In Tuscany, and in particular in our zone, there are many religions: buddhism, Hebraism, Islamism, Jeova’s witnesses and Protestantism.

The reasons are many : the main one is that there are many immigrants; moreover in the 90’s the New Age has conditioned many people to become Buddhists. On the contrary, in Pitigliano there is an ancient Jewish Community.

                                  RELIGIOUS AND NATIONAL FEASTS

In Italy there are also religious and national feast days. The religious holidays are:

Christmas, Easter, Epiphany, All Saint’s day, Immaculate Conception. These holidays are also considered national because during these festivities people don’t work. Christmas is on 25^th of December but we begin to celebrate on the 24^th of December and this day is called Christmas Eve. During this day we don’t eat any meat and we exchange presents. At midnight we go to Mass; during these days people meet up with relatives and they celebrate together Jesus Christ’s birth. Then on the 26^th of December we continue to celebrate this feast and we take the opportunity to go to visit people that we haven’t seen for a long time, this day is called Boxing day. In the month of April or of March there is the Easter Day and we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ and during this feast, like at Christmas, we go to the Mass at midnight and the feast continues till the next day and young people take advantage to go together to have picnic at the seaside, in the country or in the mountains; this day is called the Monday of the Angel because we remember the day in which the angel told to Maria that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. Epiphany after Christmas is the day in which the three Wise men brought incense, gold and myrrh to Jesus. We celebrate this feast on January, 6^th and there is a legend that says that Befana, an ugly old woman, brings gifts to children passing by the fireplace. The first November  is All Saint’s day and during this day we go to the cemetery and we pray for the dead . December, 8^th is the Immaculate Conception and during this day there is not school and work. Finally we have the Corpus Domini and during this day we make a procession with Jesus’ body.

Other bank holidays are the 1^st of May, the 25^th of April. The 1^st May is the worker’s holiday and there is no school and no work. On 25^th April we celebrate the Italy’s liberation from the dictatorship and so the Republic. Moreover there are other feasts like the 31 December, the last day of the year, when we meet together to celebrate the New Year. In this day we eat lentils because there is a legend that says that lentils will bring a lot of  money to people who eat them on this day and this feast grows longer till the next day, New Year’s Day. Then we have another feast during the summer : the mid-August holiday that is connected with religion because it’s the day in which Maria’s soul climbs the sky and we usually take advantage to go to the sea or to the mountains, like the day after Easter. Carnival, in February, goes on for about 40 days and the principal days are the last Thursday and the last Tuesday when we have parties and we dress up in fancy dress. The end of this feast coincides with the beginning of Lent that precedes Easter.

                                              HISTORICAL FESTIVALS

Our regional reality is characterised by a lot of ancient villages and cities. Most  historical traditions are alive and very strong. Tuscan people feel very much this common sense for traditions. We are a population bound up with our past. Also in Tuscany young people are interested in continuing these historical traditions. Our land’s past is very rich and charming, in particular we are used to preserving traditions and costumes of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This common sense of our cultural traditions is obvious in a lot of historical festivals. Every season in every village has typical historical feasts. These festivals are characterised by an historical procession which walks through the village and ancient legends, medieval competitions and village traditions.

For example, the most famous historical festival is the “Palio di Siena”. This is a Renaissance feast and it is held on 2^nd July and 16^th August. “Palio” is a horse race which takes place in the main square of Siena : Piazza del Campo. Before racing there is a procession in costumes, with drums, trumpets, weapons and flags of 1450. There are 17 districts for the ancient 17 popular districts of 1460. But only 10 can race. Horses in the race must run 3 times round the square. The winning district gets a big silky flag with the pictures of the Virgin Mary and coat of arms. Siena’s population love this festival very much and spend a lot of money for it.

An other typical race, but less important, is in a small village near Grosseto : the race of donkeys in Campagnatico. Also here there is an historical procession, but the districts race donkeys. This is a particular farm race, because the donkeys are very slow.

In San Quirico d’Orcia, a small medieval village, every year people remembers when in 1154 the Emperor Federico I went here and gave the head of the Pope’s enemy to his servants to be crowned. On this day the village is divided into 4 districts, there is a medieval procession and the traditional competitions of flags and archery.

