Giorgio, Laura, Anna, Isabella, Marco and Mariella are six students from the Istituto Salesiano Don Bosco di Brescia who had the opportunity to spend a month of mobility in Coimbra thanks to their school’s Erasmus+ Accreditation. They were hosted by our partner Mondego and during their mobility or at the end of it, the students told us how their experience in Portugal went.
Here’s Giorgio and Laura’s story!
“The first thing that struck us as soon as we arrived in Coimbra was the river, wide and with calm waters. Seeing it extend gave us a feeling of serenity, an anticipation of what we would later discover the city to be like. With quiet streets and streets full of history that for hundreds of years until today have been trampled by students and foreigners.
Coimbra has a mysterious heart, to be discovered and you understand it from the first moment you see it. The city stands on a hill making it beautiful to look at from below. Despite being quiet, it is full of things to do, there are countless pastry shops that offer delicious typical sweets and they are all worth trying! If you have a sweet tooth and want to try new dishes, in Coimbra there are many restaurants offering different types of cuisine: from the more typical one based on cod, sardines and meat to vegetarian, vegan and multicultural alternatives.
In Coimbra, spending the evening with friends is almost a tradition and there are many places to do it, one of our favourites is the beach on the river where the restaurants seem to float on the water. The river offers a great deal to the city; whether it’s morning or evening you can always go out for a walk and admire the scenery. Observing the buildings and houses of the historic center from the river gives a romantic meaning to the city that seems to come out of the illustrations of a children’s book. You can swim in the river, rest on the various beaches or even try canoeing or sup. If you want to fully experience the spirit of the city, going to the river is definitely a great choice. In the evening it is nice to pass in front of the fountain on the Mondego river, you can stop to take some photos or simply sit on one of the beautiful benches along the river covered with
typical Portuguese majolica tiles.
The university is the fulcrum around which the city develops. We noticed from the first moment that it is a young city, full of vitality, proud of its past and its traditions. On our first day here we were lucky enough to come across the show from the “Tuna da Universiade de Coimbra”. Some boys danced in the street dressed in the typical clothes of the university and played various instruments; drums, guitars, violins etc. It was an engaging sight not only for the eyes and ears but also emotionally, the spirit of the city was instilled among anyone who admired the show.
Coimbra is a city that deserves to be discovered, fascinated and full of traditions and attractions, such as the Children’s Park where we worked. Portugal dos peqienitos is in fact a unique park with a long history behind it in which children are the protagonists, here they can in fact have fun learning the history of Portugal and visiting the whole nation within a few hours. It’s a beautiful place where real, good people work there who would do anything to make any visitor feel welcome.
The people here are very friendly, they welcomed us and our friends with a lot of kindness and availability, not to mention the colleagues at Portugal dos pequenitos who welcomed us from day one with a smile and did everything to make us feel at home and include us in their speeches. They obviously spoke Portuguese but thanks to their great patience we managed to understand each other. Portuguese is a beautiful language which, moreover, for us Italians is more understandable than it seems, we spent only one month in Coimbra, but towards the end we managed to understand most of what people were saying to us.
We’re very thankful for this experience!”
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