Hey there Claudia, Jayden and Ilze here keeping you updated on what’s been happening from Thursday the 30^th of September to Monday the 4^th of October. 

Thursday: We went and visited the castles. We had to be at school at 7.40am and after a big night it was a little hard to get up.  Once everyone was there we got on the bus and made our way to the first castle, La Venaria Reale. It was commissioned to be built by Duke Carlo Emanuel II for the Savoy family (the royal family) for hunting and leisure. The town Venaria was built around the palace for its use. The estate is very large with a lot of land for hunting and gardens. The palace rooms are very large and light with big windows. There are also lots of galleries with portraits of family members and Italian heroes. The rooms were stunning with lots of frescoes on the walls, ceilings and also many statues and ornamentations. It’s almost impossible to believe that people lived in such a grand place. The gardens outside were also very beautiful with lots of rose gardens and magnificent views of the surrounding mountains. When we went back inside we entered the most beautiful room in the whole palace, the ballroom. It was all white with huge windows and a black and white tiled floor. There were no paintings anywhere but the ceiling had many ornamentations. Ok so Ilze was in love with Venaria but a quick summary of everything else.

After Venaria we went to the Sacra di San Michele which is an old monastery built on the top of a hill into the rocks. It was built in the 900’s. We couldn’t go in because we arrived at the wrong time but we looked at the beautiful views and had a short history lesson. We then went to the castle of Racconigi. We had a guided tour of the castle and witnessed a 17^th century kitchen which we all enjoyed.

Friday: We had to do more presentations to the students. After school we went on a shopping spree in the city centre. Us girls rejoiced at the shops in Via Roma and Via Garibaldi. In the evening a few of us went out to a concert and others went out for dinner or to the city again.

Saturday: During the first part of the morning we shadowed our host students to their classes. The school is so different from ours. There are not only differences in appearance such as no uniform, the single multistorey building, smoking outside during breaks and kissing in the corridors, but also how lessons are conducted. The lessons are mostly teachers giving students lectures in whatever subject it is and the students have to take notes. The students don’t really do any exercises during class time but rather have to do them for homework. Some of the classes are really relaxed whereas in others the students are virtually silent.

Later on we did MORE presentations to the students. This time we had to sit at tables and talk to small groups of Italian students about Australia and Italy. After this we went upstairs to a fifth year classroom where they did Dracula skits for us. We found the skits very entertaining and quite enjoyable.

In the evening, we all went out to a club in the heart of Turin. Although we were quite sweaty afterwards we had a lot of fun and partied till the early hours of the morning.

Sunday: Today was the first day we were able to sleep in and we made good use of the opportunity. The rest of the day was spent with our host families and a group went laser shooting in the evening.

Monday: Today was the last day of school for us. We shadowed our host students for most of the day and then we went to other classes to talk with some students.

In the afternoon we were again with our host families. At 7.30pm, we met up with each other at the school for our farewell dinner. Lots of students from the school were there as well as all of the host families. We had a great time and ate so much food.