blowing, which we thought was very impressive! We would have very much liked to travel on the gondoliers, however, this was much too expensive, and so had to travel back to our coach on a water taxi.

Overall, we all really enjoyed the trip to Italy. We had loads of fun, travelling around the cities, and going out at night-time with our friends. The Italians are very special people, were very kind and were wonderful hosts. Thank you to my Italian host Francesca and her family for making my stay an enjoyable one, and also thank you to Mrs Soragna for organising the trip, and putting up with us all while we were there. It was a real chance to develop our European links and understanding.

Beth Pinnington, Bishop Heber High School.