Italian Schools

From time to time, I will be writing a Culture Note that helps you understand a little more about the Italian culture.

This past Monday, the Italian schools started. (Our children go to a Catholic, English-speaking, International School which started at the end of July.) The Italians start late in the year, but then don't get out until the middle of June (and some still have exams after that!). I noticed that the school year actually coincides quite nicely with the hot weather at the beaches. In fact, I found it interesting that the weather didn't cool off until this last weekend, just before school started. Coincidence? I don't think so!

Another thing that's interesting about Italian school is that they go six days a week. Yes, that means Saturday as well. The nice thing is that some of the days are shorter so the children go to school until around 1:00 p.m. and then go home for pranzo (a three-hour period for lunch, rest, and family time).

The Saturday night before they return to school, they stay up all night long. (like our New Year's Eve parties). They call this "notte bianca" or white night.

This weekend there seems to be a lot of city celebrations and fireworks have been going off for a while now. Welcome back to school!