Love Stories

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Heilig Hart Heverlee -
Liceo Artistico Statale Catalano

This is a Valentine's project that takes inspiration from love songs.
Both sides have created their top 10 of English love songs through the use of Mentimeter. These have been combined in a Spotify playlist.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3GHLc7EFkmE4KcbewcMsNo?si=WjeTjQOyQR6fy_-Xvk6MJg

The Flemish students chose 3 Dutch songs to send to their Italian peers and vice versa. These songs were the starting point for a creative writing assignment.
What feelings and images do these songs evoke when one can't understand the language? The students were asked to write a scene from a love story based on one of the songs provided by the partner school.
The results show that love is an international language.

Il cielo in una stanza

Love stories inspired by 'Il cielo in una stanza' by Mina

IL CIELO IN UNA STANZA - MINA

The Mysterious Man

The story is about a woman named Elisabeth, she is a beautiful woman with short hair. On a Friday night she went to a dance all alone. This was her first time going to a dance and when she entered, she saw that there were a lot of men and women who were dressed very nice. There were violin players and pianists. Everybody was dancing but she was all by herself until she saw a man that she had never seen before. The man is from another city and he has the most beautiful eyes. She was shy at first but decided to make the first move. The man wanted to dance with her because he felt a bit lonely. They both were all alone, so they had nothing to lose. They were dancing all night long to a beautiful song. While they were dancing Elisabeth started noticing she was catching feelings for the man. Everyone was looking at them because they never saw two people dance so beautifully. Elisabeth was shy so she asked the man to stop dancing. They went to a table and asked for drinks. While they were waiting for their drinks the man got a phone call. The man had to go because his brother was in a car crash. Elisabeth wanted to ask his what his name was, but he didn’t answer. He gave her a picture of himself. It was a very old picture, he was 20 years old back then. Elisabeth tried to stop him running but he was too fast. Everybody was looking at Elisabeth. Elisabeth ran after the man, but she was too late. The man took a taxi back to his hometown to visit his brother. Elisabeth started crying in the middle of the street while it was raining. She went back to the ball to ask people of they knew the man. She asked some people if they knew the man, but no one knew him. She left the ball to go back home. On her way home she kept looking at the picture of the man. It was raining so she started running. when she got home, she immediately tried to sleep but she couldn’t because she kept thinking about him. Then she promised herself that she would do anything to find the man. The next morning, she went looking for the man, but nobody knew him. She went into all public buildings she knew, and even travelled to multiple cities. Every day when she wakes up, she still hopes that she will see him again, but she has never seen the man again, or heard of him.

-Yousri Meniaoui

A match made in heaven

Carl picked up Julie at the front door of the house. It was a couple who had just gotten married. They were madly in love and booked a romantic hotel to spend their wedding night. They had had a nice wedding, they had received many congratulations and nice letters. They arrived at the hotel at 1 am and settled in their room with rose petals. They took their time to go through all the letters. After reading all the letters, they went to bed. They had had a long and tiring day. They stayed on the top floor of the hotel, with a view of the sky. They were silent for a moment. Julie reflected on the adventure they had taken together. She asked Carl what he remembered about the first meeting. Carl said he once had a dream about Julie. He had dreamed that Julie was a girl in his class. She was super smart and pretty, every boy wanted her. One day Carl and Julie had to do a group assignment for school. They exchanged numbers so that the collaboration would run smoothly. They chatted all evening and decided to meet up the next day after school so they could get to know each other better. While Carl was telling his dream, Julie blushed . She was so happy that Carl was so honest and open with her. In the end it was already 2 o'clock and it was time to go to sleep. The next day they woke up at 9am and breakfast was ready at the door. During breakfast they were talking about what had happened yesterday. They didn't have much time to think. They had a flight to Mallorca at 11 o'clock where they went on their honeymoon for 2 weeks. After breakfast, they packed their bags and left for the airport and headed for a fun journey.

Love on the line:

Anna was laughing at the restaurant. She was so happy that they were almost on vacation. Her boyfriend James was tired but happy at the same time. Once they arrived in Iceland, the only thing they saw was snow. After they had arrived at the house in the middle of the forest they went to bed. The next morning, the sun was shining on their faces. Anna turned the radio on, the song that was playing was Mina - Il cielo in una stanza.

Before the vacation they had planned some things to do. The first thing they were going to do was riding with huskies. After the ride, they were going to a café to drink something. Anna ordered a tea and James ordered a Cola. James was thinking how he could ask Anna to marry him. He already had a wedding ring, but he was just waiting for the right moment. He saw clearly that Anna was very happy so he was sure she would say yes. After the drink James asked Anna to come with him. James took Anna by her hand and they walked to a snow covered mountain. Once they arrived at the top, the sun was going down. The sky was red and orange. They had never seen such a beautiful sunset. At 9 am James took his ring. Anna started crying from happiness and said yes. For the next half hour, they both starred at the sunset until it was gone. This was a day that they will never forget.

-Jarne Simons

Heartbroken

a man was just returning from war. His family and girlfriend are waiting for him at the airport. Everyone is happy he came back alive. In the evening the soldier, Thomas, takes his girlfriend out to a restaurant to celebrate that he had returned. The restaurant is reasonably quiet, there is a man playing a violin in the background, their table is prepared with candles in the shape of a heart. The waiter passes by and asks him “ Do you need anything sir?” No response from Thomas. His girlfriend asks him if he is okay. He nods yes but in reality he is not. The images of war keep replaying in his head and he can’t forgot about his friend who died at war. They order their food, the same as usual. Some minutes later his girlfriend asks him again “Do you really feel okay?”, and again he says “Yes, I’m fine. Suddenly his girlfriend gets a call from a guy named Tony, She is acting very nervous and declined the call very quickly. Her boyfriend asks “who is Tony” and she answers “ooh he is just some dude from my work”. At the moment that she is saying this he gets a notification, it’s an image of a unknown number. He opens it and what he saw is a picture of this Tony giving his girlfriend a kiss. He gets angry like never before. She says “ I can explain” but he doesn’t listen and leaves the restaurant. While he is walking through the rain the song “ II cielo in una stanza”
-Dastan Karim

Heaven on Earth

It’s 1990, America.

Two Italian tourists met each other whilst visiting America. They ran into each other by walking on the same shopping street in America. They instantly look like they are in Love. The fact that just at that time at that place both a woman and a man walked into each other, was a sign for them. There was a certain attraction to each other. They decide to go out together for the rest of the day. That night, they went to the bar of a hotel and they were having such a nice time. They couldn’t stop drinking that night and they talked and talked for hours and hours very interested in each other for the whole night. They end up in the hotel room. It looked like a of a townhouse (high ceilings, heaven painted on ceiling), light room with a big bed, fireplace across the bed, a chair in the corner between the fireplace and the wall with windows, everywhere are candles lit up. Cozy, wooden floor. They start undressing each other till the man only has pants on and the woman only has a nightdress on. Then they start kind of dancing and fighting, as if they were performing some modern dance because of the emotional ride they had been through that day. After dancing in the room, they end up in the bed making love all night.