BROCHURES

sponsored by:

Grundtvig Learning Partnership „Personal Town Tours” (August 2012 - July 2014) The Grundtvig Learning Partnership “Personal Town Tours” is supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission. The Bulgarian partner is supported by the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung. Publisher: University for Adult and Senior Citizens, Vicenza Layout/Design: Daniela Cornaviera (UTL Mestre), Maria Vittoria Nodari (University for Adult and Senior Citizens, Vicenza) Contact: Zentrum für Allgemeine Wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung Ulm University Albert-Einstein-Allee 11 89081 Ulm Germany Website: www.personaltowntours.eu

Preface In the Grundtvig Learning Partnership “Personal TownTours” (PTT) the members of the participating groups in the partners’ locations, seniors as well as younger adults, prepared 3 to 5 personalized TownTours on subjects of their choice and presented them to members of partner groups from other countries as well as to other local older and younger people and gave them an understanding of their town. Cross-national exchanges enabled the projects’ learners to gain know-how in the linguistic, cultural and historical backgrounds of other project members’ living environments. The partnership PTT included participating groups of Ulm, Germany, (coordinator), Vannes (France), Mestre and Vicenza (Italy), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Timisoara (Romania) and Ruse (Bulgaria). Designing a guided tour of the own city different from those offered by traditional professional guides, but tailored for interested persons of all ages demands science based knowledge, experience, creativity and the joy to share with others interesting and pleasant historical, cultural, ecological and very personal views of the own town. Preparing “personal Town-Tours” offers the chance to discover him/herself and make known hidden or not remarked places and perspectives of the own town, leading to reflect of what seems worth to be known by others. The Personal Town-Tours follow the traces of memory of places of one’s childhood or professional life, or follow a particular interest, or become a thematic route referring to arts, architecture, history and social life. During the partner meetings in Mestre, Vannes, Timisoara and Ljubljana the members of the other partner groups had the chance to have such interesting TownTours prepared and guided by the hosting group. All the Personal TownTours had been very different, related to the interest, age and personal experiences of each member. But exactly this phenomenon had been the charme and the profit of the Tours. Cultural, economical, educational and ecological approaches combined with reflections and experiences of the own life made the walks in each town so unforgettable. Having some free time to make one’s own discoveries had been also an important element of the stay. The project website www.personaltowntours.eu informs about the various Tours, the applied methods and results, the brochure gives a small overview about the work done. For the documentation of the Tours techniques of creative writing had been used. An important effect of the project was the opportunity to test and to apply various technical tools (e.g. audio, film and video recordings, PowerPoint presentations, website) and to train language competences for to translate short presentations of all Tours in all project languages. Collaboration of people of all ages fostered the intergenerational dialogue. So the project “Personal TownTours” was of a fruitful combination of discovery of stone, nature, every day life and personal encounters which allowed to get very differentiated views of the participating Towns and Countries and its inhabitants. Connecting people from East and West across Europe, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, was for the coordinators and the participants a big challenge, not only because of language problems, but also a big chance which nobody would like to miss. Carmen Stadelhofer, Main coordinator of the Project

ASSOCIATION POUR LA DIFFUSION ET L’ANIMATION DU PATRIMOINE HISTORIQUE DU MORBIHAN

Archives Municipales 12, Avenue Saint Symphorien - 56000 Vannes +33(0)2 97 01 62 52 [email protected] [email protected]

PTT1: Breton Identity. Marie-Madeleine, Vincent Calvez, Flora Rimbert. PTT2: The Streams of Vannes. Cécile Launay, Michèle Le Moal, Marie-Noëlle Rialland, Lesley Evans PTT3: Vannes - Looking upwards. Paule et Jean-François Vidal, Hubert Poupard. PTT4: If you like jokes this is a humorous approach. Jean-François Vidal

ZENTRUM FÜR ALLGEMEINE WISSENSCHAFTLICHE WEITERBILDUNG OF ULM UNIVERSITY

Albert-Einstein-Allee 11- 89081 Ulm Tel.: +49-(0) 731-50-26601 www.zawiw.de [email protected]

