The Portuguese students spent a week in Italy as part of an Erasmus exchange program. They visited several locations around Rome and Albano Laziale, including the Colosseum, Forum Romanum, Vatican City, and Albano Lake. The students stayed with Italian families for a day and experienced Italian culture and cuisine. They participated in welcoming and farewell ceremonies and made friends with students from other countries. The trip provided an unforgettable cultural exchange and opportunity for the students to learn about a new place and develop their English skills.

1. Portuguese Students’ Diary

2. Day 1 - Sunday
It all started on November 24th, we all had to be at Faro airport around noon and
a quarter. When we all arrived we said goodbye to our parents and prepared to
go through the Security Control.
Image taken a�er passing Security Control
Ini�ally we were all a li�le shy because we didn't know each other very well, so
conversa�ons were few, but we were all anxious nonetheless. We moved to the
departure gate and in minutes we were about to board.

3. Paris city
Paris city
In Paris we made a three hour
and fifteen minute stopover. As
our flight to Italy was only at
twenty fifty-five we had dinner at
the airport.
Boarding (travel Faro / Paris)
The flight departed from Faro at
two o'clock in Portuguese time
and we arrived in Paris around
five and forty minutes in French
time, the trip lasted about two
hours and forty minutes.

4. After finishing eating we moved to the boarding gate and after a short wait we
got ready to board again.

5. Airplane Paris
In Rome we were greeted by a lady who took us to the hotel. When we arrived
we had to split into two groups as the rooms were for three people.

6. Day 2 - Monday
Trip to Albano Laziale
We started the day early, as usual, but happy to start a new journey in Albano.
• Our day really started when we had breakfast with most of the teams and
were ready to meet new people, make friends, but at the same �me a li�le
nervous, because we also had to make presenta�ons of the works, with the
theme: "Natural Disasters".
• • When all the teams were already gathered outside the hotel we walked to
the bus stop with the idea of a bus with “normal” sized seats, but no, it was a
bus that took students to primary schools. Our seats were very �ght, but that
didn't stop our life from being pleasant, beau�ful scenery and lots of laughter
made us forget how small the seats we were si�ng on.
We arrived at school and were soon welcomed with lots of smiles and
welcome posters. It was a small school compared to ours, but it was also very
welcoming…. It had a nice air!
• We entered the school and went to the auditorium where some Italian students
were already waiting for us, we sat down and projected a welcome video for all
countries followed by a presentation of the pre-primary students, a song with
flags for all. The welcome ceremony began and soon after we were offered an
orange cloth bag with a notebook with the project logo, a pen and our card to
know our name and country, followed by several presentations of traditional
Italian dances and I think what surprised us most was how fast they danced.
After the presentation of Poland was our turn, we were all nervous, but it
turned out well, as we were from 3 different classes we had 3 different works, the
first was Iara and Nadia talking about the Pedrogão Grande fires, the second one
was Bruna and Madalena who talked about the floods and last but not least mine
(Ana Rita) and Rita who talked about seismic risk in Portugal and in the Algarve.
• We went to have lunch, it was a buffet with food made by the families of the
students of the school, and we began with the dessert, a chocolate-covered
muffin, but then we ate lasagna and pasta. A�er a while Teacher Olga called
us to go and try a dish made by Lorenzo's mother, a kind of oven-baked pie,
which was delicious, and that was when we started to meet some Italian
students.

7. We met Lorenzo, Andrea, Giorgia, Alessio, Emma, Anna and Federica, we
talked about everything, Portuguese and Italian words, football (as incredible as
it sounds they knew the Football Club of Porto, Spor�ng and Benfica), we also
talked about how good Italian food, music, famous... everything and anything
else was.
• A�er a while we were shown outside the school and the classrooms and their
favourite places in the school. Then we went back to the auditorium where
we had a workshop about First Aids, where Madalena and I were great
actresses and exemplified very well what a food choking situa�on would be
like. At the end they told us who was going to be our family on the next day,
they were going to show us a li�le of their culture and food. However the
�me has come for us to return to the hotel, unfortunately,
• We said goodbye to our friends and got on the bus back to the hotel. When
we arrived we went to our rooms and waited un�l 20:00 to have dinner. While
we waited in our room (Ana Rita, Rita and Iara), our colleagues came knocking
on our bedroom door to wait there, since, according to them, our room was
much be�er than theirs so they stayed there.
We all went back to the same room, talked to our parents and siblings and
then went to take many pictures, at Madalena's request, we listened to music,
we talked. Around 00:30 Madalena, Nádia and Bruna returned to the room and
we went to our beds to sleep.
• It was an unforge�able day full of surprises and good things that no doubt
exceeded our expecta�ons!

9. Day 3 - Tuesday
The Italian families picked us up at the hotel at 9 am.
The Italian family that me and my Romanian colleague (Roxana Dumbravu)
stayed with was the Lolle� family, parents of Erika Lolle�.
In the morning we went with the families of Andrea Risi and Lorenzo Romannazzi
to Albano Lake. We stopped at a cafe there and Erika's mother bought us a
Crosta�ne, which is a typical Italian sweet. Then we went to have lunch at Erika's
house. We had for lunch bolognese pasta, a breaded beef, french fries and a
chocolate candy that Erika's mother had made. There we played with Erika's
chihuahua. Later we went for a walk to the city of Albano; where later, we ate an
ice cream. Then “my family” drove us to the hotel around 04:50 pm; We caught
a lot of traffic and we only arrived at 05:40 pm.