In Santa Fiora, every summer, there is a procession in costumes. This is a festival to celebrate the historical past of the village. We know this feast well because our French teacher parades in the procession. He’s so funny with his big medieval turban and he’s famous in the whole school !!

In Tuscany historical feast days are more important than religious feast days. This is a big difference between north Italy and south Italy. In the south of Italy people makes only religious festivals.

But in Tuscany, every town connected to village celebrates its own patron saint. These religious feasts are usually joined with historical traditions; for example we celebrate S.Lorenzo, the patron saint of Grosseto on 10^th August. On this day the saint’s statue goes through Grosseto on a big cart hauled by some oxen. The procession of horses and oxen isn’t  only religious, but also civil and reminds us of  the agricultural traditions in the history of Grosseto.

Usually every historical and religious festivals are followed by gastronomic festivals.

                                              VILLAGE FESTIVALS

The village festivals are an opportunity to visit Maremma and to see its charm and happiness. These festivals are also medieval traditions that give you the occasion to feel the joy and the cheerfulness of a village feast. In particular these are gastronomic festivals; in Italy we call them: “ SAGRE “. Most of these feasts are celebrated during summer : that one of the strawberries at Marsigliana, that one of the fish in the villages near the sea, that one of the potatoes at S.Maria a monte, that one of the “ gnocchi “ at Batignano, of wild-boar at Montepescali and Rispescia. A funny gastronomic festival is that one of  the frogs in Paganico : the village is divided into districts and everyone has a frog; there is the race of these frogs and the frog that will arrive first at the winning post will continue to live, while the others will all be cooked and eaten.  

There are village festivals also in Autumn, but these are the typical products of Maremma’s agriculture :the festival of oil olive at Batignano and Montepescali, that one of the grapes and wine at Cinigiano and Scansano; a feature of this festival is that everybody gets drunk!!

Most young people go to the village festivals because it is the only occasion to do something different from the other days.

GRUPPO B : DIET

Hello ! We are sending you some information about our diet : the typical Mediterranean diet !

For breakfast we usually eat biscuits or donuts with a cup of strong coffee , milk or a cappuccino .However the Italian breakfast has been influenced by the other typical European breakfast , for example a lot of people eat corn flakes , toasts with butter and jam , and yoghurt .

We usually have our lunch at 1:30 p.m.. at home with our family . We eat pasta with sauce , and for second course a dish of meat or fish with vegetables , than we eat fruit and on Sunday or during the holidays we eat also typical Italian cakes cooked by our mothers : in 15 days it will be Christmas time , we are going to eat a lot of Christmas cakes , like Pandoro , Panettone (with candy and raisins ) , Torrone and Ricciarelli .

During the afternoon we sometimes have a little break : bread and Nutella (chocolate cream )!!!!

At 8 / 8:30 p.m. we have a light dinner , in fact we eat only a dish of cheese , meat or pizza or some cold cults .

As you can see in Italy food is a very important thing !!!It’s important not only because we enjoy eating but also because lunch and dinner are meeting times for family .We can find the importance of food also in the countless “Sagre” country festivals where you can eat a typical food of our region .For example in October and November there is “Sagra del cinghiale” , where you can taste and relish a good wildboar , or if you want to taste a something “natural” , you can go to “Sagra del porcino” , a kind of mushrooms .

Now we are sending you a typical recipe of our region , so you’ll be able to relish a good dish!!!!!

TAGLIATELLE AL RAGU’ : (pasta with meat sauce)

Ragù is a sauce made up of mincemeat , oil ,salt , onion , celery , carrots , ½ glass of redwine and tomato sauce .

First in a sauce pan fry slightly oil ,salt ,onion ,celery and carrots , then add mincemeat with tomato sauce , and when it boils pour ½ glass of red wine let it cook for half and hour .Then add this sauce to cooked Tagiatelle……………..and ENJOY YOUR MEAL!!!!!!!

Life in family

COHABITATION  The majority of italian young people stay at home with their parents until they get married.

They don’t have enough money to live on their own, they don’t want to take too many responsabilities upon themselves, and most parents don’t agree about cohabitation before marriage. Actually, especially in little cities like Grosseto, people are quite narrow-minded and traditional as regarding relationships between girls and boys.(we think in big cities it is different, but we haven’t got any experience there) I have a perfect example in my personal experience: I really wanted to go to the mountains with my boyfriend and some friends, to spend a short holiday, but my parents didn’t want me to go and I was forced to stay at home.

