Trip Survey

Hi all, Could all tour participants please complete the following survey. Grazie mille Angelica Di Mele

Hi Parents, Just letting you know that things are going well, and students are all coping well. Moving a group of 52 around the narrow streets of Italy, has proved a challenge, but lessons learnt of Roman battle formations have proved useful on the mean streets of Florence especially.  The cities have been very safe. We have encountered very few Gypsies and so far have lost or misplaced few possessions.  The weather has cooled over the past few days and as we travel north it will get colder. A fair few students have colds and are medicating them at present. Nothing too drastic at the moment. Venturing out for meals has been a noisy experience as students get to know each other better and quite a lot of friendships have grown between the 11 & 12 groups. A pity for the other restaurant patrons. You can imagine the faces of other patrons as the troops descend.  In public, everyone's behavior has been excellent. The students are polite and courteous to all, and we have been complimented on their behavior at several venues. Despite covering plenty of kilometers during the day, their staying power at night is still remarkable. Apart from Mr. Joyce, who never sleeps, the teachers are suffering in the sleep department and trying to catch up at every opportunity (Mrs Synnott who can sleep standing up) and every venue possible (Mrs Fredericks can tell you about this one). See you soon Wayne Northam

Florence is a magical city.  Although it was a little confronting in the eyes of high school students, all up it was a great place. Friends were made, laughs were shared and Italian was misunderstood.  The Uffizi gallery proved an overwhelming array of cherubs, crucifixes and religious icons. The Birth of Venus was one of the Uffizi collection's priceless pieces. It left both the students and teachers awestruck with it's beauty for detail and heavenly aura.  Later in the day, we set off on a journey to the iconic city of Pisa, where cliche photographs were captured and for others, a strength in haggling grew. The amazing architecture of the leaning tower of Pisa was certainly worth the train trip back to our humble abode at the Leonardo Da Vinci hotel. The Ponte Vecchio was a great addition to our enormous amount of sight seeing. The beautiful lamp lit river in all it's glory along with amazing gelato was a wonderful walk worthy of our travels. On Wednesday, we headed to the Galleria dell' Accademia to see the almost worship-worthy sculpture of the muscled David  sculpted by the great Michelangelo. It's  breathtaking attention to detail was almost too much to take in for our enthusiastic art teacher, Mrs.Synott.  After our visit to the Accademia  we had time to explore many of the sights Firenze has to offer as well as indulging in Firenze's fantastic shopping.  (Caitlyn Ellender)

Orvieto's  fresh air offered us a new experience with a new kind of Italy taking shape. The farm stay houses were filled with strange bathrooms but wonderful comfy beds. On our first day many chose to sleep or go for long walks around the ever expanding countryside while,looking into the vast and unmeasured grape vines  and olive trees which covered the land around us. A delicious dinner of soup and meat kept people begging for more for what was an excellent meal. The boys by this time were all exhausted but we had managed to lock ourselves our for at least an hour which saw Christian becoming very frustrated and thankfully giving the door a little nudge to allow us to bolt through the door for some warm showers.  After breakfast on the second day we made our way to the funicular which upon arrival opened our eyes to the charming little hamlet town of Orvieto. On arrival we visited St. Patrick's well and after the effort of climbing down and back up the stairs some of us looked for gelato or chose to breathe in the fresh air that Orvieto  had to offer. At 10am many students made their way to the Cathedral where we attended a most humble and pious mass which saw miss Fredrick's cry :). The mass left many awe struck and Hungry.  After the mass all of  us searched  through the labyrinth of city streets for food and souvenirs. After our bus trip back to our farm stay half of us packed our bags in preparation for Florence or went for long walks around the countryside.  The other half then  prepared for a fun filled lesson of pasta making with only an Italian speaking Nonna who explained the hard an grueling work we would soon undertake which involved eggs, flour and some very large rollers. Our hard work had paid off and almost all of us were now completely exhausted and in a desperate attempt to get out of the rain. Then it was the turn of the other half to make the pasta After our dinner filled with the delicious pasta we had made all of us slowly dozed off to bed and prepared  for a long bus trip to Florence.