10. Iara Catarino along with her Turkish colleague (Elif Gun) stayed with Flavio
Gen�le's family. She went to Albano Lake, Nani Lake and Rocca di Papa. She had
lunch at Flavio's house as a starter she had pasta with cheese, main course
french fries with a breaded beef, �ramisu as dessert and some small strawberries
of Nani's own. Then she went to the hotel and got there at 5:30 pm.
Rita Francisco along with her colleague Claudia Ionela Andrei stayed with Victoria
Bascone's family. She went to Villa d'Este in Tivoli. She had a picnic and had a
mozzarella sandwich with tomato and a slice of pizza and a tangerine as fruit.

11. Nádia Costa and Bruna Guerreiro, along with their colleagues (Emilijus Jurènas
and Alexandra Ionella Chitu) stayed with the families of Federica Lucente and
Anna Franca Ragnacci.
In the morning they went to the museum "Anzio Beachhead Museum" (the trip
took about 1 hour) a�er visi�ng the museum they ate "White Pizza". Later, they
went on their way to Anzio Harbour and saw some fish trade, then they went to
the beach and strolled by the sea. Then, while on their way to Federica’s home,
they passed by the cemitery where some US World War II soldiers are buried and
some emblema�c statues of Anzio. Lunch was at Anna's house and the rest of
the a�ernoon was spent at her home. They played a lot of games and did a lot of
ac�vi�es, which allowed them to get to know each other be�er and to get closer
to each other, since there were 3 groups together (Federica's, Anna's and
Federico's). By 05:30pm they were back to the hotel.

12. Ana Rita Silva, along with her colleague Elvan Kara, stayed with Emma
Bucciarelli's family. They went to the summer residence and vaca�on retreat for
the Pope and waited for about an hour to come in, visited it, and then visited the
surrounding gardens where they ate chips. Later they visited Albano Lake. Then
they went to Emma's house. There they had cannelloni with spinach and cheese
for lunch and as a main course a breaded beef with chips. During the a�ernoon
they played several games and around 5:15 pm they returned to the hotel.
At 08:00 pm we had dinner. We ate pasta as a starter and as a main course turkey
steaks with green beans. Since there was a Romanian girl who had birthday, we
sang happy birthday and then we tasted the cake. A�er dinner we got together
and then went to our rooms.

13. Day 4 - Wednesday
• First we started the day by having breakfast at the Villa Al�eri Hotel and later
we would visit Albano.
• At about 10 am we were received in The Municipality for a ceremony venue.
The Mayor and other Individuali�es presented us Albano Laziale City.
• We passed Porta Pretoria, a historic
landmark in Italy, as it was the eastern
gateway to the Roman city Augusta
Proetoria Salassorum, actual Aosta.
• We had a guided
tour of the
Legione Par�ca
Museum, a
museum
dedicated to the
Second Parthian
Legion, created
by Emperor
Sep�mius
Severus to fight
the Parthian
people at war.

14. • Around 1 pm our group went to have lunch at a pizzeria.
• Later we went to Rotonda Church.
• However we ended up coming to the hotel earlier because it was raining a
lot.
• We had 4 hours to rest in the hotel and to get ready to the dinner.
• We visited Cisternoni, a monument in
Albano Laziale.
• And finally, we were in an
Amphitheater in Albano.

15. Day 5 - Thursday
Thursday we went to visit Rome. The bus picked us up at the hotel at 8 am.
First, we went to Coliseo and Arco di Costan�no that were close to each other, so
we took some photos and made our way to Foro Romano by walking. Then, we
went to see Foro Traiano, Campidoglio and Piazza Venezia where we went
upstairs and had a great view. Later we had a break for lunch that we spent with
the Portuguese group and ate at MacDonald’s. We had some extra �me so we
went to Fontana di Trevi, so all of us threw a coin to the water. Then, we bought
presents for family and friends. Later we met with the rest of the group and
made our way to Pantheon. Then we went to the bus and got back to the hotel
at 5:30 pm.

16. Day 6 - Friday
In the morning we went to “Museo Diocesano Di Albano”, and we saw beau�ful
art works that included statues, pain�ngs,... A�er visi�ng the museum we went
to the Albano cisterns that in ancient �mes provided water to the city.
Then we crossed a well-known bridge. A�er a busy morning we sat down to
enjoy the delicious Italian food. We ate a variety of starters, “porcheta” and two
types of pasta. In the a�ernoon we had some free �me to go shopping, pack our
bags and get ready for our last official dinner together.
Our dinner took place at “La Perla” restaurant. There we received our cer�ficates
and said goodbye to our group. It was a heart breaking farewell as we all cried a
lot.
I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of this Erasmus
Programme and I will cherish every moment that I spent there !!
Fig.1 – Museo Diocesano Di
Albano
Fig.2 – Portuguese Team on the
bridge
Fig.3 e 4 –
Italian Team
and
Portuguese
Team
Fig.5 – Erasmus Cake

17. Day 7 - Saturday
• On the last day we had to get up early as we had to go to the airport. Our
flight le� at five to eleven.

18. wai�ng for the flight
during the flight to Dublin (Alps)

19. Dublin airport
We arrived in Dublin around one pm
and a quarter and we had a two hour
stopover, as �me was short and we
had to have lunch we went to Burger
King and asked our meals to take
away. The forecast for the Dublin/
Faro trip dura�on was three hours so
we ran to the boarding gate and ate
and embarked on our last plane trip
together.
arrival in Portugal
We arrived in Portugal around eighteen
and a quarter. We were all �red
because it had been a day of long
flights, but even �red we were happy
because we were finally back.

20. And so our trip ended in the best way possible. We made great friends, got to
know new places and cultures, developed our English and took lots of photos.
THE END
Report
written by
Ana Rita Silva
Bruna Guerreiro
Iara Catarino
Madalena Mendonça
Nádia Costa
Rita Francisco
Faro 12/2019