I think that a short period of cohabitation can be a good opportunity to know your partner better.

                                                                                                                            Serena

AN ITALIAN PROBLEM  From national surveys a large number of children decide to leave their parents’ house late, even at thirty,thirtyfive.

There are a lot of reasons: the most important one is economic; many young people don’t find any job, sometimes because of their unexperience or because they attend university for more than four or five years, since they are not able to finish their exams on time and sometimes they don’t obtain their degree because they abandon faculties.

Another relevant reason is that parents don’t agree with cohabitation, as we said before.

Italian boys are quite famous because they are mummy’s children because they love staying at home being cuddled.

                                                                                                                               Chiara

THE ROLES IN FAMILY  In a tipical Italian family, wives usually keep the house in order and do the houseworks.

Their husbands rarely help them and children have just to mess up.

Men often help their wives when they work and come back home quite late in the afternoon, in this case they cook and wash dishes.

In fact the traditional Italian husband is always tired when he returns home and he prefers to relax and find a warm meal on the table.

In my family the situation is very similar: in fact my mother teaches in a small town 50 km far from Grosseto and she arrives home late, so when I go out from school I have to cook and tidy my bed; my brothers are very lazy and they never help me, they can just mess up and their room is a big mess.

My parents are very understanding, we talk about everything together because they are really open-minded.

                                                                                                                                Maria

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PARENTS AND CHILDREN  I think it will be easier to speak about my experience. Actually I don’t like telling my parents everything about me and my friends because they are quite old-fashioned and they always make a comparison between what they could do when they were eighteen and what I can do, especially my father does it, and I definitely can’t stand it!

As a consequence we start arguing but I usually win because my father hasn’t any good argument to contrast me strongly.

On the other hand I have my mother on my side, she tries to convince her husband when he is reluctant to give me a permission; unnecessary to say that I open my heart to her and she understands me.

At last I don’t think that my parents are very strict because, for example, they leave me travelling with my friends during summer holidays and it’s not so common here in Italy.                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                             Claudia

FEASTS AND HOLIDAYS IN FAMILY  Italian families are used to meeting at Christmas and at Easter to celebrate and have a huge lunch with the whole family; sometimes thirty or forty people meet in this occasions, it is considered a great opportunity to stay with your relatives.

The food follows a special tradition too: stuffed pig’s trotter with lentils, lasagne and delicious Italian cakes like panettone, pandoro,panforte.

After eating families play Xmas games and sometimes there is money involved and it’s great fun.

SPARE TIME GROUP D

Italian teenagers, during their free time, have a lot of hobbies: they listen to music, they like going to the cinema or going to the city centre. Then, many people practise: swimming, tennis, volleyball, football and so on; other people spend a lot of time playing videogames.

Music is the most important hobby and favourite singers are the foreign ones like: Skunk Anansie, Oasis, U2 and boys bands(BSB, 5ive, Boyzone in particular) are the most listened to; also the songs of single artists like Madonna are very famous in our country. Young people spend a lot of money on Cds and listen to the music and watch music videos on MTV, a worldwide network which broadcasts pop and commercial music. Many people, especially the younger ones,  go to the disco where they can dance to discomusic that it is mixed by Djs. The most well known deejays are: Albertino, Fargetta, Prezioso and Mimmo Amerelli.

Also, the cinema is important: in Grosseto we have four cinemas-not too many- but we have preview films strown here before going on in the cities. Tickets cost 12000£, the special prices on some days is 8000£. Cinemas are open in the afternoon and in the evening, but not in summer because people prefer the sea. The cinema Moderno is also a theatre and there the companies put on many important shows(music, entertainment, dance, theatre) because it’ s large and many people can go in. There the many dance-schools of the town put on their shows and there Claudia dances with the School of Artists. We have also the “ Teatro degli Industri”, very old and very nice, but very small. Many shows are on there too, generally in the evening. Many schools of Grosseto have a drama-laboratory and, in April, the schools have a very important exhibition at the “Teatro degli Industri” called “Rassegna provinciale del teatro della scuola”: for about 15 days, the students from 3 to 18 years(also the students of Claudia’s mother play in it), put on their plays and are alternatively actors or spectators.

