Day 7 and 8: Colosseum, The Forum and another Country
First of all, I would like to apologize for not having an update the past few days. There was a quite a problem with Internet access. Day 7; We sang goodbye to Sorrento and said hello to Rome. We took about a four hour bus ride from the south of Italy to the central section of Italy (Roma). Our bus driver Walter and tour Director Oshry first took us to a self service lunch at a wonderful train station. The food was quite delicious. Then we continued our trip to the Colosseum and Forum where we met our local guide Jerry. Jerry is from Venezuela, Jersey and Rome. He is quite a colorful guide and really kept the students engaged throughout our tours of the Colosseum, Forum and Vatican City (Did you know that Vatican City is a foreign Country??) The ruins of the Ancient Roman empire can be quite overwhelming, especially when you don't have a lot of time to tour these wonderful places. Our guide Jerry did a excellent job explaining both and was very detailed with every explanation of the ruins. After our tour of Ancient Rome, we jumped on a bus ride to Gladiator School. Day 8: We visited the Vatican, this was not my first time to this great country, but each time you visit you see something new. On this trip our wonderful local guide Jerry, took us to the Pope mobile garage. (Please check out our pictures at University Prep School Study Abroad on facebook. The garage showed us over 500 years of how the Pope traveled in style around the world. It was amazing to see. The walk through the Vatican Museum is always an adventure. They pack way too many people in and it is very hard to walk around, but the art is something you just can't explain, absolutely priceless. During our visit through the Museum you see the Sistine chapel, St. Peter's and like I said above the most amazing art in the world. After the Vatican, we did a little shopping, some of us rode a Ferrari (Mr. Holley) and we had a wonderful final lunch in Rome. Once we left the area of the Vatican in Rome, We looked at a beautiful Piazza, the name has slipped my mind at this moment, we saw the Spanish Steps and we did more shopping. I have to say out of all of the groups that I have taken abroad, this group shopped by far the most. Our final dinner in Rome, we visited the medieval area of Treverstae. We had a wonderful final dinner and then more shopping. Our final night gave us quite a twist because once we walked all the way to our bus stop, we realized we were missing two of our principals. Oshry jumped into action and went back to find them with no success. Eventually, we found them back at the hotel. From what I heard they had an adventure of their own, but I will let them explain. Day 9: Once we arrived at the airport, we found out that our flights back home were cancelled because of a power outage in Amsterdam. Again, our rock star Tour director jumped into action with some help from this blogger. We were able to get everyone on separate flight back home, Two through Philadelphia and one through Chicago. Everyone returned home safely after almost 24 hours of travel. This is the last blog for our Italy trip, please for the Peru trip staring this Sunday. Also Like our facebook page at: University Prep School Study Abroad Those who traveled with us please give our page a review. Our picture exchange will be in early May. Please put together your ten favorite pictures and make up to 30 copies of each. Italy 2015 signing off!!!
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Today started off like any other typical day in Europe, a nice breakfast, conversation and a nice morning stroll to our destination. I must say though the destination that we went to today was by far the most beautiful place that this blogger has ever been in the world. This is one of the main reasons why I have not slept most of the night because I just can't get enough of our fantastic view. I will remember this day for eternity. Well back to the day, we started by taking a short walk down some steep stairs to the harbor to catch our boat to Capri. It was quite a calm ride over to the island of Capri. Did you know that the house range from 1 million Euro to around 100 Euro, depending on your view?? They also filmed several wonderful movies in the area, such as James Bond. We were actually somewhat like James Bond at one point today, but I will get to that soon.
