In January Agnes and I decided to make a trip somewhere. The good thing was, that we were both chosen for the open weekend in Cognolo, so we get two days of holiday afterwards. After some discussions we agreed to spend four days in Palermo, Sicily. 
To get there, the best option was to take the Flixbus. It was pretty cheap, but we drove during the whole night and I didn’t get a lot of sleep. However, Agnes was sleeping so deeply that it took me two tries to wake her up, when we were on the ferry. After around 30 minutes on the sea, we arrived in Sicily and Agnes immediately fell asleep again. I was watching the sunrise, while we were driving along the coast. At around seven o’clock we arrived in Catania, where we had to change the bus. We were taking a coffee and brushing our teeth somewhere in a park and after another four hours we finally arrived in Palermo.
Day 1:
In the city you could really feel the southern vibe and the temperature was really nice, it didn’t feel like January at all. We started to randomly walk around Palermo and ended up paying 15 euro for a museum in the cathedral. From the roof of the cathedral you have a really great view on the city, but the museum was full of religious pictures (however Agnes loved the floor of the museum) and also the crypts weren’t that special, so we said the next time we would maybe only pay for the roof. After the visit we were so hungry that we went to a supermarket and ate some food in a really beautiful park with palm trees. While we were talking, Agnes was enjoying her carrots and bananas, until we found out that we nearly forgot to check-in at the Airbnb. After having a short rest in the beautiful apartment, we went shopping because we wanted to cook wraps with chilli con carne. But unluckily we forgot to buy the carne and some other stuff, so we just ate a ton of beans and corn with wraps. 
Day 2:
The next morning we were cooking pancakes and went to the street food market “Ballaró” and “Mercato del Capo” afterwards. We tried the typical street food like “Arancini”, “Pane con Panelle”, “Polpo” and the sweet “Canolli”. There is a lot of interesting stuff to discover and also the streets are covered with fancy street art. Around eleven we stumbled over the “Palazzo dei normanni” with an exhibition of Picasso and a very unique chapel adjoining the artistic tradition of Islam and Byzantium. The rest of the building was influenced by the Normans. In the afternoon we met with the volunteers who are doing their project in sicily, got some drinks, exchanged our experiences and went to the harbour. They gave us recommendations and showed us some nice places to spend the night, so we decided to go outside and have a drink this evening. Strangely all of the bars were basically empty (maybe because it was Sunday), so we bought some beer at a supermarket and sat down in front of a techno bar. Deep conversations.

Day 3:
On Monday, after the recommendation of Julie (the volunteer we met the last day), we decided to walk up to the “Santuario di Santa Rosalia”, because from there you have an amazing view over the city and the coast. After 1 hour of a sweating walk along the main street (almost autostrada), we arrived on the trail (according to Agnes sentiero is a more beautiful word to say that). However we gave up after 20 minutes. Too much sun and too hot for two (hot) girls from the North. We walked back down and took a bus to the beach. We were really hyped to go swimming and get ice cream, but when we reached the beach of Mondello, it started to be cloudy and windy. We went swimming anyways, played games, listened to music and just chilled. When we entered our Airbnb we were so tired, that we just cooked sth. with the rests of the previous two days (because Agnes and I don’t want to waste food) and watched a movie.
Day 4:
The last day we packed our stuff, cleaned a bit and left the Airbnb around 9:30. We visited some more sights and went to a bakery, Julie recommended. To get to the bakery you had to walk through an ancient building, which looked a bit like a museum. When you arrive at the bakery, there is a cute little garden with a fountain in the middle of the building. We got some “Cannoli” and peacefullness. Later we booked a guided tour through the “Teatro Massimo”, which is the third biggest theatre in Europe. Because we had time left, we kept walking through the city, got some fried “pane con panelle” and aubergines and went to a beautiful park. We somehow forgot about the time and because we were lazy as always we wanted to take the bus to get to the train station. We were waiting for like 10 minutes and we thought the bus isn’t coming, so we decided to walk to the next bus stop. The moment we started walking the bus came, so we had to run to the train station and try to get tickets.
In the airport there weren’t a lot of people and because it was my first flight Agnes thought it’s funny to prank me (thank you Agnes ). For example when the stewardess was explaining how to use the life jackets, so Agnes told me that I have to pass a test in order to fly. Furthermore, we were sitting on the emergency seats and the crew was coming to us, asking if we can cooperate and help them if there is an accident. Additionally, we thought we are having an emergency landing, because we arrived half an hour to early and there were some small turbulences. 
All in all I have to say that it was a really nice trip. I really enjoyed the time and had a lot of fun. The city was very energetic, the people are friendly and the weather was perfect. However, you can definitely see that it’s further south, because there is a huge gap between poor and rich. But it’s for sure a place I would recommend to visit.