In Grosseto we can practise many sports because there are many sports facilities: in fact, we have a lot of football fields, two sport centres for basketball and volleyball, two swimming pools and also an athletics field, called “Campo Zauli”. With regards to football, the province of Grosseto has no teams belonging to professional championships, even if, the majority of young people playing it. Basketball and volleyball are not as popular, only in summer a lot of people enjoy theirselves playing them. In Grosseto, then, there are, in athletics, some very good athlets, especially in the faster specialities. Some young people play baseball, especially because the team of our city, “Papalini Grosseto”, is in the premier league. We mustn’t forget acquatic sports( swimming, scuba diving and so on) which in summer are practise a lot, and also horse riding, especially in the hilly zones.

Also videogames are one of the most important hobbies: but not only among young people, because many grown-ups have a console in their homes. The console that is just about everywhere is Sony Playstation. Especially in winter, when the wheater isn’t so good, people spend a lot of time( about 2 or 3 hours) in front of it enjoing playing Fifa, Winning Eleven, Formula One, Tomb Raider, NBA Live, Crash Bandicoot etc. In all families we can find a Playstation, because its cost isn’t very high and also the games are quite cheap. Other people are interested in the computer and recently many people have connected to Internet and now enjoy surfing on the net.

In the winter we often go for a walk in “Corso Carducci” here in Grosseto, where we meet other girls and boys; it’s the most important street in the town centre. In the summer we are always on the beach because it’s very hot and we can enjoy ourselves playing football, beachvolley and going water skiing. In the smaller towns people in afternoon are in the bar or in the main square. In the evening at about 9:00 pm there aren’t many people  because they all go to the disco or to the pub in the nearest big city where there are a lot of pubs, discos and are more young people.

Davide-Claudia-Paola-Ilaria-Valentina and matteo.

GROUP “E”

TEENAGE CULTURES

INTRODUCTION

To talk about teenagers we have decided to give you some different points of view about

some aspects of our culture. Infact every member of our group will tell you about a subject so that you can get to know us better.

WHAT YOUNG PEOPLE READ

Young people don’t like reading books very much. Young people who love reading often read THRILLERS,ADVENTURE STORIES, COMICS, NOVELS and HORROR STORIES. They always read in their sparetime because they are very busy with their homework or with their hobbies and sports, or with their job, if they work. With regards to COMICS they read above all japaneese comics such as: DRAGON BALL, RANMA ½, RAYHEART(my favourite one), MARMELADE BOY, TOUCH, SLAYERS, GOLDEN BOY, CONAN, KEN SHIRO. The only Italian comic for young people is DYLAN DOG, instead for children there is TOPOLINO, SNOOPY and MAFALDA. Only a few young people read romances of classic literature, but I’m not one of them!                       

… LISTEN TO

To say what kind of music the guys like is quite complicated, because the choice ranges from HARD-ROCK to SOFT POP MUSIC, from RAP or R&B to CLASSICAL MUSIC. One thing for sure is that they love more English or American music, but Italian music is not completely ignored: there are lots of Italian singers who are very famous, like JOVANOTTI or VASCO ROSSI (but I know if they’re unknown for you!!). Most teenagers, especially the girls, go crazy for the billions of boy-bands, or girl-bands that “dose” us from the radio. I’m telling about FIVE, BACKSTREET BOYS, SPICE GIRLS etc… Fortunally young people have better musical taste too! An important place is occupied by LOVE SONGS: the songs that make you cry or that make you dream about romantic love, have always a great success!! DISCOMUSIC too is widespread and the most people are fond of discotheques! Besides there’s always someone who has a particular taste, like me, for istance, infact I have two favourite groups: U2 and DEPECHE MODE, I hope you know them.