PTT1: Ulm and the Danube Swabians. Elsa Koch, Paula Schweinberger, Dorothea Durka PTT2: Brother and Sister Scholl. Barbara Heinze, Jutta Gotthardt PTT3: Fort Unterer Kuhberg. Hanns Hannagarth, Ingrid Richter, Monika van Koolwijk PTT4: The History of Ulm’s buildings. Bertram Wegemer, Rosi Müller PTT5: Wiblingen. Brigitte Nguyen-Duong, Christel Freitag, Gabriela Körting PTT6: Famous personalities in Ulm. Ilse Fodil, Michel Nguyen-Duong

UNIVERSITÀ ADULTI/ANZIANI DI VICENZA

Contrà delle Grazie, 14 - 36100 Vicenza Tel. +39 0444 541860 www.univia.it [email protected]

PTT1: Around Vicenza. Visiting the city from an unusual point of view: from outside the walls. Raffaella Castagna PTT2: Monte Berico Hill. Laura Zilio PTT3: Wine and gastronomic tour. Laura Zilio e Paride Frighetto PTT4: The walls and the Gates tell about the history of Vicenza. Paride Frighetto PTT4: Memories. Maria Paola Binetti PTT6: Craftmanship. Laura Zilio e Paride Frighetto DVD: A walk in Vicenza. Laura Zilio e Paride Frighetto

UNIVERSITÀ DEL TEMPO LIBERO - CITTÀ DI MESTRE

Via Poerio, 19 - 30171 Venezia-Mestre Tel. +39 041 984529 www.utlmestre.it [email protected]

PTT1: Venice to discover: art, scents and flavours. Ferruccio Tortato PTT2: Venice between old and new, in the Cannaregio district of the Pearl Stringers (impiraresse). Gabriele Balestra PTT 3: Emotions in Venice. The bridges. Manuela Bigozzi, Santina Anna Fasan, Giovanna Meneghel PTT4: Jewels of italian Art nouveau at the Lido of Venice. Mario Ruffino PTT5: The plague in Venice. The Lazzaretto Novo. Ennio Vaglini PTT6: Mestre, on the footsteps of the past. Manuela Bigozzi, Santina Anna Fasan, Giovanna Meneghel, Alessandro Milite, Mario Ruffino, Ferruccio Tortato, Ennio Vaglini, Giuliano Vio PTT 7: Mysteries, legends and popular devotion linked to the cult of the Holy Mary in Tintoretto’s Venice. Giuliano Vio

PERSONAL TOWN TOURS

www.personaltowntours.eu

PTT1: Ulm and the Danube Swabians. Elsa Koch, Paula Schweinberger, Dorothea Durka PTT2: Brother and Sister Scholl. Barbara Heinze, Jutta Gotthardt PTT3: Fort Unterer Kuhberg. Hanns Hannagarth, Ingrid Richter, Monika van Koolwijk PTT4: The History of Ulm’s buildings. Bertram Wegemer, Rosi Müller PTT5: Wiblingen. Brigitte Nguyen-Duong, Christel Freitag, Gabriela Körting PTT6: Famous personalities in Ulm. Ilse Fodil, Michel Nguyen-Duong

THE ASSOCIATION “THE WRITERS` LEAGUE” TIMISOARA BANAT BRANCH

Arhimandrit Teofil Paraian 24 - 300776 Timisoara, Romania Tel: +40(0)745.291.470 [email protected] [email protected]

PTT1: Representative buildings of the banking system over time. Elena Bardac PTT2: Cultural-artistical itinerary of Timisoara. Ana Zlibut PTT3: Literary itinerary of Timisoara. Doina Dragan, Mariana Strunga PTT4: Education for everyone. Lucia Anucuta, Andreia Elena Lampinen Anucuta PTT5: Traditional Tour in Banat. Ana Zlibut

UNIVERSITY OF RUSE “ANGEL KANCHEV”

8 Studentska str., Ruse 7017, BULGARIA Phone: 00359 82 888 843 / Fax.:  00359 82 845 708 www.uni-ruse.bg [email protected]

