1st LEARNING TRAINING TEACHING MEETING IN SCANDICCI, FLORENCE, ITALY

19-23 NOVEMBER 2018

You can watch the video of our 1st meeting here

https://youtu.be/YDQnOfOCJs0

Saturday 17/11/2018

We catch the bus to Thesaloniki at 8:00 in the morning

We start our journey with a flight from Thessaloniki to Rome. We are really excited. We will spend the evening in Rome and will catch the train to Florence tomorrow. We are all looking forward to meeting our new partners.

Sunday 18/11/2018

We travel from Rome to Florence by train. Our hotel in Florence is called "Le stanze del duomo " and is located in the city center. We are meeting our partners in a pizzeria/trattoria in Piazza Sinioria. We had a wonderful time. Our first impressions are wonderful! Everybody is so kind and friendly and our hosts, the Italian, such lovely people!

Monday 19/11/2018 - Wednesday 21/11/2018

We meet all our partners and the Italian teachers at the train station 'Santa Maria Novella".

We are travelling to Passignano sul Trasimeno, a town in the region of Umbria close to the border with Toscana. There, we met some people from "PANTA REI", the environmental center that we are going to visit and stay at for 2 days and took us to the center by bus.

We had lunch there and we started to get to know the place. We got some first information about the center form the people who live there voluntarily offering their work . Panta Rei started about 40 years ago by Dino, the heart of the centr and his dream to create an environmental center which can exist based on its own products with the help of volunteers. It was a unique experience for most of us! We had to share the bedrooms and the toilets with people we had just met! But we we surely close to Nature and close to each other! The best place to break the ice !!We couldn't think of a better place to experience something like that!

DINO

Following the rules of the center we offered our help with the washing up, we participated in the gathering of the vegetables from the garden and the greenhouse for the preparation of lunch and dinner. The center has its own system of gathering rainwater for toilet use. Also, rainwater is gathered in drains that lead it to the greenhouse. Wood from the forest is used for the oven and the heating of the main hall. The bedrooms are heated with a system that releases heat from the walls and the floor. Solar panels are used for heating the water.

In the whole place there are several guest houses which the guests can use mostly during the summer months. The technique these houses are built with is really amazing. They have used straw, mud, wood and other materials that make them look like medieval houses!

We had lunch and dinner there and we spent the whole afternoon/evening talking and organizing our program.

JOANNA (Poland), the coordinator of our program. The person who brought us all together!

We had two workshops in the mornings. One was a tour of the center and presentation of its facilities, the way it works and how it is organized. We also picked our own vegetables for our lunch and dinner.

The second one was a walk in the forest where we learned about the flora and fauna of the area.

After the workshops and the meetings for the program we spent our evenings like this:

Syrtaki dancing

PIZZΑ making seminar!!

Walking down the hill to Passignano sul Trasimeno on our last day at PANTA REI.

The view from the top just amazing!

Spotting tracks from wild pigs in an olive tree field.

The beautiful town of Passignano sul Trasimeno

Leaving Passignano sul Transimeno and PANTA REI. We will remember it for sure!!! Thank you Alessandra, Renata and Nicolina for a unique experience!!!!!

BACK TO FIRENZE!!!!!

Thursday 22/11/2018

Visiting the Bardini Gardens at Palazzo Bardini, an urban Paradise in the heart of Florence!!

Time for sightseeing in Florence!!

In the evening we visited the school in Scandicci for dinner and a welcoming party

Presentation of food and products from our countries

Friday 23/ November 2018

Visiting the school and the classrooms and meeting the students

Italian Food seminar at the restaurant "Salati Bene" on the hills of Florence, run by a couple. We made our own food, learnt some of the secrets of the Italian cuisine and enjoyed one of the most delicious food we have ever tasted!! Just an amazing experience!