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MOUNT AMIATA Mount Amiata and its surroundings are a vast environmental park where nature, art and culture happily combine. The vegetation is varied. You can find vineyards, olive groves, chestnut trees, beech and fir. Thanks to the favourable soil and climate, the excellent Montecucco wine (also recognized D.O.C.) is produced in this area. The famous Seggianese olives give a top quality olive oil recognized D.O.P. Our wine and oil accompany most of our typical dishes, among which recipes with local mushrooms. The mushrooms of Mount Amiata are a natural product of the woods and mushroom picking is an ancient activity of the inhabitants of the Amiata villages. The Amiata donkeys were used in the past to carry mushrooms from the woods to the towns and to help farmers with their work. You can see these donkeys in our “Wildlife Park”, together with deers, roe deers, mouflons, chamois and wolves, the biggest attraction of the park.

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MOUNT AMIATA

Mount Amiata and its surroundings are a vast environmental park where nature, art and culture happily combine. The vegetation is varied. You can find vineyards, olive groves, chestnut trees, beech and fir.Thanks to the favourable soil and climate, the excellent Montecucco wine (also recognized D.O.C.) is produced in this area. The famous Seggianese olives give a top quality olive oil recognized D.O.P. Our wine and oil accompany most of our typical dishes, among which recipes with local mushrooms. The mushrooms of Mount Amiata are a natural product of the woods and mushroom picking is an ancient activity of the inhabitants of the Amiata villages.

The Amiata donkeys were used in the past to carry mushrooms from the woods to the towns and to help farmers with their work. You can see these donkeys in our “Wildlife Park”, together with deers, roe deers, mouflons, chamois and wolves, the biggest attraction of the park.

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The Park is a natural reserve and all the animals live in the wild, but the territory where the wolves live is fenced.Wild boars, badgers, foxes and hedgehogs also live in the local woods.

Going back to the local products, we can't forget “ricotta” and “ravaggiolo”, two types of cheese that are processed in this area.Bee farming is important too, and our local honey is famous.But the most important product of Mount Amiata is the chestnut. Many local recipes have chestnuts as a fundamental ingredient; we also have a special chestnut beer. There are various types of chestnut trees and the “Marroni” are the best.

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As a tribute to this important fruit the Corsini factory created a special cake called “polendina”.

The Corsini's story began in 1921 in Castel del Piano, in the old family bakery of Corrado and Solidea Corsini. Since then the bakery and then the factory has been handed down from father to son, and through the years the dimensions and the importance of the factory have grown. Now their panettone, panforte, cakes and biscuits are famous and exported in many countries.Climbing up the mountain top, we find beech and then fir trees. The beechwood of Mount Amiata is the biggest in Europe, but now some trees are diseased and they will be cut down. In winter the atmosphere is spectacular because the beech and fir trees are covered with snow and they seem made of ice!!

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In winter there are more visitors to our mountain thanks to the snow and a small ski area on the mountain top. There are 12 ski slopes in total, some are for beginners and some are for expert skiers. Most of the slopes are quite narrow, because they are surrounded by the trees, and that's make them more difficult than they seem! The summit is 1738 mt. and from there you can get a great view over Tuscany. On the very top you can also see a monumental iron cross built in 1910.

Apart from skiing, you can also enjoy trekking in the woods or try the Amiata Balance, a challenging course on ropes to test your balance and endurance.

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CASTEL DEL PIANO

In our town there are a lot of attractions, for example “Piazzone” (big square”) where many people of every age meet and talk or read something, and children can do sport. Now it is more beautiful than before. In fact one year ago the town council decided to restructure it.

There are some football teams such as “Giovanissimi”, “Esordienti” and others. In Castel del Piano there are two football pitches; in one you can play 5-a-side football, and the other one is a real football pitch. Other popular sports here are tennis and basketball. There are two tennis courts and a sports hall. There is also a new gym next to one of the tennis courts and the small football pitch. In this gym you can play other sports, for example volleyball and handball.

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THE “PALIO”

The biggest and most exciting event in Castel del Piano is the Palio.The palio is a horse race with four horses representing the four parts of the town.The four districts, called “contrade” are Monumento, Poggio, Storte and Borgo.The Palio takes places on St. Patron's day (8th September) and at the end of the race the winning contrada goes to Madonna delle Grazie church to say thank you.The symbols of the four contrade are: a fountain for Storte and Borgo, a castle for Poggio and an eagle for Monumento. The colours are: red and blue for Monumento, white, black and sky blue for Storte, red and green for Poggio, pink and violet for Borgo.The celebrations last 3 days: 6th, 7th and of course 8th September, the most important day because it is when the Palio takes place. The 6th and the 7th there are heats for the horses and then the leaders of the contrade check the horses which will run the Palio.The days before the 8th each contrada has a special dinner with the supporters and they sing, they have fun and they have a rather good dinner.Each contrada is busy also in the morning and in the afternoon. There are some games and you can also cook the dinner.The 7th afternoon and the 8th morning the contrade do a test for the real

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race; they can try the course and the start.