PTT1: Come to Ruse and follow the walks of my life. Stancho Stanchev PTT2: UNI-CAVE. Emilia Velikova PTT3: The city of Ruse - An important transport hub. Yordan Kazakov PTT4: Education - A summer walk in Ruse with grandma and grandkids. Rosita Mihailova

Methods we used, challenges we encountered Conducting a research and writing a research report are themselves a learning method for those who are involved. For us it they were even more. It was learning about how to create a project in a community (learning about team building) and it was also learning about citizens and their towns, their identity, our common European identity- it was really about feeling and being European citizens. Difficult first steps. It has been widely accepted that research reports do not set out to simply report, they seek to persuade…In our case research reports were in the form of brochures or booklets, CDs and the researchers wanted them to be interesting for a variety of audiences some of them being their own and other research groups, their family and friends, as well as the inhabitants of their town and tourists but also, in some cases, professionals from the academic circles. Research groups were supposed to create a research report asking themselves the following crucial questions: What is it that we want to say? To whom do we wish to say it (the ‘target group’) and why do we want to say? In some cases it took the research group some time to understand the aims of the research: they were not supposed to develop an official type of guide or an architect’s or urbanist’s or an art historian’s perspective on the town- though keeping an intellectual distance was welcome- and that, on the contrary, a town is also what we feel about it, and a town are stories of our lives lived there, a town are people we relate to. They all shape us and sustain us. Through their writing some research groups clearly wanted to communicate something of the feeling of the place and the relationships. In most cases it was difficult to start and during the initial meeting of the researchers in each country the project was discussed (method of discussion). Mostly a greater number of research topics were suggested and then their number was downsized. Prevailing methods. A town is where people work, love and die (Albert Camus, The Plague). Therefore respondent interviewing, informant interviewing, life histories, biographical learning were methods used to approach the ongoing relationship between the inhabitants and the town. As we have said the method used were discussion but also public consultation and interviewing citizens. The method was also a descriptive one (description). Members of the research groups for instance described food and wine they “met” on their way. And also people they met. In other research groups there were mostly stories, descriptions- very personal ones- of where members of the group are or were in a habit of going and what they see on their way (descriptive method). But their descriptions required researchers to go to libraries, archives, searching for primary and secondary sources, documents, illustrations, maps, books, to help them for instance to research the history of the names of the places (document analysis) etc. They were browsing through Internet for data and pictures. They consulted texts and pictures in Internet comparing those from the ancient times with the new ones (comparative method). In some cases the research method of choice was involving an older person walking through the town and a younger person asking him or her questions (interview). In such cases the method would be dwelling on the theory of life span following a person through the stages of his or her life (life history) and the town. To summarize, the prevailing methods were: descriptive method, comparative method, document analysis, respondent interviewing, informant interviewing, life history, biographical learning.

RESULTS OF THE PERSONAL TOWN TOURS PROJECT -Flyer -Website www.personaltowntours.eu The common platform of the project is the Website “Personal Town Tours”, created and maintained by ZAWiW. The website has translations in 7 language and menu for all relevant categories. -Brochure The personal town tours help people to discover the unknown parts of the city, the feelings of the authors related to their city, the history of different buildings, the multiculturalism of the city, social implication of the inhabitants, important details about different quarters of the city. These tours offer qualified information about life in different centuries and teach people about aspects of history and culture they didn‘t know. There are tours developed on the basis of the participants‘ interests in art, architecture, education, literature, traditions and religion. Also, there are tours on the footsteps of famous personalities over the centuries which were visiting their city and tours with humoristic approach. Unlike traditional touristic itineraries, our personal town tours offer a glimpse into the social milieu of the towns, leading the visitor into the lives of ordinary citizens and helping him get first-hand information about their daily routines. In one of the cities it is curious to meet and talk to a man, who grows the most delicious “icy” salad and who is the last man to use a push cart to take it to the open air market in the center of the city. In another city you can learn about the old trade of bead-threading and how it has been preserved to the present. Sitting in scenic restaurants, you taste food that has been popular for centuries while hearing stories about the way it is made.

