As the delegations arrive by road, by air, by rail or by boat, so we see that the amount of luggage they bring varies with the means of transport, and consequently so does the amount of equipment brought for the exhibition and the buffet.
And so each year the sight of the delegates taking possession of the exhibition premises is especially pleasurable. This year, in 2003, in the magnificent ‘Palazzo del Duca’ overlooking the ‘Piazza del Duca’ and the solid ‘Rocca Roveresca’ fortress, the students and their teachers set to work to decorate their stand with good taste, and respecting the traditions of Christmas as set out in the AEHT’s guidelines. Since the creation of the Christmas in Europe event in Kaysersberg (France) in 1992, the organisers have provided the delegations with a small Christmas tree, a tailor’s dummy and a table.
The ‘Rocca Roveresca’ fortress looks out over the ‘Piazza del Duca’.
Throughout the morning of December 13th there was a joyful to-ing and fro-ing accompanied by interjections and giggles, the sound of hammer blows and comments coming from this real Tower of Babel in which (quite unlike the biblical tower) there nevertheless reigned a pleasing harmony. At around 1.00 pm when the picnic hamper provided by the IPSSARCT A.Panzini arrived, the bulk of the work had been done, and each delegation could be justly proud of its beautiful stand. Even if, here and there, some stands deviated a little (not to say a lot) from the spirit of the exhibition, that of Christmas, and looked more like stands from a tourism exhibition.
Nailing, fixing, tying. The usual hive of activity during the preparations.
All in all, however, the 22 stands, arranged in alphabetical order in the series of halls in the ‘Palazzo del Duca’ looked very fine as we awaited the official opening which was to take place in the evening.
The visitors cannot go wrong – the exhibition entrance is indeed here …
The picnic basket is really welcome at the lunch break.
Especially in the sun, right by the nearby fortress!
