I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who as made my Italian exchange one of the most memorable experiences of my life especially the people from Interchange Outer East who welcomed me with welcoming and supportive arms into the Interchange family. You couldn't ask for a better group of people to travel overseas with for your first time. 

I enjoyed every moment of the trip and I hope that you enjoyed experiencing the trip through the blogs and pictures. Hopefully you can visit the website in the future and reflect on our journey and remember all the fantastic moments.

Thank you for commenting and providing feedback, your input was encouraging and enjoyed by all the members of our family. 

I look forward to volunteering with Interchange Outer East in the future so I can continue to meet more fabulous, caring and fun people who make a huge difference in everyones lives. 

Thank you,

Katie Smith 

With sad faces we board the plane on our way home from an incredible exchange in Italy, leaving behind  our new friends and an amazing experience. There is a feeling of sadness mixed with an excitement that we are going home to see our family after three weeks of enjoyment and adventure. 

Aboard the plane everything went smoothly including the stop over in Singapore and the flight back to home with only minutes to go we were delayed fifteen minutes but the fifteen minutes was worth the look of delight when we walked through the doors to see our family members happy faces. 

With everyone embracing their families, everyone said goodbye to their new friends and went home after a long twenty two hours of travelling. 

The ruckus laughter rang into the night. Around the round table sat enthusiastic spoon players with the Italian rookies playing an entertaining card game of spoons. The card game with a few of the Italians from Athla was a fantastic ending to our last day in Italy and Fred’s birthday. 

Previously in the day we checked out of the Venice hotel and caught the bullet train to Milan before having lunch at Mc Donald’s of all places for our last lunch in Italy. With last minute presents brought we caught the cab back to our Italian home; The Hub for our final night.

Quite a few of the younger members of our group were disappointed that they were unable to go to the beach whilst in Venice so Fred took them to the hotel swimming pool. The other remaining members of the group took the opportunity whilst the others were in the pool to repack their luggage and to relax. 

Floating gently along the green water in a relaxing atmosphere, admiring the buildings lining Venice’s canals, with your newfound friends was a great experience.

The gondola ride was definitely worth the money and time as we saw a large proportion of Venice by their main means of transportation.

With the gondola ride finished we wondered down the main waterfront to do even more shopping and to eat gelato for the last time in Italy. I think most members of our group are going to miss the lemon gelato and the wide variety of delicious flavors available.

Shelley and Jack remained behind to continue their shopping while the other remaining group caught a ferry to Marino Island. Marino Island is famous for the production of Marino glass and their glass products.

The glass blowers skill and craftsmanship as he shaped the molten glass before our eyes into a vase and then a horse with minimal effort was excellent to watch and well worth the ferry trip to the island.

The entire island was basically filled with small boutique glass shops containing masterpieces of glass products available for purchase. With the last ferry leaving we board the ferry to see beautiful sunsets on the horizon.

After dinner the group explored the waterfront at night, which was spectacular with the street lamps and the lights glittering on the water.

You could hear the shouts of laughter from down the street from the game of spoons, which was being played in the hotel by the younger members of our group until late into the night.

No cars, no motorbikes or Vespa scooters only boats or your feet. Welcome to Venice a small region in Italy, which only takes roughly three hours to walk around, our new and last home for the next two nights.

Hotel Cavalletto is a huge improvement on our last hotel in Rome with comfortable beds and normal sized showers, which as improved everyone’s mood after traveling on the very fast train for three hours and then a ferry for forty minutes with a hungry stomach.

With our luggage checked into the hotel we explored the town in search of something to eat for lunch. Then the group split into two with one group going to explore a church tower to admire the view of Venice and another group shopping for Marino glass.

With dinner eaten everyone took the opportunity to buy even more glass products and to wonder down the small Venice streets and ally ways.

Block after block we walked passing and stopping at shops to fill our overflowing suitcases with Italian products. The Italian chocolate shop was divine with the shelves lined with chocolate from the floor to the roof; the vivid colours of lolly wrappers and the excitement of discovering different exotic flavors provided sensory delight.

With our pockets full of candy and chocolate we pulled ourselves away from chocolate heaven to visit the iconic Trevi fountain.

The Trevi fountain was breathtakingly beautiful with the elegant statues and the glittering water going over the smooth rock and marble. Every member of the group took part in the tradition but the highlight was the man who was stealing the coins out of the fountain with a long magnetic pole. With the man avoiding our gaze and disappearing into the crowd at the appearance of the police, we too left the Trevi fountain to visit the Spanish Steps.

The Spanish Steps were packed with people but were still beautiful to admire. After everyone had stepped on the Spanish Steps we found a restaurant to dine at before visiting the Coliseum.

Inside the Coliseum was amazing with the sheer size and the sophistication of the architecture. There is an entire underground city underneath the Coliseum arena floor, which used to feature shops, animals and homes.  From walking a few laps and going up a couple of levels everyone had gained a sense of the previous activities and atmosphere of the Coliseum.

With the twilight hours approaching we left the Coliseum in search of a restaurant. The restaurant that we settled for was along side a tram track and was quite pleasant until the rain started to pour and we moved inside.

The owner of the restaurant was funny at our expense with him requiring that we ordered in Italian, then saying that we had to go to the toilet at the station and to top it off he “dropped” a cup at Fred.  

