Project meeting in Italy

On March 26-April 2011, the Ethno treasure hunters have been treasure hunting in Sicilia, Italy. The treasure hunters from the 6 partner countries met in Santa Teresa di Riva to discover the Sicilian treasures. Our hosts, Mimma, Nina. Linda and Mrs. Rosa Crupi, the Dirigente scolastica (school Headmistress), gave us a warm welcome and planned a very interesting programme for us all.
On our first day of work, the Romanian team presented the ETHNO TREASURE CHEST, which contained the addresses of the project website and blog, the "Ethno treasure hunt - Traditional costumes around Europe - Colouring book and Card game", The DVD with the dissemination film from the official launghing of the project at the first meeting in Baia Mare, Romania, in November 2010, as well as some products made by the Romanian children at the Origami optional course. They have also announced the winning of the 1st prize in the regional phase of the National Contest "Made for Europe" in Romania with the ETHNO TREASURE CHEST, and its selection by the  School Inspectorate to participate in the National phase of the project. Dan Cont, the student from the 7th grade A, will represent us all in that contest in April 14-17, 2011.
The Polish team presented us the draft for the project dissemination leaflet and also the Project ANTHEM, which sounds great! We love it!
As the Romanian team brought each partner team a Treasure chest, we added the CDs the Polish brought (with the anthem and some video recordings) to the chest. During our stay in Sicilia, we added more treasures to this beautiful Chest that Marcela Zaplac designed for the project.
We also discussed the details concerning the other end products we planned to make within the partnership, as well as deadlines for sending the data to the partners responsible for each product.
We visited the Italian school and talked to the school Headmistress, teachers who work there and students who attend the school. The students from the partner countries, who took part in the project meeting, were hosted by local families and had the opportunity to see how the Sicilian families live. They also attended activities at school with their peers and joined us on the documentary visits in and around Santa Teresa di Riva.
We did a lot of treasure hunting in Sicilia, by visiting museums, such as the one in Savoca, where we saw the traditional tools that were used to work the land and in the household, and also the place in Savoca where F.F. Coppola  shot some scenes in his film "The Godfather". Savoca is a picturesque village on top of a mountain cliff with excellent views.
We visited the interesting Quasimodo Literary Park from Roccalumera, where Mr. Carlo Matroieni told us about the life and work of Salvatore Quasimodo, a famous Sicilian literary figure, who got the Nobel prize for Literature in 1959.
We visited Taormina, with its interesting Greek temples and the Greek temples and the History Museum in Aggrigento. We also visited some craters on the Etna Volcano. Well. Lady Etna was a bit busy so she could not invite us for tea, but we did not mind that too much, as the views there were awsome.
We tasted the sweet sicilian bees honey in Zafferano and  visited Giardini Naxos and Messina and many other beautiful places. We learnt a lot about the Italian way of life and the Sicilian ethno and cultural treasures.
We had an impressive dinner at a fish restaurant, with all kinds of fish and sea food and traditional local sweets and ice cream.
We also had an official dissemination Gala, when we presented our project and the partner schools to the officials of Santa Teresa di Riva and the region of Catania, as well as the massmedia and the families and other public who came to meet us. After that, the choir and orchestra from the Italian school presented a wonderful concert for the public present there.
We spent some very good quality time together in Santa Teresa di Riva and renewed our friendship and had fun in the evenings spent at the hotel talking and making plans for the next meeting. The evenings were excellent intercultural exchanges,
 We believe that this project is already a very successful one, because we already made plans to start new and different types of projects with our partners or with NGOs from Sicilia.
We all loved our time in Sicilia and we are all looking forward to meeting again in Turkey in early May 2011. :)
You can see here our treasure hunting in Sicilia