One of our two ''Erasmus+'' assistants,  Constanza Tonti, arrived at our school today. Miss Tonti is from Ancona, Italy which is opposite Zadar, Croatia.  A warm welcome accompanied by a meal awaited her at our school at noon.

Our students welcomed her dressed in traditional Croatian costumes of the area and gave a short speech in Italian to make her feel more at home. The welcome speech was followed by a presentation, traditional food and well known beverages.  We ate ''Napolitanke'' which are chocolate wafer cookies and get their name from the Italian city of Naples. We also ate ''medenjaci'' which are traditional croatian cookies made from honey. We drank juice made from an authentic type of sour cherry from the Dalmatian area called ''Maraska''. We described all of these things to our guest in Italian.

The presentation spoke of the similarities and differences between our two countries: Italy and Croatia. One similarity is  that Croatia also has some old Roman buildings and towns just as Italy does. Both Pula, Croatia and Verona, Italy have Roman ampitheatres, while Ravenna, Monreale in Sicily and Poreč in Croatia have Byzantine mosaics.

We both share the Adriatic Sea with Croatia on the east and Italy on the west. Since we are neighbours, many tourists come to Croatia from Italy and visa versa. Both countries also share the same Catholic religion. The Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua is a holy place in Italy which is visited by many Croatians. St. Leopold Mandić, who was of Croatian descent,  is burried there. We also have some similar natural features, for example the mountains Velebit in Croatia and Dolomites in Italy both have the same rocky relief, while the delta of the Po River in Italy is very similar to that of Lonjsko Polje in Croatia.

The game ''Mlin'' (The Mill) is an ancient game which is also played in both countries. In Croatia's Istria, the national minority are Italian, while there are many Croats currently living in Molise, Italy. The Croatian writer Marin Držić is burried in Venice, Italy while another Croatian, Marko Polo had sailed there long ago. The Croatian city of Zadar, like the whole of Dalmatia and Istria, had once belonged to Venice in historical times.

These are only a few of the similarities of these two neighbouring countries which were presented to Miss Tonti by our students. We are very happy about Miss Tonti's arrival and about the comming arrival of another assistant from Spain.
 

Katarina Leko 8.a
Marijan Biruš
 

In the begining we watched a presentation with music about the connections between Italy and Croatia.
 

Without any previous knowledge of Italian, but after few hours of practising, Sanela read a long and complicated welcome-speech almost perfectly.
 

We were listening to the welcome-speech with interest.
 

We presented a part of Croatian industrial and agricultural heritage, while practicing Italian.
 

In the begining of...
 

Filip showed the guest the whole school.