My name is Filippo, I’m 24 years old and I am from Rome. I visited Belgrade through Erasmus program that will last six months and I am a student at the faculty of Law. From my experience, I would say that Italy and Serbia are in same ways different, but also similar at the same time.
My first contact with Belgrade
Knez Mihailova, the centre of Belgrade
I would like to go to visit monument devoted to famous president of Yugoslavia, Tito, because I’ve already seen many pictures and I think that it’s very nice sight. I’ve already been in Zemun and Kalemegdan and they are amazing places. I think that the centre of Belgrade is very similar to other European cities and I didn’t imagine that it will look like this.
Difference between Belgrade and Rome are big. Rome is more international city and the lifestyle is different, as well as the architecture and the way that streets and buildings were made. You can see stuff that are about two hundred years ago but they are also chaotic in some special way and this is very likeable. Public transportation works on the similar way like in Italy. People that I know are very nice and friendly. It’s nice to see that people take care about each other.
The other difference is that in Belgrade you can see the remanence from the wars. For example, in 1999. Yugoslavia was bombarded by NATO and there are buildings, still not touched or fixed, that were damaged by the bombs. And for me, this is strange, because I’m not used to having this kind of feelings in Italy. We always think about war as it is something that happened very long time ago. So it is touching and makes you reflect on.
The old Ministry of defence, Belgrade
If I think about the elements of Serbian culture that could be implemented in Italy, I would choose that Serbian care about their culture, about their background, their family and traditions. I love the fact that they care about family.I feel that here there is more patriotism. I would like to mention that in Italy the role of friendship is more or less the same as in Serbia.
Italians underestimate importance of family, and there are more and more divorces happening. I mean that we are loosing that feeling of being a part of a family. We really appreciate our grandmas, grandpas, and we are always going to visit them. For us, they are the symbol of family. The family used to be very important and I think that things should again became like they were before.
Filippo Scotti
Source of images: bing images