The social aspect of the tours makes you familiar with some local community problems and the successful efforts of both local authorities and volunteer citizens to solve them by providing favourable environment, where all affected parties can get together and talk things over. The personal town tours show the many-coloured faces of our cities – multi-ethnic and multi-

cultural. Thus one of the tours takes us into several high schools in a city, each catering for the language needs of one of the city’s minorities. You can hear Serbian, French, Italian, German, English, Hungarian, Romanian and forget that you are in one particular city and in one particular country.

All authors of personal town tours have put in creativity and love to share with the others their memories and their personal point of view regarding the city, the people living there and the culture. “The most decisive statement of a nation is its culture” (Mircea Eliade). The thematic range of the personal town tours is vast and interesting, so anyone can choose their favourite tour in their favourite city. Actually, the visitor is invited to something special wherever he goes.

Cooperation – reciprocal prejudice

citizenship . What we expect?

Questions about identities & European

Find new points of view to know our cities

Definition framework &

Presentation of each institution and people

Vannes

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– Mestre - Timisoara – Ulm – Vicenza – Ruse–

Distributing – What about future

Full of vitality and conviviality

LJUBLJANA: Capital of human size and interesting monuments

Third evaluation & established experience

Intercountries workshops :3idioms, 3groups, 3 themes

Finalization – Translations Last tests in real life

VENISE : a mythical city

hat we wait? Identification of W know-how .Work in common & in small groups & coordinators in each meeting

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Ljubljana – Timisoara – Ulm – Vicenza – Vannes-

3 themes3

remains and a pleasant way of life

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………Mestre Timisoara – Ulm – Vicenza – Ruse

Ljubljana –

Interview local radio Proposal for the next meeting: 3 workshops : 3 workshops –

experimentation Breton danses

Test of our tours on the ground with our partners,

heard) & 2 specific exhibitions

Presentation new tours(ideas sprang from what we

prestigious past which has known many upheavals

group TIMISOARA: a big town with a

VANNES:Port – An average sized city 2000 years old with important

Second evaluation

Plan a brochure

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+ Ruse

Ljubljana – Mestre – Ulm – Vicenza – Vannes-

First evaluation Beginning of the cohesion of the

Ideas to build on Who will do what? Puzzle-Brochure

Folk exhibition

experimentation & reactions

First PTT presentations,

Sharing and testing the traditional home made food

4 Meetings : In each town : official welcome: Town Hall – General & Regional Council & town visits & surroundings

FEED-BACK FOR THE EXPERIENCE OF PPT PROJECT I learned many interesting and new things about my city Ulm from the project “Personal Town Tours”. The meeting with all our partners in Timisoara was an enormous enrichment for me. By seeing the presentations of each participant city I learned many new things about the other countries and people. Among these aspects the meetings with people from all over the world way my top preference in this project. (Elsa Koch) Taking part in the project “Personal Town Tours“ (PTT) was an exciting experience for me. Not only because I got to know more about the towns involved, I also got an idea about the values of the home towns which were important for the partners of the other nations. And it was interesting to distinguish the different aspects how the personal tours were chosen, drafted and presented. Moreover, meeting of supportive people had always been a great pleasure and a personal gain. (Monika van Koolwijk) Quoting the Romanian writer George Calinescu: “Our age is measured by the intensity of life” , I can say that the period of the European project Personal Town Tours was full of unforgettable memories and cultural lessons and represent a very precious part of life for every participant from Timisoara group. This Grundtvig project means a lot for our city, and this can be seen through the involvement of local authorities: Timis County Council, The Prefecture of Timis and Timisoara City Hall. (Ana Zlibut) Also the University of adults of Vicenza have taken part gadly to the PPT project. The group which have partecipated to the experience had the possibility to know better different countries and cultures meeting people live from the cities involved. Our group have worked to improve the level of english and try to use it when it’s necessary for example to give useful information for the right way or to read megazines and newspapers. Moreover we have also created a dvd to help the tourists in their visit in Vicenza and answer to all their questions. Even if our limited ability in english, we have partecipated actively to the project and we kept precious memories not only for the amazing visits in other cities, but also for the people that we met in this experience. (Maria Vittoria Nodari)