Bear Buddies: EASTER IN ITALY

Dear friends,

I'm sorry for not writing to you before but it has been a very busy period.

First of all I want to tell you that I've met a new friend, Domenico. I spent three days with him and his family: they're all really cute!

As soon as we got to their home I played many sports and games (football, basketball...) with Alessandra, Domenico's sister, and with Domenico. I also slept with Alessandra.

The following day Domenico took me to the scout with him and I helped him to sell some cakes and biscuits (it was part of a charity project) and I ate sushi and sashimi with Domenico's family. Even his grandmother liked it.

Finally Domenico took me to the theatre in Brindisi to see a play with his schoolmates. It was "the Odissea". It was about Ulisses's adventures. Have you ever heard of him?. It was great to stay with Domenico.

After Domenico I was hosted by a cute, sweet and very nice girl, Gaia. On the 23^rd March there was a school trip, so Gaia took me with her. All her classmates are very nice. Our destination was Alberobello and Castellana where there are the famous karst caves. We left Mesagne at 7:30 a.m by bus and we arrived at Alberobello at 10:00 a.m. The journey was very nice because I played with Gaia all the time.

As soon as we arrived in Alberobello we visited the Trulli, strange houses with a conical roof and I took some photos with Gaia's classmates.

I also met a fantastic bear named Giovanna and I fell in love with her at once!

After that it began raining and I found shelter in Mrs Ferlisi's handbag. Because of the bad weather we had to go back to the bus.

At 12:30 we had our packed lunch and I ate the meatballs that Miriam's grandmother had prepared.

After that Gaia, Mrs Ferlisi and I visited the museum of Castellana's cave. It was fantastic .... you can know more about these wonderful caves checking this link:

http://www.grottedicastellana.it/en/the-caves//

We also enjoyed a play that some actors performed in the cave. The title was "hell in the cave" and it took inspiration from the masterpiece by Dante Alighieri (he is one of the most famous Italian writers who lived in the XIII century and who wrote a poem called "Divina Commedia" where he spoke about Hell, Purgatory and Paradise). It was very scary, but wonderful. I'll never forget this school trip.

Finally I spent Easter week with another girl, Enrica, who showed me how people from her country commemorate the last days of Jesus's life. In particular I was moved when I looked at the Way of the Cross which took place on Good Friday.

There was a long procession: people carried on their shoulder some statues representing the painful moments of Jesus' passion. The last statue was the one representing Jesus's mother, our Lady of Sorrow ("Addolorata" in Italian) .

Easter holidays lasted just one week. it was quite cold and I had the flu and a stomach ache (maybe I ate too many chocolate eggs!).

Yesterday I was the special guest of Ms Andriulo's youngest pupils.

They made masks of Robinson Crusoe and then they took me to the theatre to see Robinson Crusoe, a play taken from Daniel Defoe's novel dealing with the adventures of a castaway on a desert island. We had a great fun because it was an interactive play and the actors were amazing.