Bella Italia with pasta in the background

We are teachers of vocational subjects for the professions of nutritionist and catering service technician at Zespół Szkół im. Karol Libelt in Gołańcz, a technical school. For the first time, we had the opportunity to go to Italy for vocational training under the Erasmus+ programme. We associate Italy with the kingdom of flavours, Mediterranean cuisine, olive oil, seafood, tomatoes and basil. Italy is cheese, pizza and wines.

Here, the earth smells different and the sky is bluer. We gained knowledge and skills in a restaurant that specialises in the preparation of seafood and fish dishes, as well as the preparation of pasta and pizza. Most of all, we gained skills in preparing pasta – hand-formed of various shapes and thicknesses.

We also prepared pasta dishes. In general, Mediterranean cuisine is very simple with limited ingredients – fresh vegetables, fruit, fish and olive oil. We were glad that our students were doing internships at that time under the Erasmus+ programme. We were able to exchange comments and observations on the profile of Mediterranean cuisine on an ongoing basis. We wandered through shops and stalls to find out about new species of vegetables and fruit.