Torino 2025
Ciao! ​
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Peruskoulu Finnish teachers Kaisa, and Leena, traveled to Turin & Rivoli in northern Italy in mid-November. ​
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Welcome to their travelogue!
Our long-awaited trip began on Father's Day, November 9th, when both of our spouses dropped us mothers off at the airport early in the morning. Father's Day was also celebrated on the plane: for the captain, this was his first Father's Day and he spent it working.
The views above the Alps were breathtaking as we began to understand that this trip was really happening!
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We arrived at Milan Malpensa Airport, from where, after two trains, one metro and one bus ride, we arrived at our accommodation in Rivoli five hours later! Public transport became very familiar during the week, as the partner school has many locations.
On Monday we visited CPIA5 Torino school and met familiar staff there, they had visited us in Eira back in September. We reviewed the week's schedule and got more detailed information about the location of the offices as well as good general information about the school.
On Monday we also went to observe the art and English classes, in which we also actively participated. So actively, that some of the students probably still think we are new students in the group.
On Tuesday we had time to explore the center of Turin. In the afternoon, we jumped on a local train and travelled to the neighbouring municipality of Piscina, where the maths teacher picked us up in his car and the trip continued to Piossasco. In this school, teachers travel to the students! Our partner school has the opportunity to use the classrooms of other schools in the evenings, when they are otherwise empty – a rather ecological solution! In Piossasco, the atmosphere in the class was intense. We followed the geography and math lessons and tried to keep up with the calculations ourselves. Power calculations in Italian - it felt like 50 years had passed since our own high school years! In the evening, the maths teacher dropped us off in his car at Rivoli and we had the opportunity to talk about teaching and our principles for the rest of the car journey.
On Wednesday we studied Italian. Leena has been practicing Italian on Duolingo for over a year and Kaisa got to experience what it's like to start from scratch. There were about five students and two teachers in the beginners' course. The groups are of course larger at first, but life surprises us and the group size can easily decrease. We practiced the possessive pronoun and did the exercises diligently. The teachers' encouraging teaching style made us participate quite vigorously and we also did our best in the oral exercises. The second lesson was at about A2.1 level and there we stayed on topic, although the production was weaker. Again, the teacher's personality was charming, open and approachable. The topics were coffee, buying a movie ticket and film genres.
Thursday was another day of searching: the Grugliasco district, where we had to find an old villa with a side door that would give access to the senior citizens' exercise class. Google Maps was in full swing again as we worked out the route and schedules. Grugliasco was a very charming place and we also found our gym buddies and teacher Franco. Luckily, we had been told on Monday that we would actually be participating and not just watching from the sidelines! Sweat was flowing and the tennis ball was sometimes slipping from under our feet and sometimes from our hands - but what a useful class it was for us too! The exercise class is intended for local people over 60, so that their functional ability would be maintained as good as possible. Social image became an important issue for many participants. After the exercise, we looked for a new location again and headed to a geography class. The topic was earthquakes (terramoto) and tsunamis (maremoto). Once again, we were charmed by the teacher, his clear speaking style, illustrations and successful use of technology. What caught our attention was that there were hardly any textbooks in use and we didn't always understand that there was homework.
On Friday, we had a good final discussion at the Rivoli office, reflected on the past week and discussed possible cooperation in the future. We had some time left over for the rest of the day, which we used in the best possible way: on a day trip to the Alps! In less than two hours, we took the train from Turin (approx. 200 meters above sea level) to Bardonecchia (approx. 1300 meters above sea level). The brisk walk in the cool Alps did us the world of good and gave us even more fresh air.
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Saturday was another multi-stage travel day Rivoli-Turin-Milan-Malpensa Airport. In Milan we briefly hopped on the tram to see a bit of this famous city of fashion and money. We saw the Duomo and ate the last pizzas, then it was time to head to the airport and home.
