Mira Perfetta 🦋

Nürnberg, flowers, smilies… blondy.

Wandering in the Saxony, Germany.

Dresden und Leipzig.

Rottenburg am Neckar, Germany. 

Am Bodensee. A lovely Sunday day at the lake.

St. Meinard Gymnasium. That was my school!

What would you do if they offer you a cultural exchange? Of course, accept it!

In 2010, they offered me a cultural exchange in Germany. I went in the charming Rottenburg am Neckar, a village not too far from Stuttgart. I went in the month of June. I attended a local school and I was hosted by a local family. The aim of this exchange was to deepen my German knowledge, not only in a scholastic-language context, but above all in a cultural one. And of course, as I have been hosted by a German family, the daughter of my host parents has been hosted by my family (at that time in Italy).

I remember this experience with a huge smile on my face. The small village was so cute and all the people so lovely towards me. I can still design in my mind the narrow street I used to take to go to school, the bridge over the river to go to the centre, full of small shops and bars, the main river shore, where I used to have pleasant promenades with my friends and my host family. Mountains and lake trips, music concerts and of course drinking “waterfall” of German beer!

At school, everybody was very nice towards me, schoolmates and teachers. We did many activities to compare the Italian culture with the German one, talking about several topics such as festivities, school structure, work schedule, favourite holidays destinations etc.

The life with my new family was simply perfect. I must to admit that I was lucky. We communicate in German and this was very helpful to improve my level, even though at the beginning I made embarrassing mistakes ahahah. My host parents treated me like their own daughter and I had also 2 elder sisters, both married, and 3 super sweet little nephews. Not long time ago, they sent me some pictures of them and it’s incredible how children grow so fast! This makes me feel so old ahahah.

Every day is a good day to start over.

It does not matter how. A travel, a foreign language, a relationship, a sport, a diet, or a book.

Ramsgate white souvenir.

Camden Town is absolutely my favorite spot in London! I like the front market and the local shops full of interesting and strange items. Called “alternative people life center”, it’s located on the Regent’s Canal of the Thames river and at night the view and the atmosphere is even more magic. You can find everything from clothes to antiques, from food to drugs. You can have a simple walk or a boat tour though the canals. I definitely recommend it!

Madame Tussaud is one of the most famous wax museum in the world. The museum hosts thousand of artists statues such as Freddie Mercury, Bob Marley ect...

As far as I know, London has always been one of the most cherished destination in Europe. Both for its free living-style and its beautiful post-renaissance architecture, but especially for its strong political power. The whole Great Britain, in general, has always shown its domination and independent willing, from the Colonialism period until the recent Brexit. Nowadays, London is one of the world capitals with the highest immigration rate, which is not always liked by Londoners.

These are some of the attractions that made me feel in a dynamic but silent, colorful but sad city, when I went for the first time in Berlin and I felt that the whole country had something to tell me about. That was the reason why I kept visiting it from the South to the North, from the East to the West. 

Having a promenade through the Holocaust-Mahnmal makes you feel the murdered voices that are still struggling to be listened. This particular monument is located on the former location of the Berliner Mauer, where the “death strip” once divided the city. It is a focal point, connecting the various holocaust monuments spread across the city and the country.

Der Bundestag. Legislative body at a federal level in Berlin. Along with the Bundesrat, represents the German Parliament. It was established in the earlier 50th and it was preceded by the Reichstag. I like to define it as the symbol of the German history, because it has seen the change of the Nation, from the Weimer Republic, through the Nazi period until now.