Adventures in the Land of Fashion, Architecture and Spaghetti

Ieva Stankevičiūtė
When you arrive in Italy you breathe excitement, you cannot help but notice the busy streets and all its noise, the incomparable architecture, the art, people laughing out loud and gesticulating with their hands, and how alive the cities are. Of course, Milan could not be different than any other major Italian city, and I liked that.
My expectation of the company seemed to be entirely different from what I have seen on the place. Before coming to Milan, I was thinking that it would be quite small entity, as it was managed by the youngsters, but the reality was completely dissimilar. The truth is that Sognando Casa is one of the leading and the largest online platform of tiles, which suggests more than 5 000 products of over 200 brands to the world. And the most exciting thing about this enterprise is that all the founders are almost of our ages and they had started this business from the scratch. I would say that they really surprised me by their aptitudes to communicate and negotiate with the representative of various brands and convince quite conservative businessmen to modernize their enterprise and follow the technological innovations. One of the biggest advantages of Sognando Casa is also its flexibility and the ability to serve to the multinational community. The fact is that their website is translated onto 18 languages, and I feel myself also proud that I translated the page also in Lithuanian language, and now our mates can purchase any kind of tiles online and get them in a very limited time-frame.
The best experience I have gained up-to-now in this company was participating in one of the world’s biggest exhibitions of tiles, where you could find the brands such as Marazzi, Vogue Tiles, Versace Tiles, Florim, etc. It was held in Bologna, which is known to be a cradle of ceramics, and the faire was taking place at over 40 pavilions. There, I could meet the representatives and the directors of the most influential companies and talk with them. As much as it was requiring a lot of courage from me, I was feeling slightly strained initially, however, from the first attempt to communicate with those people, I understood that they are quite simple and humble persons and there is nothing to be worried about.
Overall, I am very happy that I have made a decision to take a traineeship in Sognando Casa as I am gaining truly valuable experience on a daily basis. I have seen how effective the company is when all its members work as a real team, and even though, I am “just” an intern I feel to be meaningful and heard by the employers and therefore I try to do all my best while completing the tasks. I think that as much as their enterprise is innovative, the way they interact with the employees is also quite modest. I would advise to all our companies to do the same. Plus, the environment, where the people from various cultures work appeared to be quite effective and exciting. I really enjoy communication with the peers from different countries. For instance, the time I am here, I have already worked along with the interns from Poland, Turkey, Georgia, Belgium, Vietnam, etc. and every day I learn new things about their culture and traditions and it cheers me up daily. It is unforgettable experience.
All the memories I gather during my internship could not be as pleasant as they are now without also travelling in different Italian cities. Up-to now, I have visited Venice, Bologna, Como, Genova, Rome, Naples and they took special places into my heart. Different architectural style, various local kitchens, especially Lasagne alla Bolognese (special in Bologna), distinctive behaviors from the locals, etc. make those towns remarkable.
With all above described aspects, internship in Italy and at Sognando Casa has a special significance for me and I would advise to my peers never miss an opportunity to explore new countries, places, meet new people and create a global network, which is so easy in our era.