On 8th morning there is a historical parade with some representative members of the contrade who walk around the square .The four contrade wave their flags for 10-20 minutes (first the contrada which won the latest palio) and a lot of people come to watch the flag wavers. Then in the afternoon there is another parade.After that the contrade go to Garibaldi Square and all the people gather here to see the race. The square is full of excitement!The race should start at 6 o'clock but generally it doesn't start until 7.At night there is a bingo and finally fireworks that last about 40 minutes.The next weeks the winning contrada has a street parade to celebrate its victory and to remind its “enemies” who the best is, at least for the year....

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OUR SCHOOL DAY

Our school is a “Scuola Media” (Middle School) for students aged 11 to 14. In our school we have 36 lessons a week, from Monday to Saturday but one of the second classes has chosen to do only 30 lessons.We start at 8 o'clock and finish at 1 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, but on Tuesday and Thursday we finish at 4 pm .We have 5 periods on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and on Tuesday and Thursday we have 7 periods. We have a ten-minute break in the morning and one-hour break at lunch-time. On Tuesday and Thursday we have lunch at school but some students eat at home. We study History, English, Maths, Science, Art, Music, P.E., Italian, Geography, I.C.T., Technology, French and R.E. There are 6 classes; 2 first classes, 2 second classes and 2 third classes for a total number of about 130 students.

In our school every Tuesday and Thursday we have 2 afternoon lessons. On Tuesday afternoon we have easy lessons like reading (if we do Italian), or experiments (if we do Science) or P. E. On Thursday we can choose what to do. Our teachers give us a piece of paper with different subjects that we can choose (we call them “labs”). Our choices can change every term. We have lots of activities and some are very nice. For example we can do basketball, football, tennis,

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athletics, English for Trinity exams, I.C.T for E.C.D.L, Science club, eco-lab, kitchen garden, Art, cineforum, etc. Some teachers also do extra lessons of Maths, Italian and English for children who need to revise or catch up with the class. Some of them need extra Italian lessons because they are foreigners. In fact we have a lot of immigrants here.The students of the third classes can also choose to do an extra lesson from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays to attend the course to get the motorcycle licence.We like these activities a lot because we can stay with all the students of our school, not only our classmates, and because they are fun. What do you think of our activities? Do you like them?Every year we can also have special projects, like for example lessons with a psychologist, or theatre, etc....

In our school R.E. is optional. Students who don't do R.E. study other subjects with one of their teachers. They usually do Maths, Italian homework or revise for a test.In our school there are also three children with special needs who have supporting teachers only for them. These teachers help them with their special curriculum and also plan activities to help them socialize with the other guys.At the end of the third year we have exams...four written exams (Italian, Maths, English and French) and an oral exam on all the subjects!

SPORT COMPETITIONS

In our school we do a lot of sport competitions. There is a volleyball tournament with other schools and our P. E. teacher trains us to become “number 1”.Another sport competition is in May: that’s the “Giochi della della Gioventù”. On this day there are a lot of competitors from many schools.We do many sports (volleyball, basketball, football, etc.) and finally we see which school has the best results in all the games. The most important local sport competition is “Trofeo Amiata”. The best boys and girls of our school do long jump, high jump, 1000 metres, 60

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metres, 100 metres and shot put.It is fun and if you win you get a medal.There is also a skiing competition in winter, but just a few students do it.

CONTESTS

In our school we also do contests; some of them are local, some others regional, national or international. For example our school took part in the European Robo-cup competition. It came first in Austria three years ago in the “Rescue category”. These students built a robot that could enter a building, locate the “victims” and separate them from various types of debris and rescue them.We also won a regional contest in English. These students drew and wrote a comic about the mystery of Stonehenge.We also take part in literary contests, the Maths Olympics and local contests with works and ornaments that we make with our Art teacher. Some of our works are sold at the Christmas market to raise money for charity.

SPECIAL DAYS IN OUR SCHOOL

In January we have a ski holiday because we are a mountain school and skiing is part of our curriculum. All the classes can take part, provided there is the required number of students.

Then the last day of Carnival our sport teacher organizes some games for all the students who are first divided into teams.

In the second term we go on school trips, usually one or two. They can be one-day trips or three-day trips.

The last week of school the classes which don't have exams don’t always have regular lessons. In fact they often go out or play board games. If they go out, they play volleyball or football and chat with friends and teachers. On the last day we all go to Garibaldi Square to eat an ice-

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cream and then we come back to school...and when we the bell rings we shout and play with water and get wet!!