Final Pictures from Sperlonga

F

Sperlonga

The final stage of our adventure was the wonderful Italian beach town of Sperlonga.  The weather was perfect and so was the beach.  The students worked hard to finish their ISUs and to prepare for the final exam, that hard work certainly paid off when the marks were tallied by the teachers on Saturday afternoon.  The students have received their marks and reports will be mailed out in August. 

Everyone enjoyed our free day on Saturday.  Some went for a boat ride on the Mediterranean, some went shopping, everyone visited the beach for a final time.  We enjoyed a final "dress" dinner at our hotel and then spent a final evening celebrating our month together.  Everyone, including the staff, was sad that our European adventure has come to a close.  Ciao!

Pictures from Rome

Florence - Krista's blog

On the morning of July 19^th, we got a group together after breakfast and went to go see the statue of David. We walked the surprisingly short distance from our hotel and waited in line for around 20 minutes for the building to open. We got our tickets and walked in to the main room. There were a lot of old paintings on the walls. For me, it was mostly just insanely awesome to see how old some of them were, although was almost eerie seeing paintings of people who had died centuries ago. I got separated from my friends at one point, so I wandered off into the next room. I saw the statue from the opposite end of the hallway, and I was honestly shocked at how impressive it was. I don't know very much about art at all, but I feel like I could have just stood there the whole day looking at it. One part from that trip that made us laugh was the mirrored floors in one of the rooms. The girls who had worn skirts that day were pretty eager to get out of there.

After we got back, we had class and then free time. Mrs. Young had organized a couple appointments in the leather market for us. Almost everyone bought things, and the store owners gave us really awesome prices.

While everyone else went shopping or back to the hotel, a group of 3 of us (Alex Dow, Laura Lebeau and myself) decided to climb the stairs in the Duomo. We went back and got changed into clothing that was appropriate for the church, and then walked back. The 486 steps were a little bit intimidating at first, but there were a lot of places to stop and take pictures on the way up, and once we got to the top, it was absolutely worth it. W+e got some incredible pictures of Florence from the sky, and we also found our hotel and some of the places we had to walk to. We hadn't realized how much we'd been walking each day in Florence, but it was definitely kinda cool to know we'd done it.

Right before dinner, we all got back to our rooms and got dressed up for “Try Again Thursday” (after a failed attempt at “We Look Nice Wednesday”). It was really fun to take pictures of ourselves dressed nicely for a change before we left the hotel, and I think the girls appreciated finally getting an opportunity to look nice after 2 weeks of sweatpants and hoodies in Ireland.

We did a lot of walking this day, but it was definitely action-packed and ridiculously fun. Seeing as it was our last real day in Florence, I'd say we did it pretty well.

Pictures from Florence

Pictures from Florence

Our Days in Florence

Our time in Florence continues to be filled with new and wonderful experiences.  On Wednesday, the English class visited the hilltop church of San Miniatore for their class.  The views are spectacular - best in the city according to our guide - and the cemetary is unlike anything we have ever seen.  The students worked hard and then it was time for photos.  Wow!

After some gelato on the walk back to our hotel, we met the bus and set off for Pisa and another great afternoon.  Lots of photos of the students and the tower, lots of laughter, lots of great Italian food to end another amazing day.

Thursday brought an optional excursion to the Academia to see the "real" David.  24 students attended and were wowed by this sculpture.  Mrs. Young took the students on an optional trip to the leather market in the afternoon  - I think that you will really like the gifts your children purchased.  The rest of the afternoon was free for students to climb the duomo, explore the shops or catch up on homework.  Another 4 course meal brought the day to a close and after an hour or so to explore the students all signed in for curfew.

Friday is a full day trip to Venice!