Tuesday 29/09/09 Opening ceremony at school
It was a very warm welcome. Students and teachers had great fun at the ceremony. Keeping in mind the short time and private rehearsals the band did a fabulous job. It seemed very professional and was very much entertaining. The choice of the songs (English, Italian and Neapolitan) was really great, as well. And the dancers and actors were something to enjoy. Multimedial presentation about Fermi
Students: Important for us but a little bit boring
Teachers: difficult to hear and understand Teachers' workshop - students' workshop
Students: The students were very friendly. We could see the difference between the schools in our countries ' interesting Guided tour through Naples and visit of the royal palace
Students: The visit of the royal palace was good, but the tour through Naples was a bit confusing, so we lost some members of the group.
All: the palace was impressive and fantastic
Wednesday 30/09/09 Seminar on Fermi held at the physics museum in " Federico II" university of Naples
The experiments of Galilei were a very special treat, something you don't get to see very often. They supported how great the achievements were and still are of scientists from long ago. We would have appreciated if the students themselves could a said some (very few maybe) things about them in English. The translation job was really a difficult one.
The PPT about Fermi was very long and too much information. When being read it is so difficult to follow. Even then it was just so impressive how important Enrico Fermis works were in so many fields of natural sciences. He was a work maniac in the positive sense and a multi talent.
Visit : the old city centre
The old buildings were really impressing everyone already then. Departure for archeological remains of Herculaneum
Just a fascinating insight in a world of the past. One could almost feel the ancient times and the importance of the Vulcano Vesuvio for Italy became clear in the interesting films.
Thursday 01/10/09 Departure for Rome
Rome was the trip that all people enjoyed most, appreciating the impressive buildings, sights and the air of history all around us.
Friday 02/10/09 Meeting at the Neapolitan factory owners' union
It would have been nice to know beforehand that the kids could ask questions. Doing it spontaneously was difficult for the students. Some did ask and all in all it was a great idea and opportunity. It surprised many participants that the factory owners were so frank with us about the existing problems with the Mafia. We got an unexpected insight in Italian politics. That is what people mean when saying they learned something about another culture.
And we learned many great things about Italian culture and appreciate it very much.
Teachers' workshop - students' socializing activities
All the days the students enjoyed them a lot.
Teachers had some really effective workshops during the week.
Saturday 03/10/09 Lunch - buffet
All the food was very typical for Italy and definitely something everyone liked. Departure for Caserta : guided tour of the Royal Palace
(Really impressive again, but maybe a bit too much in the end. There is so much to see and feel amazed about in Rome, Naples and so many more cities and places in Italy that it almost seemed like and overload of culture. Visitors could stay for months and still get to know only a fraction of all interesting and important places.
Maybe half a day at the beach would have been something special to all partner countries, because Sweden, Norway, Poland and Germany have beaches at the sea, but much less warm!
Gala dinner
That was again something we all like so much! Great idea, especially with the music.
The whole trip can definitely be recommended to Comenius partner schools in Europe :)