By Student Giacomo Trimeloni from Italy
Scotland is a country of the United Kingdom now, but before 1700 it was an independent state. For this reason it has its own culture and tradition, that are different from England, although the south side of Scotland borders with England. The national flag of Scotland, called ‘saltire’ is a white cross on a blue field. Scotland has its own kings since year 834 until the union at the beginning of 1700. All people know the traditional clothes of the Scots: the kilt, but I’ve never seen the ‘sporran’ a leather handbag to keep the money. The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh, situated on the east coast in the north of lowlands, under the highlands (the mountains). It is a beautiful city and it shows an ‘old town’ side with a castle and a ‘new town’ side with fashionable properties. Generally the Scots don’t like the English people. They produce a lot of whisky. The traditional highland games are very strange and funny (for example tossing the caber, throwing the hammer, and sword dancing). Scotland is known also for the bagpipe and lake ‘lochness’. Other particulars: the Edinburgh Tattoo Festival, the Haggis (traditional dish made from sheep), the language (very different from English), the Tyack dance with the song of Robert Bart.