… WATCH ON TV

In their sparetime young people prefer to go out, however, sometimes they also like staying at home and watching the television. Young people watch lots of programmes: TV NEWS, TALK SHOWS, CURRENT AFFAIRS, DOCUMENTARIES, SPORTS PROGRAMMES, CARTOONS, TV SERIES, SOAP OPERAS, MUSIC PROGRAMMES, MOVIES and DOCUMENTARIES ON ANIMALS. Among the TV NEWS the most popular are: TG UNO, TG DUE, TG 5 and TG CUSTOM AND SOCIETY on channel two in Italy. The most followed TALK SHOWS and CURRENT AFFAIRS DOCUMENTARIES are: TEMPI MODERNI, REAL TV, FUEGO, UOMINI E DONNE and TARGET; these programmes are broadcast in the afternoon. The boys in particular watch SPORTS PROGRAMMES such as GUIDA AL CAMPIONATO, QUELLI CHE IL CALCIO and GOLEADA and they prefer to watch football to other sports. Young people watch CARTOONS too: THE SIMPSONS, TOM & JERRY, JAPANEESE CARTOONS, WARNER BROSS CARTOONS and MTV CARTOONS. Among the TV SERIES and SOAP OPERAS they watch FRIENDS, BEAUTIFUL, BAYWATCH, E.R., SEVEN HEAVEN, VIVERE(an Italian soap opera), LA SIGNORA IN GIALLO and LA TATA. Some of these tv series are broadcast in the evening, some on sunday morning and some in the early afternoon. With regards to MUSIC PROGRAMMES young people watch MTV and TMC 2 more than SUPER and THE BOX. MOVIES are the best programmes watched by young people, they like all types of movies: ADVENTURE and SENTIMENTAL FILMS, ACTION FILMS, COMEDIES, MUSICALS, HORROR STORIES, THRILLERS, EROTIC FILMS and SCIENCE FICTION. Young people don’t watch DOCUMENTARIES ON ANIMALS very much, however, the two most popular are QUARK and LA MACCHINA DEL TEMPO.

… BELIEVE IN (MORAL VALUE)

Sometimes there’s no conversation between parents and children who spend less and less time with them and often they are more and more attracted by easy gains. There’s no longer the need to sacrifice to obtain something, because of the high standard of living we have reached. Perhaps this lack of comunication can be attribueted to the parents too. Infact, sometimes, they like their work better than their personal affairs, giving reward only with presents. However, from the information we have received, it seems that most of the young people (in my class) talk with their parents and have a good relation-ship with them, especially with their mothers; besides young people feel very comfortable with them.

…WEAR

Most young people wear JEANS and PULLOVERS, but there are other alternative types like PUNK or RAP people. There is a tendency to dress all in the same way. The most widespread labels among young people are: DOLCE&GABBANA, ONIX, PICKWICK and NAPAPIJRI. Young people also have the same hairstyle and they have the same type of school bag, like INVICTA or SEVEN, the two most popular.

… THINK ABOUT POLITICS

From the information received I think there is a certain lack of interest in politics from most young people. It is caused by other hobbies like sports, computer etc., or perhaps the tv, that exalt the more negative aspects of politics, for example a corrupt politician. The newspapers also present politics with arguments in such a way that it is very complicated to undrestand.

Living in Grosseto even if it’s a small city has some advantages and disadvantages. In fact distances between our city and the other villages aren’t too exagerated and even if you live in a village, you can get to the centre of Grosseto in 20 minutes or less.

I prefer to live in Grosseto because when I go to school in the morning I can sleep later than if I lived in the countryside and then if during the afternoon I want to go out wih my friends, I can arrive in the centre in just 5 minutes. Therefore if I lived out from Grosseto, I would have to catch the bus or the train, but I hate travelling by them.

The only problem my town has, is the absence of entertainment: infact if I want to enjoy myself I have to go to the Spanish Pub or to the Chinese one; anyway there’s a project to build a Mc Donald’s and a lot of discos.

                                                                                                       Rosa

City life is more chaotic and stressful than countrylife. My city has a lot of shops, the streets are crowded, polluted, and noisy; the countryside has a simple life style, you can immerse yourself up completely in the plaisure of nature.

Life is more expensive in the city than in the countryside, but in the city there are more discos, pubs, night clubs, cinemas…. If you live in the countryside you have to travel to the city, so you need necessarily a car; anyway I live in Grosseto, so I’ve got all comforts near me, but I love the simple life of the countryside too.

                                                                                                       Giulia

Grosseto is a small town of 56.000 inhabitants near the sea. It’s a quite modern city, there are a lot of shops and stores, public services, like banks and post offices, well organized. It’s a very nice city because besides monuments there are a lot of entertainment: it’s full of pubs where you can spend Saturday nights with your friends; moreover you can find also a lot of discos, which you can reach in 10 or 20 minutes.

There are a lot of opportunities to enjoy yourself during the evening: you can also go to the Bowling club, to the cinema or to a cafè to drink a cup of hot chocolade if it’s too cold!!!