The real fun begun with the discovery that some members of our group had head lice which caused a panic and everyone scratching their heads at the thought of the evil creepy crawlies. The crises as been adverted with everyone treating each others hair to avoid further problems. 

Walking down the coble-stoned streets along side the ancient ruins with your eyes widened absorbing every intricate detail was an amazing experience. Rome the eternal city with it’s rich history and ancient ruins provided a days worth of entertainment with the group doing shopping, dinning in the local road side restaurants and exploring a small proportion of what Rome as to offer.

A small group of five participated in a tour of the Vatican City, which provided the fantastic bonus of jumping the queue and having access to the Sistine Chapel among with other fascinating parts. While the others enjoyed visiting the museum with the highlights being a golden sarcophagus of a pope, a pope's skull and instruments of torture. The 500-year-old tapestries, the paintings painted by Michelangelo and the statues were everywhere made you think about the value of the city.

With the tour of the Vatican City finished we met with the other remaining members of the group to leave for lunch and a brief amount of shopping in Piazza Novara a small square which contains an interesting toy shop, a statue which apparently looks like Fred, break dancers and street artists who drew multiple member of our group as cartoons.

From the Piazza Novara we walked to the Pantheon which was bold in it’s design compared to the delicate previous churches of the day. Inside of the Pantheon we debunked the myth that the rain doesn’t fall through the open hole in the roof but instead the rain falls through the roof and drains through fourteen different drainage holes in the floor.

Some members of our touring party were feeling exhausted so they returned to the hotel by taxi while the others explored Rome by Twilight. We went home by the Trevi fountain and the Republica. Rome’s atmosphere and landscape at nighttime is festive and beautiful. 

With Milan whizzing past at 275 km/h the excitement for visiting Rome was building. Three days of excitement, exploring the ancient Roman parts of the eternal city and immersing ourselves in Italian culture at it’s finest were looming before us.

Has the train slowed at the station our Roman adventure begun with a brief walk through the station to our hotel the Aphrodite our home for the next three nights.

With everyone checked in we wondered down the Roman streets in a dire search for something to eat. With our bellies now full of food we walked the streets to the center of eternal city where everyone stood in awe at the fascinating, ancient remains of Roman buildings.

We saw the Coliseum and the Forum while wondering the Roman streets at night, which was absolutely beautiful with the lighting of the buildings really highlighting their beauty and catching your attention.   

Lyndal, Ebnoy and Bethany were due back from their detour to visit their family so we returned to the area of our hotel to find a restaurant to have dinner. Once dinner was finished everyone retreated to bed with sore feet, lots of shopping and a sense of excitement for what laid in store for tomorrow. 

The tears were flowing down everyone's faces as they embraced in hugs of farewell. The Melmi project for 2013 had ended on a highly successful note with festive celebrations at our second home the Cascina. The festive celebrations included a magic show which featured amazing feats of magic with bubbles and musical instruments, performances by the Orchestra AllegroModerato and then the Australian stars (us) joined in and performed two musical arrangements. 

The exchanging of gifts occurred with the Athla mothers giving us all a huge thank you from all the Athla mothers, fathers, residents and volunteers with a compass or an hour glass, a small bag of goodies, a football sock containing chocolates and specially decorated slices created for us. After a few speeches it was our turn to give back to the people who had given so much love, kindness and support to make our journey as rememberable and remarkable as it was. 

With the gift giving completed everyone gathered on the lawn as we alighted hot air balloons with the words "good bye Melmi 2013". Has the balloons drifted into the sky the good thoughts and memories were reflected upon and the tears begun to flow with the saying of good bye. 

The people we have met and the friends that we have made caused heartbreak to say goodbye to but we are all grateful for the opportunity that we have been fortunate to have had with such wonderful people. 

The township of Varese contains an eighteen-century castle, the Villa Panza. The Villa Panza was given to the Italian trust and features a collection of modern art on the focus of colour and light.

The first section of the gallery featured large canvases, which were painted in a single colour and hanged on the wall. Everyone was slightly surprised to discover they were actually part of an expensive collection.

The next section was the light section, which featured white painted walls with different fluorescent lights lights, which mixed together to create a colour to fill the room. These rooms provided comical entertainment and the source of jokes and sarcasm. All the Australians were struggling to keep a straight face while in the coloured rooms due to the fact they were “art”.

But the real laughter came when three, two, one… the lady turned on the light switch which was meant to be magical, even the Italians were laughing at the “magic”. 

It was now our turn to create some magic with torches, cellophane and time lapse photography. The method was for each person in a group of five to do one action repeatedly for fifteen seconds in the dark. After the fifteen seconds the camera gave you are picture of everyone doing his or her actions together. The pictures turned out well with the individual different groups doing a butterfly, the Melmi logo, Melmi and 2013. 

Then it was time for lunch in the vast grounds with more pizza, soft drink, kick of the footy and exploration of Fred’s secret tunnel. Lunchtime was completed with a human pyramid and stacks on. 


After our Italian modern art experience we went grocery shopping for some members of our group it was a chaotic experience, while others played football with some Africans in the car park.  


When we returned to our second home at the Cascina it was our turn to educate the Italian on Australian cuisine. Has a group we cooked potato fritters, burgers, potato salad, big chopped salad and tzuki dip and then for desert a pavalova with fresh mixed berries.


With everyone tied from yet another early start we were reluctant to attend our orchestra practice for tomorrow but we couldn’t say no and everyone was latter thankful for the opportunity to refresh our memories.