About 30 students from the Vicenza Liceo "Quadri", a high school in downtown Vicenza, along with their teacher visited Caserma Ederle and Villaggio during a field trip May 13.
The event is part of a school program with CYSS, and has developed into an annual trip coordinated by Margherita Frasson, USAG Vicenza CYSS administrative assistant and Elisa Spadavecchia, Liceo Quadri English teacher.
"For these students, who attend the second year in high school, our visit was their first experience of seeing the installation and learning a little about a different culture," said Spadavecchia.
"I came last year with a different class and, hopefully, we can plan this visit as an annual intercultural exchange," she added.
One of the representatives of the Italian students, who are equivalent of sophomore students, Marco Corbetti said "I am very happy about how I spent this day, because it has been a very interesting experience. Mostly, I liked visiting and using some of the gym equipment".
After their first stop at the post library, where post librarian Michelle Ortiz explained the peculiarities of the facility, the students walked to the fitness center for a tour and some sports' training approaches, which included basketball, the cardio room and racquetball courts.
For Virginia Dal Cero, a specific location represented the favorite portion of her tour.
"In particular, I enjoyed visiting the library," she said.
"I was surprised at the amount of books. It was also great to spend a day here as a break from our school activities and final tests that are even more numerous at the end of our school year," she said.
As part of the tour, the students spent some time at the Arena, first having a snack and then bowling.
Mixed with the Italian students were also two students from New Zealand and one from Australia, who had the chance to share this visit while spending their International Cultural Exchange semester in the Italian school.
"I have been in Italy since January and I have learned and passed some Italian tests, but today I'm speaking English and it's like I'm at home," said George Williams, one of the foreign students while commenting on his participation.
Williams is spending six months in Italy between his high school graduation and starting college.
Before ending their school day, the students went to Villaggio and stopped at the Youth Center to experience the rock climbing wall.
Throughout multiple activities the Italian students had the chance to learn more about the Vicenza Military Community. Next time, they hope to expand their knowledge even more by getting a chance to interact with the American Vicenza High School students during their school activities.
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