The public transport system is well organized, and it’s difficult to find a lot of traffic, it’s easy to find a parking place especially during the week-end. 

                                                                                                       Silvia

I think that countrylife is very peaceful, but at the same time you have to work every day to reap, to plant…; but I think that living immersed into nature is very relaxed, because there’s no noise and you have a lot of time to walk around to think about yourself.

It’s because of the abundance of this particular fertility of the soil,  that a lot of people are busy in the country working. Even a lot of young people live there, because they are not far from the city. However old people are very attached to their tradition; while young people often move to the city, the olderly wouldn’t leave their fields for all the money all the world.

The main products we have are: wine, strawberries, courgettes, cabbages, salad, apples, cherries, beans, fennels, wheat… there is an important wine firm, “The Parrina”, which exports its products even to Great Britain, and every farmer possess his own vineyard and produces some wine for himself.

Maremma is mainly made up of countryside and little towns and so we have a lot of old traditions. A very important one is the “Strawberry Festival” in Marsiliana, where a lot of people go to buy this fruit and to enjoy themselves, becuase there are also a lot of entertainment and wine!! It takes place on the last week-end of May. Another festival is “La festa della Birra”, where you can buy a lot of beer and something to eat; it’s full of stands which sell flowers, chesses, gadgets, mascots, and there are also some jugglers, painters and even a very funny mimer. It lasts for 3 days in June.

                                                                                                       Cecilia

I usually spend my week-ends and my holidays in a little village, in the countryside, called Scansano. It’s only 30 km far from Grosseto, but the life style is very different. This small town is very peaceful, we haven’t any discos, only a little pub called Excalibur, (like the famous sword), and a little theatre where sometimes some plays are performed.

Young people prefer to enjoy themselves playing in some music bands, or going to the pub, while old people like agricoulture. In this town there are a lot of medieval festivals during the Summer especially in May and August. During them, a lot of people wear medieval costumes, and all the village changes its appearance: it becomes once again a medieval town and during the days of festival you can buy everything you want, but you have to pay with a medieval coin called Provisino. My town is very attached to its origin which belongs to the Middle Ages, but also to the Etruscan period. All around it there are a lot of archeologicla sites and a musuem is going to be open soon. Another festival takes place on September and it’s called “la Festa dell’Uva”; during this all the ancient cellars of the town are open and  everybody can taste our grape and wine, which is one of the best in our region. Our tradition of wine belongs to the Etruscans, infact a lot of farms belonging to that peiod have been discovered.

But this little town doesn’t give the opportunity to find a job: a lot of young people have to move to the city in order to work. In fact in Scansano you can only work in the country or in farms offering bed and breakfast. Maybe with the growing interest in cultural and archeological movements, Scansano will be able to give jobs to its citizens but at this moment it’s only a project.

Alessandro.

