I never would’ve imagined earplugs would be such a must-have in Prato. Living near a church doesn’t allow you to sleep-in unless your ears are stuffed with foam, silicone or anything similar that enables you a noiseless life. Each morning, before 8 am, I am heartlessly awakened by church bells. What’s even worse, the church bells are like the snooze button on an alarm clock, so even falling back asleep isn’t really worth much as you get constantly waken up and there’s no “turn off the alarm” button. The bells ring at 7.00, then at 7.45, 8.00 and 9.20 during the week, on Sundays also at 10.00, 11.00, 11.50 and 12.00. This morning it seemed like I live next to Westminster Abbey and Prince William is getting married again. The only good thing is that my things-to-pack list included best earplugs ever – the Hansaplast silicone earplugs. Three pairs. That has to last for a few months.
Somewhere on the way ...
Tuscany
The fantastic five: Léo, Marta, Burcu, Kristiāna and myself
Tuscany - Prato and the surrounding communities
The ladies: Kristiāna , myself and Burcu
On Monday we went to Florence. Florence!!!! Ever since I visited Florence last October, I couldn’t wait to go there again. On the Prato train station we met three other volunteers from Prato: Rafaela (Portugal), Bengül (Turkey) and Franz (Germany). But it wasn’t just a trip to Florence, we went there for a reason. The 9th May is the European day and in Florence there was a kind of a festival to celebrate the European day "Festival d'Europa" with one of the tents about youth exchanges like Erasmus, EVS … and our job was to present the EVS together with other volunteers from Prato. Kristiāna and Léo were preparing a few days for their presentations as they had to talk in Italian and as I wasn’t officially told I’d have to take part (well, Léo and Kristiāna did mention something about me taking part in the whole presentation, but I didn’t take them seriously), I didn’t prepare anything. However, despite me not being prepared for public talking, I was handed a microphone and I had to tell a few things about my attitude towards EVS. After an aperitivo and gelato we strolled around the town. I have to say there's a kind of a magic atmosphere in Florence after the sun sets. Now that I live so close, I'm definitely coming back sometime.
The Prato volunteers (from right to left): Franz, myself, Burcu, Bengül, Léo, Marta, Kristiāna (below), Rafaela and Andrea, who's actually not a volunteer, but still cool to hang out with.
On Wednesay, May 11th, Burcu, Marta and myself went to Iolo to see the horse ranch where we'll be working quite soon. Léo and Kristiāna have been working there for a while and as I've already seen them work, Burcu and Marta wanted to check it out too. Again, we took some pretty photos!
Friday and Saturday, May 13th and 14th, were travelling days. We went to Lucca and Pistoia which are lovely Tuscany towns, very popular among tourists. Lucca has the best tiramisu ice-cream I have ever tasted and Pistoia is simply charming.
Lucca
In Lucca (from left to right): Marta, Rafaela's friend (I forgot his name), Rafaela, André and myself
Lucca
Lucca
Garibaldi's statue in Pistoia
in one of the museums in Pistoia
having a cappuccino in Pistoia
I have to admit, I feel like I'm on holidays. The weather is lovely every day, I eat ice-cream every day, I travel ... But tomorrow things will finally change a bit - I'm starting with the Italian language course and I presume I will already be included in some volunteer work. Anyway, (of course) I'll let you know how things go, but right now I'm going home for lunch as I'm starving, plus the library closes in a few minutes, so I'll be kicked out anyway.
Buona giornata!
The pictures are great! Do send some of the warmth and sunshine back home! :)*
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