Pompeii and Herculaneum, especially for the Year 12 ancient historians, were quite surreal places. It was fascinating to see a HSC topic brought to life in front of us. We started with Herculaneum, the smaller of the two sites, with Mrs Fredericks and Grace Lenon acting as tour guides (they were certainly better than the goat loving Rosario of The Naples archeological museum). Grace demonstrated her expert knowledge on roman impluviums and the afternoon was spent traipsing through the atria, triclinia and peristyles of 2000 year old roman houses. Our time in Herculaneum ended with the sobering boat-sheds; where hundreds of skeletons of unlucky eruption victims were unearthed. The following day was spent in the famous streets of Pompeii, with some notable sites being the theatre, the house of the Menander with its infamous vomitorium, the ancient bars and taverns and the forum with the grand temples of Jupiter and Apollo. We also explored Pompeii's red-light district, as we were led by the sound baying wolves into the lupanare, literally 'the den of she wolves', Pompeii's most famous brothel, where the erotic frescoes inside tested the maturity of some students. The two ancient cities were a joy to explore and for those who chose to brave the rain and the cold a second expedition to Pompeii was conducted to some buildings that we didn't have time to see in the first tour; such as the Forum Baths, The House of the Faun and The Villa of The Mysteries. For many, the days spent at Pompeii and Herculaneum were the highlight of the trip.

Last day in Roma

It's our last day in Roma, it is to be lively and fulfilling. Thus the need to be fully awake and ready. Disater struck our room was awoken 10minuetes before we had to leave for the Vatican. Someone in our room had tossed the alam clock at the wall...no one will be named.
Catching the train to Ottavian and travelled in a pack to the Vatican. once there we met our beautiful and cutest guide Roberta (our Nonna ). leading us through the treacherous lines we entered the Vatican museums . Nona filled our minds with wonderous facts and histories of the various statues and tapestries throughout the Vatican museum.

The highlight (of course) was the Sistine Chapel, where we were taken in by Michaelangelos great frescos. Though thoroughly reminded by the guard... NO PHOTOS! NO VIDEOS! SILENZIO! SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! After a few breathtaking moments we were herded out the door into the echoes of the hall. Last but not least we were taken to St Peters Basilica.

Here we gazed around at the absolutely amazing tessars lining the walls, as well as the statues that were sculpted beautifully. The one which stood out the most was the pieta , sculpted once again by Michaelangelo. Also present in the Basilica was the tomb of out last pope John Paul II. In a haze we were redirected out to hand in our audios spoken by Nona. Well done I might add.

With heavy hearts we said goodbye to Nona. Departing with the words to me particularly "I love there'd hair". Next we dispersed. Some to the amazing race activity with a race around Roma and a small group steered at the helm by Mrs Fredericks, Mrs Malone andMrs Synott. This small group visited the Capitale Museum.

The museum showcased a multitude of busts to statues and paintings to artifacts. one statue of note was The Dying Gaul.Expressions on this statue were pained and fatigued, his body language defeated. In all this we had a little too much fun...posing with busts and acting group shots mostly dominated by Sean, with his lovely selfiies. :)

After this little trip our small group went to The oldest templeThe Pantheon. It hada tall structure with a dome roof as well as encasing Raphael's tomb. A once pagan temple is now a Christian one. Finishing here our small group left for gelatos then the hotel...tad late for dinner.

The winner of the amazing race was Oldest boys on the trip and nearly first place winners Trent and Claudia.

signing out Emily and tegan

Now in Sorrento

We have been so busy these past few days, seeing the sites of ancient rome. Starting with the colosseum. We met our nonna-like guide Roberta, who everyone quickly fell in love with. Despite the cold winds the colosseum was spectacular and unforgettable, Therese even got some words of wisdom from our guide; "good wine comes in small bottles!". Our next stop was the forum romanum, the center of ancient Rome. Ancient history kids were quick to point out all the buildings they'd studied in Year 11. Next, after some intense haggling by Mrs Fredericks, some of us hopped on a sightseeing bus for un giro di Roma. The afternoon was spent wandering around the city, to the Trevi, the Pantheon, or some retail therapy! We've definitely been living la dolce vita!(Liam Rogers)