GROUP “G”: MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Hallo Jessica and Henrick!! How are you? We hope you are fine; we are not bad, but school is very  exhausting as we have too much work. We can’t wait for Christmas holidays and... finally not school for 15 days. On the 31th we have a party for the new millenium!!!! We hope we’ll enjoy ourselves because it will be the best party of the year. All young people are deciding how and where they are going to spend the nignt of the new millenium (Francesca will go to Spain...). ...And if we don’t hear from you before, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We want to tell you a famous saying “new year new life” ...don’t forget and believe it!! ( by Bea). Now let’s talk about our project: multicultural society. Ehi! We don’t live in U.S.A.,do we?? And so we haven’t got the “melting pot”. Anyway...the presence of the foreign population is rising. In Italy there are at least 1,5 million people who have emigrated from other countries. This large number causes new problems for our country, both pratical ones (like centres to cope with the new arrivals) and cultural ones: we have to get used to living with people who have different attitudes, beliefs and customs. They often live thanks to treading in the streets and only some of them have a stable job and they have regularized their position, obtained sanitary assistence and their children can attend schools. We have a big problem with illegal immigrants who land on the southeast coasts where it’s easier to illegally disembarc then they move to the north where they settle and they can easily find a job especially in the area around Rome and Milan. Grosseto is not a big city like Rome and Milan and we haven’t a lot of immigrants. Recently a lot of immigrants  have come from the Ex-Jugoslavia and Albania devasted by civil war. (Giulia’s father is a pilot and he brought them here during the war in Kossovo). (by Francesca and Rosy). Last week we interviewed many people about immigrants. Unfortunately everybody is a bit racist and we have a lot of wrong prejudices, above all third world immigrants. We met a woman in the centre of Grosseto. She was about 40 and she told us: “I don’t feel safe when I go out...ther are too many immigrants... I’m afraid to be assaulted”. This is not right. People think that immigrants come here only to steal, to spread drugs, to bring crime. But it’s not really true. They come to work, to improve their standard of living, to support their family and to live like us. An old man told us: “They are a potential work-force “.This is what we must think. An young black man told us his sad story (He had a funny accent): “I arrived here two years ago from Senegal. I came here to find a job but I didn’t find it. I left  my wife and my three children in my country and when I can, I send them some money. I am street trader and I don’t earn very much. People often offend me, but I am accustumed to this”. Unfortunately this is not only the story of our friend “Cafir Abdullah”, but it’s the story of most of them. Anna has a tramp friend. His name is Réné: “I come from Belgium. My job failed and my family left me. Then I decided to come to Italy. I wanted to try my fortune, but I didn’t find it. Now I live only by begging and I sleep in the pinewood. My best fiend is my dog.” However not everybody has been unlucky. Here is Ulma’s story: “I came here from Morocco. I had two wives and two children. One of my two wives left me and I came here to Italy with my children and the other wife. The adptation was very difficult. At first I sell things in the street. One day I knocked on the door of a rich and polite man who offered me a job. Thanks to this I got on and now I am the partner of an important company which export goods to Cuba “. After our conversation he went away in a wonderful bmw!!! WOW!! (by Giulia whit Checco). Besides the immigrants in Grosseto there a lot of people who come here from all over Italy. The reason is that in our city there are four military bases: the Army has 3 bases, The Airforce has the last one. Most of soldiers and officers come from the south of Italy especially from Naples. So a small community of nepolitans with their own charateristics has grown up and there is also a small theatral company that acts using the nepolitans dialect. Then we also speak about gypsy community that lives in the subburbs of Grosseto. They are not accepted because of their petty larcenies and their micro ciminality. And in conclusion ni-hao!! Also the chinese, japanese and pholoppine people are important because they have opened many restaurants where we can eat their special and particular dishes ( Francesco and Giulia love asiatic food). (by Anna). Finally we have finished ...if you have any questions, just let us know...a big kiss...CIAO! Giulia,Checco,Anna,Rosy,Bea,Francy.

PS: Giulia’s email addresse is: dragiulia@tin.it (It will be very happy If you write me. Lots of love, Giulia).

PS2: Do you have any email addresses???

FOREIGNERS LIVING IN THE PROVINCE OF GROSSETO: 3756.

FROM ALBANIA: 256. FROM ROMANIA: 162. FROM MACEDONIA: 216.

FROM TURKEY: 143. FROM JUGOSLAVIA: 87. FROM POLAND: 102.

FROM SWITZERLAND: 217. (Above all in the northern part of the country)

FROM ENGLAND: 153. FROM GERMANY: 574. (A curiosity: the 61% of the foreigners in “Montieri”, a village near our city, are german...like we wrote you in our last email, the german people are in love with Tuscany).

FROM AFRICA: 624. FROM ASIA: 140.

GROUP H: TEENAGE PROBLEMS

    The subject we are going to speak about is very interesting…of course teenagers have lots of problems especially when you are 18 years old, you have to make difficult choices, as you know, and people outside often don’t help you to make things easy to face.

I think school is one of the biggest problem for young people. Sometimes waking up every morning to do your duty is very difficult or boring. In our area, for example, lots of students live quite far from Grosseto, while high schools are mostly located in the city, so the only possibility to get to Grosseto is to travel by bus or sometimes by train, but of course you have to wake up very early in the morning… in my opinion if you are tired or you like sleeping much, like me (Chiara), it becomes a problem to pay attention to lessons for 6 hours a day (all in the morning with just a ten minutes break!!! ). Moreover people who get to school by bus usually come back home at about 2.00 pm, and so they have lunch late and then they have to study all  afternoon for the next day. I believe, they haven’t enough time to relax. School is also a practical problem for families who haven’t enough money to pay for books each year. School books are in fact very expensive, I have to pay about £ 400.000 (206.58 euros) a year, this also because in our school there are many subjects, but generally having new books costs so much. There is the possibility to buy second-hand books in some specialized bookshops, but they are difficult to find. If you think that people who travel to school every morning have to pay a season-ticket, which usually costs a lot, you see that going to school becomes quite a serious problem.

