Италия, как совместить приятное с полезным. Italy, how to combine business with pleasure.

Hotel Waldorf in Rimini (02/09/06-16/09/06)
Larisa.
There were good impressions about the hotel. But like everything, it has its advantages and disadvantages. From the positive: the hotel is located in the city center, and you can walk to the historical center on foot, which was important to me. I came to study Italian and my school "Malatesta" was located just on the square of the same name. Named after the Malatesta family, which played an important historical role in the city of Rimini. The room was cleaned regularly, air conditioning, gym, swimming pool, good soundproofing, friendly and helpful staff. Now about the cons: the room is very small, I didn’t have enough space and the food was not tasty, although I had paid for breakfast and dinner, I ate at the hotel only when necessary. But you can find flaws in everything, it already depends on the mood. And my mood was positive - in Italy it cannot be otherwise!

My school day was from 9 to 15. After the lessons I went to sunbathe on the beach, the sun was still in full swing, but not so hot, or just walked around the city. The beach was located near the hotel, where I took an umbrella and sunbed (6 euros), sunbathed, swam and did my homework. But you can sunbathe on your towel and then your costs will be minimized.
Saturday and Sunday were days off for me, and these days I could go to other cities, get acquainted with the history and architecture of the country whose language I studied. We agreed on excursions in advance, on the first days of arrival in Rimini. I phoned all the tour agencies, whose phones I found on the Internet at home. on average, excursions in Rimini cost from 100 to 150 euros. I chose a minibus trip for 8 people with Alexander (his phone in Italy is +3.3463250884), I don’t like to wait and catch up. And the prices pleasantly surprised him, I paid less for comfort than others (Rome-75, Florence and Pisa-75). I went to Venice and San Marino myself, I really wanted to put into practice the knowledge that I received at school.
To be honest, the language is easy, for 2 weeks of my stay I already understand Italian speech and can support an elementary conversation. The most important thing is to overcome the language barrier, and it happens differently for everyone. It happened to me in a restaurant when we had dinner with a classmate. They brought us a vegetable salad with cucumbers and tomatoes. every Russian knows that the most delicious remains at the bottom of the plate, and we gladly finished the dish, dipping it in Italian bread. here at the next table I heard two Italians discussing: "these Russians are so poor, look they eat up the leftovers, they probably don’t even have anything to eat in Russia" I felt so sorry for us that I went up and told them everything that I think about them native language and as my friend told me, almost without one mistake. Although they are friendly people, they consider their nation to be the best in the world. Although they are right in some ways, their cuisine and fashion design can rightfully be given first places.
Two weeks flew by quickly and with benefit, and I wish you the same!