A little bit more than a month ago there was one question that we, the volunteers, were asking ourselves for two weeks: What will we do on New Year´s Eve? (In fact, we called it Silvester as we do in Germany). Even when we all went to our home countries for Christmas there was still no plan, so we settled on not settling for any plan. Of course, there were some things we had to consider, for example that there is no train from Roma to Poggio Mirteto between 1am and 5am and that Agnes would only fly into Roma on the 31st of December. So, at last we decided on taking the train at 8pm so we could meet her in Tiburtina and lock her stuff away in time. Fast forward to the 31st of December Tabea, Hugo and I got on the bus to Poggio Mirteto while Enrico picked the others up. As we were waiting for them to arrive, we came up with the idea of making a funny TikTok of our state at the beginning and at the end of the night which would later go on to become an inside joke.

On the train to Roma, we played drunk pirate to pass the time and lighten the mood. The mood got very light very fast and suddenly we were in Tiburtina meeting Agnes. There were already people shooting fireworks, so we decided to find a place where we have a good view on the eternal city and its fireworks. Going on the metro towards “Blablerini” we ended up in Terrazza del Pincio so we could overlook the Piazza del Popolo. It was the perfect place with a stunning view on the Basilica di San Pietro. At midnight we were all stunned by the amount of beautiful fireworks. It was a happy moment, and we spent a long time celebrating and hugging each other.

After, we decided to split up and look for scooters to get to the club. Loukas and I were the first ones to arrive and shortly after Hugo and Agnes joined us. Only Alba, Tabea and Enrico were missing because after almost crashing into cars, they took the metro. Some side quests later, we were finally united and entered the club. It was a nice place to celebrate the Capodanno because the music was good, and the location had a big terrace. Though for me the club doesn´t matter because whenever my friends are with me, I have a good time. We danced until 5am but it didn´t feel that long at all. This night was one of my favorite parties I´ve experienced and I´m so glad that our group is so connected because I believe everyone had a lot of fun. But still our energy was empty at some point, so we decided to go back to Tiburtina with the scooter. This time even Alba, Tabea and Enrico were able to experience driving the scooter and survived it surprisingly. Still, Loukas and I were the first ones to arrive again (I swear we´re just the best). (I just received information from Agnes that she and Alba only took the scooter for one minute and then decided to walk so it makes sense we were faster.) Since we missed the first train we had to wait in the cold train station. This was the point when we realized we needed to finish our TikTok, so we did that in a half-asleep state. Compared to the time in the club, the time at the train station passed painfully slowly. Eventually the train came and within 5 minutes everyone was fast asleep. It was a miracle that we didn´t miss the stop in Poggio Mirteto but somehow, we managed. After that, going home felt like a trance.

This day taught me how important it is to be open to spontaneous plans because sometimes small things can change everything, and no one can predict the future. I liked experiencing the nightlife in such a big city as Roma because growing up in a city with limited activities, Roma is very overwhelming in comparison. A small advice: Having the next day off after pulling an all-nighter is very advisable because after we came home everyone went to sleep and we were only awake for 2-5 hours until the 2nd of January.

On the weekend myself and Tabea decided to go camping in the mountains surrounding Roccantica, It initially was also meant to include Agnes but little did we know she would be taking a short 8 hour sleep from 1pm until 9pm so that plan went out the window of her coming along. We started rather late on saturday due to a small party the night before so we readied our bags with a mountain of food and a recovering liver. 

We had a small little trek towards the Pozze del Diavolo. Along the way we stopped to eat some corbezzoli off of the passing trees and found a very stylish pair of glasses which we attempted to walk some of the way while wearing them, after nearly twisting my ankle that shortly stopped. At this point the motivation was starting to drop given the fact we started at 3 o’clock and the sun was starting to set over the horizon. We begrudgingly continued hiking uphill now insearch of a place to set up the tent, after what felt like an hour we managed to find the most perfect flat spot it was meant to be. quickly we set up our tent before sprinting up the mountain to find a spot to look out at the view, and what a view it was with beautiful purples and pinks of the remaining sunlight and the changing colours of the leaves on the trees on the hills surrounding us.  

