We were in Italy

After a meaningful and exciting italian youth exchange week (from the 28th of June to the 6th of July), the Hungarian girls have returned.

The host organization, Studio Progetto provided place to this Erasmus+ program about creative writing techniques, called „APACHE” in Cornedo Vicentino, Northern Italy. The Hungarian sending organization was YOPA and me as the Hungarian team leader represented Alternatíva Association and its chief workshop, MediaKommando.
There were Bulgaria, Croatia, Portugal, Spain and naturally the host country, Italy among the participating countries. Creative writing functioned as a tool for social learning- and competency development and for community building for young people aged 18-27, and English was the language of work. By the end of the program, the 40 participants created a few pages long, extremely well done short story, which will be on the internet soon entitled „Gran(d)venture (Granny’s adventure) in Sziget”. As the title suggests, the organizers chose the yearly organized Sziget festival in Margit-sziget for the setting of the plot. The characters were given as well but the expansion of the characters and the plot was committed to our creativity. We formed 3 groups randomly, the emphasis was put on the cooperation between nations, and we could get closer to each other through the writing process. Our meeting with two Italian authors contributed to the successful completion of the task, we kept in mind their suggestions and let our imagination soar.

The intercultural evening where every nations introduced their national foods, drinks, songs, dances and brought some surprises as well promoted the (re)cognition of different cultures and also the reader evening where we could quote from our favourite books. It is known that the Italians can successfully balance work with relaxation and entertainment and they proved us how it works. Through the project we went on excursions almost every day, got to know the countryside, we have been to Venice, Verona, Valdagno and Marostica and we became part of the local communities for a week.

Some of our memories were captured, you can see them below.

Marietta Erdélyi

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