So you start to think that it’s better to go to work, but that is another common problem for young people, in fact unemployment is generally very high. It’s very difficult to find work for people of our age, of course before finding a good job it’s necessary at least to have achieved the “Maturità” at 19 (Advanced Level Certificate).  However, in this case we are less lucky than other students because our school is a Liceo, which offers a good preparation to go to University, but less to find a job. In our region the majority of people work in the field of tourism or trade, which are very developed in Maremma, but lots of people end up going to other big cities to find work. During the summer it is easier to find a job, but of course it’s a temporary one. As we widely explained last time, tourism here is very developed and so finding a job in restaurants, pubs, hotels or bars is quite easy during the holiday period. If you need money you have to be ready to accept every kind of job, but young people are not so enthusiastic during the summer or the holidays to go to work every day, but at the same time if you want to enjoy yourself you need money…that’s what I think (Nadia).

Nowadays an important and delicate problem for teenagers is drug abuse; in this period  the Italian media is speaking about this theme a lot, in fact there are many young people dying because of “ecstasy”. Luckily in our area drugs like cocaine or heroine are not widespread, especially among young people, but for example “ecstasy” is quite used by teenagers. They can find it in discos, they take it so that they can dance more. Actually it’s not difficult to buy one of these tablets, one costs at the most £ 50.000 (26,14 euros) and usually people who go dancing on Saturdays, need money to drink something or for the ticket and then they also have enough money to buy a tablet of “ecstasy”. Near our city there aren’t big discos so it’s more difficult to find “ecstasy”, actually it’s easier in bigger places where there are many people and drug pushers can do their job quite easily. The media wonders why many young people use drugs, of course it’s difficult to understand it, but maybe they do this because they want to have new experiences and forget their daily problems, but then seeking refuge in drugs they start to have another big problem because they are risking  their lives. It’s a stupid thing to use drugs, I prefer to live my life and not to search another world which is unreal. I like this reality even if it presents some problems…this is what I believe (Giulia).

Nowadays young people have problems living with people of the same age, in fact some of them aren’t accepted because of their characters: in fact in a group you have to be extrovert, friendly and you have to follow the same ideas as the others. In our society it’s very important how you behave and your clothing, in fact young people give importance to physical appearances, neglecting the inner personality. Boys and girls who are overweight or not good looking sometimes are shut out of the group and people who follow the restrictions imposed by their parents have a lot of problems joining a new group. Certainly it’s not always the same situation, in fact there are groups where all kinds of people are accepted, but in Grosseto, in most  cases, it’s so difficult to have a relationship with others. In Grosseto, there is also the opposite problem because lots of young people, who have unusual ways of dressing or of behaving, (you know… green hair, piercing, colourful clothes), don’t accept you if you are “normal” or if you behave following the rules of society. Sometimes young people imitate the others in doing foolish things, without thinking about the consequences, only to be accepted. For example, in my group, lots of my friends are always well-dressed, and if you haven’t the same way of dressing they don’t accept you, they usually look at you carefully before you join (Alessandra).

The relationship with family is another typical problem for teenagers. In my opinion it is almost normal in this period of our lives to have this kind of problem, because we feel changed, we are growing up, we are subject to many choices and we begin to take important decisions about our future, so we need more freedom, more indipendence. Usually in Italy, and also in our region, parents are not so open-minded, for example, for a girl it’s almost impossible to go and live with her boyfriend even if she is 18 years old, parents usually want children to live in the family. They don’t understand our problems and go on deciding what’s better for us, sometimes without any explanations, they never stop giving us their exhortations, so you would like to live alone, but of course, they think, we are not in a position to do this, underestimating our capacities, (Valentina). Of course young people are deeply attached to their family, in fact in Italy they usually live with their parents until they’re 25-26, obviously until they have found a good job or have finished University.

We hope that you have enjoyed yourselves reading these pages, we are looking forward to receiving your answer!!! Bye bye… kisses !!!!!!

Chiara, Alessandra, Valentina, Giulia and Nadia!!!