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Italian Experiences 2007-2008
By Suzanne Conway, Portmarnock, Co. Dublin.
When I found out I was one of the lucky four people to be picked to go to Italy for the trip of a lifetime, I was over the moon! It was such an honour to be picked because I’m really interested in the Italian language and I knew that by going to Italy my basic Italian was sure to improve! We four girls departed for Salsomaggiore, a Therme Spa town of about 20,000 people near Parma in Italy, on 22nd March 2007.
From the moment we arrived in the country I knew I was going to like it! The people seemed to be really friendly and I was very eager to start practicing my Italian and learning new phrases. For the first week and a half the weather was extremely bad, raining constantly but after that it got really hot all of a sudden and was hitting 25̊C and over. It was really beautiful and some evenings we used to go for walks and take in some of the sights.
We started work on Friday 23rd in our hotels, but firstly Breda our tutor brought us around to the hotel and ensured we were introduced to the managers and some employees in the hotels and our work schedule agreed. I felt very happy working in the hotel and all staff members went out of their way to make us feel welcome. We worked most days from 8am – 3pm and our jobs entailed – re-stocking the mini-bars in all of the hotel rooms, observing the receptionists on duty, doing a stock take of samples for hotel rooms e.g. shampoo’s/conditioner’s etc, checking groups of people into the hotel on the computer and handing out room keys to returning guests at the hotel. I enjoyed doing the work and picked up many new skills and gained particularly more customer service skills, as I was talking to guests which gave me great confidence and will benefit me in my future jobs.
In our free time we did grocery shopping for our apartment, the local store was about 20 minutes walk away and we took turns to do the shopping. We took a day trip to Milan on the train one day, we got in a bit of shopping in the clothes capital of the world and had a quick look at the sights of the city also. In the evening we socialized in the local coffee/ wine bars with and became friendly with many of the locals. Linda an Irish woman who lives and works there, and is a friend of Bredas, looked after us and took us too many great and inexpensive typical Italian restaurants in the region, as this is the “food valley” of Italy.
Also in our first week, there was a world renowned Pizza Competition taking place. People from all over the universe travelled to take part in this fascinating festival. They were accompanied with family and friends also. The event was on in “Hotel Astro”, in Tabiano a lovely hilly town with a fantastic camp site called “Camping Arizona” open from Easter to September, with 4 swimming pools, air conditioned chalets and a view to die for! It was about two miles from Salsomaggiore and we got a lift there with one of the staff members in the hotel. It was truly an amazing experience and was definitely one of the highlights of the trip! I really enjoyed my time spent in Italy, so much so I returned with one of the girls for Easter 2008 for the Pizza Competition again! Also, we all loved Italy so much that our Tutors Ann McIlvenna and Breda Dockrell took us back in January 2008 on a Cultural Trip to Bergamo, a beautiful walled city with great shopping and excellent accommodation at “l’Angolo del Poeta” in the centre.
Finally, it was my 21st birthday while over in Italy also and this was another great experience as it was a privilege to celebrate such a special birthday in a such a special place. I will finish off by saying this experience was an amazing one and I am very greatful to all involved in setting up this programme and giving us students a chance to experience another culture and way of life. I was sad to be returning home so quickly, time just seemed to fly by!!!!!