Hey there! I'm Luca!
Today is late February but there are so many things to say that I'll start from before christmas :D

22 December we went up in Dartmoor, a huge "hill" with animals and green fields all around. The most beautiful thing I've seen are these "little" cute creatures.

When I saw them in the middle of the street I couldn't believe it ahahah. 

Then we went up to a Tor, like a little rocky peak. We tried to climb it but it was slippery (as it rained just before) and really windy. We still managed to get to the top. 

It's a really beautiful experience because is really wild and there are animals everywhere, you could stay there for hours looking down to the city.

After Christmas then, one of my friend here in Torbay (italian friend) at to go home. While I was with him I took some photos of Torquay as it was a really sunny day.

Hope you liked the picture!!!

Bye for now, 
Luca xx

Hey guys! 
I'm really happy today!
I went to the Harry Potter Studios!!!!!!
Ok, I don't know if you're an Harry Potter Fan but this is briefly what we did all day!

If you are wondering if it's worth going to the Harry Potter Studios in London.. Well, it is!

These weeks where the last weeks of school so we had the chance to go somewhere further than usual. We payed 65 pounds to go to London and come back in a day! I honestly think that it's not too expensive taking in consideration that just to enter the studios it was 35 pounds!

We left at 6:15 am with 5 hours of bus ahead of us! But once we got there, oh man, it was AWESOME!

Hey Guysssssssss,
Welcome again to this awesome bloggggg!!!! (Modestly).
Ok, let's be serious for a moment... I'm so so so sorry if I didn't write anything in the past... 2 weeks? Wow.. I'm so bad...SORRY!
But I can say that I had so much to do and I did so many things during this time that, truth to be told, I forget to write... Sorry again...

Hoping that you can forgive me, in this post I will cover the most important things I've been doing for this last month!
So, hold on and be ready to this reeeeally long post!

On Sunday 30 October, I went to do something that I never did before... SAILING!!! It was AMAZING!
There was this friend of my host mum that had a boat, and they asked me if I wanted to go with them! Well I didn't esitate and I said yes! So on Sunday morning I went to the harbour to their boat and we sailed for 2 hours I believe... It was the best adventure so far! We literally raced with other boats along a "circuit" in the sea and we won! And everything was so technological!

On the 5-8 November weekend my host mum took us in Bristol too see it during the bonfire Night! The bonfire night is a night where all england is cheering because they killed the man who tried to lit the Parliament on fire... Since in our place no one was doing a proper bonfire, we decided to go there for the weekend.
We left on Friday afternoon and we went straight to the guest house as soon as we got there. In the morning, we went to see the river and all the boats on it which seems a lot like Amsterdam! One of these boats was a gallion!

Then we went to visit the cathedral. Believe me when I say that was almost as big as the Cathedral in Milan (which is really big). Since I love the gothic style, I really enjoyed going in the inside and watching these really high walls and everything!
And it was free!!!
After that, we moved in the Bristol University. We couldn't enter but it was still nice to see a gothic univerity ahah.
We also visited this museum (also freeeee) that I didn't really enjoy much but still was really good. There were egiptian things (that reminded me about my primary school ahah) and lots of stuffed animals!

Now the cool things come! We went visiting the SS Great Britain. It's a huge boat that sailed across the world and now is stucked in the harbour to be shown to the people!
I paid £8 for it but it was really worth it! I won't say much about it, I'll just leave you watch the photos but I need to say that there was the "DRY STOCK". Basically they built this dam to make the water stay outside the stock, so you could visit the under side of the boat without getting wet and with the water right above your head!
Another thing that really impressed me was how real the people (made of wax) inside the boat were!

After the SS Great Britain we were supposed to take the bus and go to this school where they would have had some fireworks, but they sold out and we didn't know where to go! I quickly searched on the web for bonfire in the nearby area and we went to this park. This was free and the other wasn't. I'll let you judge which one was better but, I think we were so lucky to have been in the park.

Guys, this post is the longest I've ever written...
Anyway, I hope you liked it. It's almost three month since I'm here and I still don't know what I want, but still I'm enjoying this time while it lasts! And I made some great friends!

Have a nice week!
See you,
Luca!

Hey guys! Welcome back here!
It's been a while since the last time I wrote but I have some great news!
Now it's Half Term, which means I have plenty of time to go around and have fun! I just came back from two really good trips!
On saturday 21st October, we decided to go to Dartmouth for the day! It's been a really lovely day. We went there mostly because there was the food festival!

