päivä 4 / Italian food

Ciao!!

Now we're going to tell you about the italian food. We think that everybody knows the foods that Italy is famous of. Pizza, pasta, ice cream and so on. Italian food culture is pretty much different than in Finland. In Finland we eat like five times per day. We eat usually a big breakfast with bread and yoghourt or something like that. Usually the italian breakfast is sweet, some cookies, cake or maybe a bread with nutella on top.

Most of our lunches have been "packed lunches" and there has been sandwiches, fruits, some snacks and something to drink. Also we have had pizza slices for lunch. Normally we have eaten the lunch at somewhere around 12-13 o'clock and snacks during the day.

The dinnertime is very late compared to the finnish dinner, it starts about eight o'clock in the evening. Italians eat a lot in the dinner. An example of a basic dinner could be: first pasta, then the main course and then dessert.

- Enni, Emma, Miisa, Janina, Essi

päivä 8 / Laura, Salla, Eveliina, Saga, Paju

Tänään lähdimme aamulla kohti Riminiä. Matka kesti hieman yli tunnin, mutta bussissa oli mukava levähtää. Nousimme ulos bussista ja kävelimme hetken Riminin kaduilla. Tarkoituksena oli käydä eräällä sillalla, mutta valitettavasti olimme aikataulusta sen verran jäljessä ettemme ehtineet.
Seuraavaksi lähdimme kohti Ravennaa. Siellä meillä oli vapaa-aikaa meren rannalla. Olimme erään italialaisen opettajan omistaman rantakahvilan alueella ja ostimme sieltä jäätelöt.
Rannalla oli ihana auringonpaiste.
Iltapäivällä lähdimme vielä käymään upeassa mosaiikki-kirkossa ja Danten haudalla.

We are going to tell a little about Italian nature and environment. For us it feels like summer here because it is warm and sunny and everything is green. Trees are different from Finnish trees, but we have seen a few trees that look the same in Finland. There grows a lot grapes in fields and some other trees (maybe apple trees) are having beautiful white flowers. In Finland we have a lot of bugs in summer but here in Italy we haven't seen many.
It has been sunny almost every day but in the beginning of the week it was a bit rainy for two days. Today we went to visit Rimini and Ravenna by bus. We saw Fellini's Grand Hotel and big beautiful Rimini beach. We went to smaller beach in Ravenna which was OK. It was windy there and the sea was chilly but sun was shining and it was nice. After being at beach we left for seeing a church and the tomb of Dante.

Pictures are coming a bit later!!

Salla,Saga, Eve, Laura

The beauty of Florence, day 6

So we have spent almost a week in here and this place already feels like home. We really don't want to go back to Finland again! Everyday is different and full of surprises and happiness 

(okay, sometimes we are tired and not so happy..)   

We have amazing host families and the best host "sisters" and host "brothers", couldn't ask for better ones! They've fed us until we look like we are pregnant (yea the boys too) 

and they've taken us to see amazing places. 

Vi vogliamo bene! 

Yesterday we went to Florence which is a beautiful city full of old architecture. We took a lot beautiful pictures of the famous cathedral and italian ice-cream! The whole day was hot but still awesome. :)

Italian art

 

Florence is also the city of art.

In the picture above you can see the statue of David, which was made by Michelangelo in 1504.

Unfortunately from these pictures you can't see all of the beautiful sculptures that Florence offered us, but the statue of David is probably one the most famous. The original sculpture is held in the museum called Uffizi, and we heard that it also represents the freedom of the people in Florence.

When you walk down the streets you can see painters painting the beautiful bridge called Ponte vecchio (The old bridge), which is a very famous bridge full of jewellery shops and street vendors.

Santa Maria del fiore

Another thing you need to know is that Florence is a very beautiful and old city full of gorgeus buildings and a bunch of tourists admiring them. A very big bunch.

The most famous cathedral called Santa Maria del fiore (Saint Mary of the flower) is located at the piazza del duomo, ''cathderal square'', which is in the heart of the historic center of Florence.You are able to see the cathedral and its stunning beauty from miles away, and as you move towards it, 

it becomes even more beautiful.

As you can see from the picture above, this cathedral is also a very famous tourist attraction. The queue goes on and on. For me it was incredible that so many people are willing to wait about 20 minutes to get in to a cathedral. Especially when I saw it from inside. Dont get me wrong, it was very beautiful from the inside too, but for me it was a bit of a disappointment. Because for me, the view from the outside was more beautiful than from the inside. :(

Here you can see the glory of the cathedral from the outside. I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures from the inside, but I really think that this picture below shows you almost everything you need to see to understand what I mean. :)

Italian ice cream

 

Italian ice cream is a reason enough to come to Italy. When you have tasted the Italian ice cream, the Finnish starts to taste like rubbish. Our favourites are the ones that taste like fruits and berries; strawberry, mango and melone. There are so many flavours to choose.

Ice cream here isn't the cheapest sweet, 
but comparing to the finnish ice cream the quality-price ratio is very good!

Ci piace il gelato♥

 - Noora, Matias, Katja, Veera, Sandra, Julius

DAY 9: Italian men

Our mission was to observe italian men during our trip in Italy. This mission was VERY though but we survived it with honour. We observed the men's style to dress, to walk, to speak and to act in every kinds of ways.

