We are now four months in to our course and have been in Sicily for three of those months, as we spent Christmas and New Years Eve at home with family and friends.

Before we went home the Summer season had come to an end and we had plenty opportunity to explore mamma Etna as well as increase our knowledge in the area. We were able to do some staff excursions where me and Nathan would do the tour to our colleagues and they could give us some constructive criticism back about how we could improve. As well as getting some hints and tips about how to sound better while working, it also helped me come to terms with speaking in front of a group which I was a little nervous about. We had some tutors from four different colleges come out the last week before we left for Christmas. During this week we showed them around Etna and me and Nathan were given the responsibility to do a tour for them on one of the days. We had some worries in the week leading up to this but I think we succeeded in making an enjoyable and interesting tour for them. It was a massive boost of confidence to get my first full tour over with, I feel much better now about going in to next season.

Here's our #VET trainees Walter and Nathan doing a guide tour to #FinishingStrong tutors on mount #Etna. #ErasmusPlus @erasmusplusUK @EtnaFinder pic.twitter.com/BhaJMkrbtV

— EverythingisPossible (@eispossible) December 11, 2017

Since we have come home to Sicily I have had two of my friends visit for the last week, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to show them around the area and give them a chance to eat the amazing food. They were lucky enough to catch a festival we had no idea about when booking the plane tickets, celebrating the local saint of our village, San Mauro. The fireworks at this festival were absolutely amazing and blew any I had ever seen out the water, and as if it wasn’t enough seeing them at night, they would set them off at twelve o’clock in the afternoon as well!

Another day, we visited Taormina where we walked around the city showing them the amazing buildings and corridor streets. We even caught a taxi up to the highest settlement in that region, Castelmola and drank coffee on a balcony with an amazing view over the bay of Giardini Naxos. In the afternoon we even braved the sea down at Isola Bella which honestly wasn’t very cold for the 16th of January and I was surprised we were the only people swimming.

I am now focusing on getting in to a routine of learning Italian daily and trying to better my knowledge of Mount Etna. We have also planned to visit Messina and Palermo in the near future which I am massively looking forward to!