It was quite big, there where lots of different kind of food, going from cheese to tipical cakes or tipical alcoholic drinks (we didn't drink it obviously!). I tried every singol cheese I met, because I love it and I wanted to see what's english cheese like! I tried the Parmiggiano too to make sure it was the same as the italian one!! :D
If you will ever go there, you MUST try the lemonade! Oh, gosh, it was exactly the same as the sicilian one, probably the best you can find here in England. There were quite a lot of different kind of lemonade, the classic one, the ginger one (I really liked it), the raspberry etc...
There were also tipical food like sausage rolls (different from the one you can buy in the supermarket), chocolate, fish, chips and so on. I tried a piece of chocolate and I wish I didn't. It was called chilli chocolate and I wanted to see if it was really spicy or not. God, it was the worst chocolate in the world!
Here there are some photos from Dartmouth. I didn't take the photos of the food because I was too concentrated on eating it... But I tried to take as much photos as possible because it was a really lovely day! (Quite rare here in England!)

After that trip we came back to have a huge roast dinner with all the family. I really enjoyed that dinner, although it was really huge, even for me...
The day after saturday I should have gone to the harbour to meet a friend of my host family, who would have brought me sailing with his friend's boat. Unfortunately, it was really windy and everything was cancelled but I still went there to see the boat and OMG it was awesome. It was a £ 150,000 boat. You know the wheel to drive the boat? Yeah, it was all electronic and it turned alone! Like, you set up the degrees you want to go right or left and it will do it for you! And inside the boat, it was all in wood and extremely luxurious.
Anyway Sunday was a really boring day after I came home.

On Monday I went to the bowling with my Student Liaison Officer and my Exchange student friends. It was really a good afternoon and one of them (italian) invited me to eat in an italian restaurant to have a nice pasta ahah. Can't wait for it!
On tuesday (Best day in this week), me and my host family went to Tintagel! For the one of you who doesn't know what Tintagel is, well let's say that is a great village in Cornwall (beautiful country), where the legend says King Arthur was born. We went there to see Merlin's cave and the museum where we could have seen the ROUND TABLE and the THRONE! But, it was closed for the winter... What a pity... Anyway we went to see Arthur's Castle (or what is left of it...) and Merlin's cave!
Here there are some photos I took there, the day was really sunny and the cave was great!

Now I have to go I have to start a really good christmas shopping! I hope that you liked this post.
Oh, I almost forgot. When we were hanging around the shops, a really nice man, who was an historian, gave me a coin from the ancient Roman Empire! It was from the 270 AD decade! It's impressive... I have the same coin that a man in that time has used to buy a piece of bread. Can you imagine it? Wow...
Well, thank you for reading this, see you in bit!
Luca

Hello everyone!
Welcome back on this section! If you are here it means that you are interested in how things are going here. Well, the answer is awesomely!
Today is 22nd of October. That means we're on HOLIDAYS! Yep, we're in Half Term Holidays, which means a week without school and teorically without homework!

I don't know if you are interested in places and travels, probably yes, so I thought you'd like to see the picture I took last week in Plymouth. For the one of you that don't know what Plymouth is, well, it's a city, I think the biggest in Devon. It's really good, I enjoyed every single moment I was there. You can get there with the Stagecoach Gold, which is some sort of luxury bus! I costs £7.70 but it was worth it! Once you get there, get ready, because the city is really big. We went to this cafè which I really liked. I don't know how to describe it but it was like a cave inside and the food was really good.
After that we went to visit a part of the harbour. The most beautiful thing about Plymouth is that it's between two rivers and its harbour is something huge! You know, Plymouth is where Navy, Air force and Commando are.It's a really important place, and something really suprising happened there! The MAYFLOWER sailed from Plymouth to colonise America!

Well, after all these news that literally shocked me, we went to the shopping mall. It was really big, but I liked it for its shops! There was Primark, Strabucks, Tiger and everythin I always loved!
Well, I don't want to bore you so I'll leave you the photos here :)

Now I'd like to talk a bit more about why I chose to come here and how I'm feeling right now!
If you don't know what to do, well, I'd say GO! Leave for this experience because it's really great! No regrets. I just want to say, it's not easy, when they say "Are you sure you can do it?" I always answered yes, of course, but now I realise that this experience needs people who are really strong and  that really want to do it. It was not easy the first time and now I change mood more than a pregnant woman. I don't know if I made my point, but I just want to say that the homesickness is always behind you, like a monster, ready to hit you whenever you are weaker. But there are some days where you feel awesome, like nothing could destroy you, you feel loved and you feel in the right place for a living. Before coming here I had lots of family problems, and this helped me finding the right way, try to stop thinking about the things that don't matter really. Helped me become an adult and stopped being a teenager, with all their problems. I had to face real problems that could seem stupid but when you are alone with no one who could help you you don't know what to do, then you have to think slowly, calm yourself, and solve the problem.
This experience is an amazing opportunity to test yourself in the real world.