After the light went away we had the fun game of trying to find where exactly we had put up the tent, after some nervous laughs and a small bit of worrying we found our tent again. We then started a little campfire for some warmth and also to cook some bread dough on sticks which we had brought with us that only slightly exploded in tabea’s bag. Following a bit of relaxing by the fire and in the hammock we headed to sleep proud of our little adventure for the day. 

The next morning after we had some tortellini for breakfast and a bit more bread we packed up our things and then started to make our way back down the mountain onto the trail back to Roccantica, But not before a little bit more adventure of a quick dip in the pools of water to freshen us up. After this rather freezing dip in the water we made estimations of how long it would take us to get back home which may or may not included a last 10 minutes of running with all of our stuff on our backs and happily announce we made it home in under 60 minutes 59.12 to be exact which concludes our little adventure for the weekend.

Last weekend we got invited to a biannual fundraiser event by the “A Ruota Libera” association on their farm. 
We took the train from Poggio Mirteto to Rome and after a small breakfast at Mc Donalds..., we continued with a train from Rome to Nettuno. When we arrived, Lina, the president of the association, greeted us and showed us the farm “Asino chi legge” which we were very amazed by. They presented us their donkeys, that they use for therapy sessions with people with disabilities.
In the evening, we met up with Lina and the volunteers of the association, Alissa and Matteo, and had some food and drinks together. 
The next day we went to the event in the farm. They had a band, nice food and we had a lot of fun meeting new lovely people and exploring the farm and all the animals they have there. 
After the event we met up with Alissa and Matteo again to celebrate Alissa's Birthday with some pizza and to play some games together. Then we had the great idea of jumping into the sea in the middle of the night. It was a great experience but a small bit cold for my liking. 
On the last day we decided to go for a swim again to wake us up and see the coast during the day, before we went back to Roccantica.  
The time we spent there was wonderful. We met a lot of lovely new people and also the farm is just a beautiful place to discover. We created many great memories and eagerly await the next time we are able to visit Nettuno again. 

Being a volunteer with ALA has been like a road full of challenges, beautiful things and others not so much, sometimes even changing destination, but having clear that being present and living the process was the most important point. 

​In Roccantica I found a place where the frenetic world we live in stopped for a moment. An association that welcomed me and where I felt for the first time freedom to be who I am without feeling judged and a place where mistakes are not a bad thing but just another part of growing. The other volunteers have been a fundamental part of this project. Thanks to our interculturality we have been able to grow and learn from each other, overcoming difficulties but always finding a solution with respect. Summer camps have been an incredible occasion to explore and put into practice our skills and attitudes.The places I got to know and the reconnection with nature was my favourite part. In particular taking care of Rifugio Cognolo, a magical place.

​In short, being a volunteer with ALA has allowed me not only to grow but also to face internal conflicts in a healthy way and to come out of them successfully, always with my own freedom and with the space to do, to propose and to give free rein to our creativity. Every place and person I have met, every moment and even the smallest detail, will live forever in some corner of my heart. And in turn, I hope I have left a little piece of myself in this place that I assure you, once you know it, will fill your soul with peace.
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​I have done camp with different groups of children, each group had its own beauty, I felt happy in all the groups. What I liked most from all the groups was the cheerfulness of the children, respect and participation of activities. There is a time when I was with the children, you remember the days of childhood, it did I enjoy more being with them in the camp. Another thing I like in the camp is the food for me, many foods are foreign to me, I have come to know them when I am in the camp. 

In general, it was interesting for me because the volunteers are from different countries. It was a chance for me to learn a new language and know other cultures, apart from that forever was fun. I have learned a lot from my fellow volunteers and I miss them a lot especially the moment of work at the camp. 

Mia Kuldzanisvili, 18 years old, Georgian.

​ ​The promise of our On-Arrival Training excited me even before I had a concrete idea of when it would happen. All the funny and crazy stories of the other volunteers made my expectations very high, but they certainly didn’t disappoint.  ​  ​

Pauline Kerzendoerfer, 19 years old, German. 

Mia Kuljanishvili, Georgian, 18 years old.