During the first week of July 2018, I relived my previous marvelous Erasmus+ PAS experience. A year before that, in July 2017, I carried out a stay at Roma Tre University, where I toured its university radio and explored the enchanting city of Rome. This time around, I visited the University of Piemonte Orientale, situated in the beautiful city of Vercelli, Italy. I spent a week there, learning about the working ways of the staff in its Office of Communication with Leonardo D’Amico, who explained the tasks and labors they carry out in the areas of communication, dissemination, and outreach at that university. I also visited its radio station, called Radio 6023, which is student-managed and coordinated, and there Alice Plata showed me its radio studios, broadcasting methods, the contents they cover, and use of social networks.

The University of Piemonte Orientale has three campuses, Vercelli, Novara, and Alessandria. It is a young university like hours, located an hour between the important urban enclaves of Milan, Turin, and Genoa. I visited the Novara campus, but I spent most of the time in Vercelli, a small and welcoming location surrounded by rice fields, a product they export all over the world. During my Erasmus+ PAS days, I also took advantage of the opportunity to go to Milan and see the elegant city of Turin.

Thanks to these Erasmus+ PAS experiences, I am happily refining my Italian, and have since enrolled in private classes here in Spain to keep improving it and return another time to an Italian university.

I wholeheartedly encourage students, faculty, and staff to enjoy, learn from, and experience an Erasmus stay. It enables learning much more than about the teaching, research, and management activities at your home university as well as those at the university you visit—you also learn languages, other cultures, and sample gastronomy in addition to meeting wonderful people from other universities.