Ok, maybe I'll stop talking stupid things like those. I hope that you liked this post, and that it's been useful. Now I've got to go, but we'll see soon I promise!
I'll finish with saying what I've got planned for this week. Today I should go in Darthmouth for the food festival with my host mum and the norvegian guy, then we'll have dinner with the daughter of our host mum. On Sunday I'll probably go sailing with an host mum friend, and on Monday I'll go to the bowling for the monthly meeting with educatius. Then I don't know what I'll do but we'll probably go visiting Cornwall to see where King Arthur was born!
Well, I hope to be able to write again soon!
Have a nice week!
Luke :D

Hi guys!
Here I am again, hoping not to be to boring ahah.
I'm sorry if last weekend I didn't say anything about me, but I was too busy experimenting new things!! Ok, I'm joking ahah.
In this post I wanted to tell you how was my last weekend! On saturday I had lots of homework to do and for that reason I stayed at home. No, not only for that, it was the typical English day, raining, cold and depressing. So I just stayed at home! But on Sunday, hoping that the weather would have been good, we went to Berry Head! If you have no idea what it is, under this paragraph you can see the photos I took there. It was amazing!!!

After the long walking, we had a little rest on the cliff drinking a lemonade madde with Sicilian lemons (which are the best ;) ahah). I was really happy, I had the opportunity to clear my mind, admire the landscape (which was really awesome to be honest), and think about who my life here is really changed. Some could think I'm saying stupid things which make no sense, but trust me, it really helped me to be happy and to enjoy more this life here!

After I came down from Berry Head, I had just the time to have a look to the photos, and it was already time to go to see my friends and play at... BATTLEFIELD!
For the ones of you that don't know what it is, don't worry, I'm alive and no, I didn't go really in a battlefield... There is this cool place called BattlefieldLive Torbay where you can have a nice time with your friends pretending to be a soldier and playing laser game. It was really cool, I had lots of kill and it was so real that you could think you're in a battlefield... Suggestion, don't be tired because the guns are heavy ahah.
If you want to have a look, I tried to make a video of me playing that, hoping that you like it :) I'm not the best at editing videos, but I hope it will still be useful for you to understand what it is and how fun could it be.

Now I have to go, I have too much homework to finish and quite a lot episodes of Vampire Diaries to see... Ops, maybe I shouldn't have said that... Sorry ahah.
If you have any question, just write here below this post and I'll answer whenever I can!! :D
Bye for now,
Luca!

Hi everyone! It's always me, Luca!

Finally another weekend has come, and as I always do, I enjoyed it! Today it's saturday 24th, so I still have tomorrow, but I think I'll spend it studying, seen that I have a real important physics test on Tuesday. It's important only because I want to see if I did well choosing Physics ;)

Few weeks ago, I thought it would have been nice for us to go somewhere and visit this new country. I went at least once in every city near my house, in Brixham, then I thought about going to Exeter! So we planned this day-trip with some of the exchange students here in Torbay!

We firstly took the train at Paignton and I must admit it was REALLY cheap. We payed 4.45 £ per person because we went there as a group.

We jumped off the train in Exeter Central and we went in some shops to buy things we needed. After that we started our excursion!! Here I will leave some photos we took during the day. I think Exeter is a really beautiful town and I really felt in love with its Cathedral! It's huge and I love gotic style.

Of course Exeter is not the only city that you can see, there's plenty more! I remember one of the first days we went to Dartmouth as well! Yeah, it's a really nice town by a river. You can get there by the bus and then by the ferry. Once you are there there are lots of beautiful houses and they seem like old england (victorian style).

Well, I think I made my point, you can't get bored in Torbay, there are lots of activities to do and lots of places to visit. For this weekend it's all, I must study hard if I want to get a high grade, so I don't have time for other activities, but if everything goes as planned, next weekend I'll tell you how is the laser game ;)
See you!
Luca

 Hello guys!
Welcome back to this website! 
In the last post I make a briefly description of almost everything important. In this post I'd like to describe the school system here! 
Well, the school here is completely different from my home country school. Firstly, here we have more classes. I mean, here you have to move from class to class, from room to room and you will finish to have lots of friends (which is good) and lots of kilos less (which is also good ahah). 
Here technology is the most important thing. Everyone know how to use a computer just because all the subjects are on it. If you have to do an homework and you are not sure on something you can always send an email to the teacher and she/he will answer you back before the day after. It's incredible...
Now you may say "Where do you live? Everywhere is like you said" It's not true! Probably every Italian guy can understand me when I say that I love this way to do school!

