He tried Vegemite, not smeared on toast the way most Aussies like it but scooped it straight out of the jar with a spoon.

“I thought it was chocolate but it was shocking,” he laughed.

Since that experience he has enjoyed a four-month culture change in Collie.

He arrived here on July 10 after a five-day orientation in Sydney and he will leave at the end of November.

“I wish I could stay longer, it has been great,” he said.

The 17-year-old comes from a “small city” of 200,000 people, called Reggio Emilia.

So coming to a town as small as Collie was a huge change.

“The people here are very laidback,” he said.

Francesco has been attending year 11 classes at Bunbury Catholic College. He said schooling was very different in Italy where “you attend primary school for five years, and then middle school for three years and then five more years in high school.

“In Italy high school goes up to year 13, so I would be in year 11 back home,” he said.

Italian children attend school until about 1pm but they also go to school on Saturdays.

Susan and Lyndon Pil-atti have been Fran-cesco’s host parents.

Their daughter Jaimee went to Italy for three months for exchange when she was in high school. “That is why we wanted to become a host family,” Susan said.“We were grateful to the family who hosted Jaimee.”

The Pilattis also have two sons, Jack (16) and Daniel (15).

Francesco winced at what Aussies are doing to an Italian gastronomic classic. We are destroying the pizza by serving it with pineapple, he said.

“It has been a huge culture change, I do a lot of things differently,” he remarked.“When I first got here, I would have a coffee and a biscuit for breakfast. Apparently that is not what you do here,” he said.

Francesco also said Collie is much warmer than his home. “It snows every winter in Italy. This kind of weather is like summer in Italy,” he said.

In his spare time, Francesco has been playing basketball and volleyball at school. He has also tried AFL and cricket. “AFL is fun, but I am no good at cricket,” he said.

In the future he plans to study medicine and become a psychiatrist. “I am fascinated in that part of medicine,” he said.

He has not put moving to Australia off his agenda. “I would consider moving here but Italy is always home,” he said.