Naxxar Boys' Secondary music and art students visit Italy

For the second year running, five music and five art students from Naxxar Boys' Secondary School, together with two of their teachers - Herman Baldacchino and Mro Michael Ciantar, went on a cultural visit in Italy last May as part a project entitled 'The European train of friendship'.

The first two days were spent in Rome, where they saw important monuments and places of artistic, cultural and religious interest. They then travelled by train to Bari, where together with students from ITCS A. de Viti de Marco of Triggiano, their Italian partner school in the project, they visited many places of interest, including world heritage sites such as Castel del Monte, Matera and Alberobello. They also visited Trani, Barletta, La vecchia Bari, Monopoli, Ostuni, Mola di Bari, Polignano, and Montescaglioso, where they viewed and admired paintings by Mattia Preti and traced a connection with the Knights of Malta.

The art students each created a painting to present to Professor Francesco Rubles, the Triggiano school headmaster, among others. They also drew a huge friendship banner to be hung in the Italian school together with the Maltese flag.

Meanwhile, the music students performed in various concerts attended by students and teachers from the Triggiano school as well as from other schools in France, Spain and Romania.

As part of the project the Maltese students also filmed a short documentary about Valletta and another about Gozo. Both documentaries were very well received.

The visit was a very positive experience for the Naxxar students, who were very well received and hosted by the Triggiano students and their families.

The Italian and Maltese school have agreed to keep up this collaboration and to call it 'Scuole in amicizia'. The Naxxar students are looking forward to hosting their counterparts from Triggiano next year for a project entitled 'On the trail of the Knights'.

The Naxxar students' visit was sponsored by Camilleri Holdings Ltd, HSBC Help the Children Fund, Trusted Developers Ltd, Vodafone, Corinthia Group of Companies and the Naxxar Boys' Secondary School Council. The Youth Services Organisation (YSO) also gave the students constant support throughout the project.