Another big difference, huge I would dare to say, is the number of subjects studied in a year. When the school asked me which subjects would I like to take, I couldn't believe I had to take ONLY 4 SUBJECTS!!!
From 13 to 4... Big step. Some of my friends here in England asked me if I find their school too easy when I said them I used to do 13 subjects. To be honest, I don't know. They are two completely different ways to do school. We do 13 subjects but some of them are not really studied. For example, Physics. If you do physics here, you do 5 periods a week. At home we did 2 a week. It's completely different and I personally think you can't compare them. Both are difficult enough.
However, I find the British school really more interesting. Teachers always try to make you be comfortable and easy going. 

However, let's talk about something else... Like host families and homesickness. I remember when I was in the soft landing camp in London, when the Educatius  staff "trained" us to face every single problem we would meet during our stay. I remember how I was, like "I don't care, I'm strong, only the weak will feel homesick". And well, guess what? I was probably the one who felt terribly homesick. 
No one is immune to this kind of sickness, but there are some people who can face it well and some others who can just be destroyed by it. And I was one of them, until I found my right motivation. Yes, you will always miss your home, I still do, but the only way to face it is keeping yourself busy, don't think about it and think at this as the new life, the one you dreamt since you were a child. 
Think about how lucky you are to be here it's probably the most important thing which kept me here. I remember I asked my student liaison officer if I could go home. And now I'm so glad he asked me to stay here a bit longer.

If you are going to leave for an exchange year or you are already there or simply you are interested in these kind of things, remember that your home is still there waiting for you, nothing will change, or better, everything will change, but you will be a completely different person as well. Your home will not escape, it will always stay there where you left it. 
Knowing that you'll come back, why don't you enjoy your time here? This is the right way to see the exchange year. You will be there only for 10 months or less. Could seem a lot, but it will last less than a second, and you will have to come back against your willing.

I'm sorry I promised I would talk only about the school, but I think this topic is important too! Today I'm going to the bowling and to eat something with some friends. Tomorrow, my host family should take us to the go kart centre!! If it will happen, stay tuned! Soon will come a post about it with lots of pictures!

Your exchange student in Torbay,
​Luca!

Hello everyone! I'm Luca and I'm 16 years old!
I would like to tell you something about my live here in Torbay, because I think the experience that I'm living is quite exciting but also quite rare.
I came here on 27th of August with Educatius. I have to admit that the first times were really difficult to me. I mean, everything was different, everything seemed to be against my tradition. The food was completely different and my belly was refusing to eat it. So I was really homesick. But do not be scared. Now I feel as never before. I understood that keeping yourself busy it's something really important because it will help you not to think about your home country. I visited some cities around Brixham (where I live) and everything seems awesome. Now I wouldn't like to come back. I've seen a bit of Paignton and Torquay. We went even in Dartmouth, which is the most beautiful town in all torbay. It was like being in a film, with all these coloured houses and nice landscapes (and lots of sheeps). Anyway, if you ever get bored and you don't know what to do, don't worry, torbay has lots of opportunities you can get.

I went to the Torquay bowling with some friends and I think it's a good way to spend the afternoon (I won!!! And I ended to be in the "Today's top scores"!!!)

But unfortunately there is more the leisure in Torbay, there are also schools!! You could think "Oh, damn it, school..." but I have to admit that schools here are quite interesting and they try to involve you into their subjects. Then you are happy to go to school. Or at least I am.

The travelling to the school is not that bad, the buses come really often and they are really AWESOME. Ah, I almost forgot, I'm going to Churston Ferrers Grammar School (the best! ahah).

School gave us Google Chromebooks to study and we can take it at home and wherever we want. We will have to give them back at the end of the year though (obviously).

I really love this computers, you can share homeworks and receive a feedback immediately. Anyway the schools here are pretty much all technological. In mine, everything is on the web. We have our personal e-mail address and we have homeworks on Google Classroom and so on.

This is my timetable, i'm doing 4 a-level subjects:
Physics
Further Maths
Chemistry
Computer Science.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and I hope it has been helpfull!
Next week I'm going to try Go karting!! Maybe it will be a good reason for another post!
See you soon,
Luca!