(WARNING! These notes of italian men are only ours and generally spoken.)

Well first of all italian men are dark, spicy and stylish. They pay attention on the way they dress and their hair is a sacred thing. They can't pass a mirror without glimpsing it. We also noticed that they take sun... Not like on the beach but in the city... Standing... Enjoying it with their eyes closed... Heh.
Italian men's vehicles are very important to them. Beautiful cars and motorcycles are their babies and photos of themselves with these babies are not unusual.

But in general italian men are social, happy and they seem to enjoy life :)

This is our last full day here in Imola so tomorrow we have to wave goodbye to Italy and to it's beautiful weather and of course to the men...

Finland, we're coming home!

-Wilma, Vilma, Lina, Sonja and Teresa

Pictures from Google

 

 

Day 7 / Ilta, Noora, Sofie, Ilari, Monika, Maria, Niina

Wednesday, Traffic

Italy's traffic is a bit different compared to finnish traffic. Cars drive faster and they don't always stop to sidewalks like in Finland. It's chaotic. People drive however they want and it looks that only traffic rules are traffic lights. Cars pass each other all the time and motorcycles zigzag trough the traffic, also in very dangerous places like bitween two cars near each other. Actually it's smart that motorcycles zigzag bitween cars avoiding traffic jams if they can, but it looks very dangerous to us finnish people. People also honk to others more than in finland.Compred to Finland driving is more agressive here in Italy. One of our bus drivers passed a slow car on a highway from right instead of left. It's very exciting to sit in a car middle in Italy's big traffic jams because we don't have that in Finland; four lanes full of cars and agressive drivers. That makes it exciting to be there.
Ilta, Sofie, Ilari

 

Well hellou! It's Noora and Niina blogging over here. On Wednesday we were visiting the FERRARI MUSEUM! The museum is the one of the most famous museums of the world. So we were very lucky to get the opportunity to get there. So, Finland is famous for our formula 1 and rally drivers. Everybody knows Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen. So, we loved the museum because it was full of fast and expensive cars. We took lots of pictures of them and with them. Don't touch the cars...yeah right! So that was fun and it was worth the seeing. 

xoxo Noora and Niina, peace and love

Day 5: Imola's landmarks, Sesilia, Riia & Paula

Italiassa oppilailla on myos lauantaisin koulua, mutta heidan koulupaivansa ovat lyhyempia. Emme ole nahneet italialaisten todellista arkea, silla heilla ei ole oppitunteja meidan taalla ollessa. Naiden neljan paivan aikana olemme olleet vapaa-ajallamme kavereidemme kanssa, kayneet pitsalla ja jatksilla, seka hengailleet puistoissa ja muualla ulkona. Meilla ei ole ollut paljon vapaa-aikaa, silla meilla on ollut retkia melkein joka paiva ja olemme tulleet kotiin todella myohaan. Tanaan kiersimme Imolan nahtavyyksia ja tassa taman paivan retkestamme hieman tietoa englanniksi.

Today we visited Imola's landmarks. First we went to Palazzo Tozzoni which was a very beautiful building where rich people have lived many years ago. There were a lot of fantastic old furniture and paintings. After that we went to see Rocca. It is like an old castle. We climbed to the tower of the castle in which we saw great views. In the afternoon we travelled to Marconi's museum. There we heard about his inventions. We had a lot of fun during the day! Sun was shining all day long! :) -Sesilia, Riia & Paula

Palazzo Tozzoni

Rocca

päivä 3 / Oona, Elli, Sara, Veera, Linda

In the streets of Bologna

On Saturday we took a train to Bologna, a beautiful old city. We roamed around and saw visited some places and saw sights. We weren't the only tourists in town: we could hear many different languages and I also met some Finnish people. There were a lot of people inthe sstreets compared to Jyväskylä even if the population of Bologna is smaller. After sightseeing some of us went shopping or outdoor cafés or something like that. 

3.4.2014 BOLOGNA DAY 

Aamulla lähdimme kahdeksan aikoihin junalla kohti Bolognaa, sää oli sateinen, mutta meille suomalaisille normaali kesäkeli . Perillä kävelimme keskustaan ja menimme Ensin kävelimme suihkulähteelle. Kiertelimme yhdessä kirkossa ja luostarissa. Ne olivat kauniita, mutta odotteluaikaa vesisateessa oli hieman liikaa... Sen jälkeen meillä oli omaa aikaa shoppailuun ja ruokailuun tai tehdä mitä halusimme. Ilta oli vapaa hostin kanssa ja teimme kaikki erilaisia asioita esim. näimme ystäviä, kävimme diskossa ja söimme pitsaa. :D

Italalainen katukuva on todella erilainen Suomeen verrattuna. Rakennukset ovat todella vanhoja, värikkäitä ja koristeellisia. Kadut ovat kapeita ja hieman sokkeloisia. Kävelytiet olivat tunnelimallisia, koska ne olivat katettuja. Siellä oli myös kauppakeskus, joka oli täynnä kalliita hienoja kauppoja! Myös uskonto on paljon enemmän esillä kaduilla. Monista ikkunoista roikkuu Italian tai Euroopan unionin lippuja. Italiassa on paljon kahvilakulttuuria, joka näkyi pienten kahviloiden runsaudessa.