By Aaron Cordy
GREATER Shepparton Secondary College had some special guests last week, with 14 students from La Spezia, Italy, visiting for a week-long cultural stay.
The Italian students spent three weeks in Australia, following 17 students, three parents and three teachers from GSSC travelling to La Spezia last year, where they were warmly hosted by the Istituto Vincenzo Cardarelli school, which is heavily art-focused. The schools have formed a sister school program.
Before coming to Shepparton, the students spent time in Melbourne, Ballarat, Glenrowan and Echuca.
In Shepparton, they toured GSSC, Tank Gallery, SAM, Shepparton Heritage Centre, had a Dreamtime experience at GSSC (spear-making, weaving), met the mayor, and spent time at the botanic gardens, where they put their artistic skills to work before walking along the Goulburn River.
Bianca Tassanelli, an 18-year-old graphic design student at the Istituto Vincenzo Cardarelli school, was impressed by many aspects of her trip to Australia, but the openness of the region surprised her.
“Shepparton is bigger than the city I live in, but in the city I live in, we’re more than hundreds, thousands people, and here you are much less. You have so much space,” said Bianca.
“In Italy, we don’t have as much animals in the wild as you guys do. So, I really enjoyed that part, when you get close to the animals, so you can feel them in some kind of way. So I think that’s the best part.
“I enjoy the fact that it’s not only Australian people, you know, living in Australia. There’s a lot of Asians. There’s a lot of Italian too. You guys are strong in community, because we don’t have that as much in Italy.”
GSSC and Istituto Vincenzo Cardarelli school have formed a sister school program and hope to continue offering this experience to their students.