Once we arrived in Capri, we enjoyed the beach. This is not a beach like ours in the states filled with sand, Italian beaches usually are filled with rock. Shoes are required. After spending a little time on the beach, we took a boat ride arranged by Oshry around the island. It was the best boat trip that I have ever experienced and the views were overwhelming. Back to James Bond, I didn't know this but I guess in one of the movies Bond races through these big rock in a boat similar to the one we rode in today. We also were able to experience that same opportunity, but a much slower pace. Unfortunately, because of the choppy sea, the students were not able to swim through the caverns, but they were able to jump into the ice water. We had a few brave parent enjoy the great experience also. (please check out the pictures on our facebook page). After our breathtaking boat ride, we were able to take the Funicolare up to the top of Capri were I suggest you go visit one day because that is by far one of the best views in the world. We enjoyed a delicious lunch filled with pasta. clams and mussels, then off on a adventure to Tiberius garden. Some parent did more shopping and the students enjoyed another Gelato or fresh icee. Oshry then allowed to take the walk down the steps from the top of Capri to the bottom. It was quite a workout. Unfortunately our day in Capri had to come to an end and we caught the final boat back to Sorrento. Our journey back to our hotel was very interesting because it contained 742 steps to reach the top of our city from the harbor. Once back, we were off to Italian dance class, it is amazing how much you can learn in a very short time. We went from novice dancers to veteran novice dancers of the great Italian dance. There will be video posted soon. After dance class it was back to our hotel for dinner and an early bed check since we must be up at 6 am for departure. (it is currently 5:11, so this blogger has not had much sleep because of this great view). Tomorrow, we head to our final stop, Rome. We will visit the Colosseum, the forum and enjoy Gladiator school. It was a early wake-up today 6 am, so we could catch the bullet train from Florence to Naples. Everyone did a great job. If you have not experienced the trains in Europe, I suggest you give it a try one day. Our train hit a high speed of 320 KM per hour. Most of the students on the train caught up on sleep ans so did some of the parents and chaperones, but some of us decided to catch the beautiful views of the countryside of Italy. We finally arrived in Naples around 11 and Oshry quickly tried to take us to the bus, but before that happened Mr. Holley jumped in to quick action and became a super hero. I will again let him explain.
After Holley's heroism, we finally arrived at our bus. Oshry had a wonderful surprise for us in Naples. He decided to let us stop at probably the most wonderful views that I have ever seen overlooking the mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. It was breathtaking. After we took some picture, it was off to Pompeii. During our ride we realized that the volcano overlooking Pompeii erupts about every 73 years and the last time it erupted was in 1942. That' a little scary to me. We finally arrived in Pompeii and enjoyed a wonderful lunch. Pizza Pasta. Pompeii is a extraordinary place that just stopped in time. It was great to see the students ask our guide Maximo so many great questions about the ancient city. So many of them were so engaged. It was quite a wonderful tour of the ancient city. After the tour we had the opportunity to enjoy a lemonade or icee. Delicious. You know because of the ash from the ancient eruption that lemons and other types of fruits grow about three times there regular size. Next we were off to the beautiful city of Sorrento. The drive was filled with some of the most breathtaking views you will ever see in life. Our hotel is also full of beautiful views. Our fourth day started with a morning of free time, some of us slept in, others shopped, nut some of us visited the beautiful museums of Florence and climbed towers. It was quite a fun morning for all. Oshry, Reebel and I visited a wonderful museum that had a exhibition of Ancient Roman Bronze statues. It was an absolutely fabulous display. Some of the parents decided to continue to take advantage of the great shopping here in Florence and visited the Gucci, Louis Vuitton and several other high end stores. The others decided to climb the 400+ steps of a cathedral in the center of Florence. I really thought that may slow down some of the energy of the students, but it seemed to speed it up.
The afternoon took us through a journey into the Tuscan Country side. We visited a farm where students petted cows and bulls. We saw were they make wine and enjoyed the wonderful view from the top of Tuscany. The Sarah's reminisced about Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun. We enjoyed lunch on the countryside. Did you know because of salt taxes, Tuscon's still don't put salt in their bread? After lunch we visited a ancient city, where we saw many towers, shopped and enjoyed the best Gelato in the world (this according to the sign at the shop). The evening took us on a night tour through Florence. We enjoyed the sights, the people, culture and went to dinner in this beautiful restaurant close to the square, we visited the previous day. Dinner was wonderful. We enjoyed various cuisines and pastries. Tomorrow, we say goodbye to Florence, but hello to Naples. We also have the opportunity to take a bullet train. More soon. Our day started with a wonderful boat ride through the islands of Venice to the main land of Italy. It was sad to say good bye to Venice, but our future in Italy looks very promising. We took about a 3 hour bus ride to our next destination the world capital of the Renaissance, Florence. Florence welcomed us with the most beautiful hotel that I have ever stayed in while traveling Europe. This is definitely a five star hotel in Europe standards. Ms. Scott even said this was her kind of place.
After our arrival it was time to explore the city. We enjoyed lunch in this very nice market, but to my surprise some of us were eating burgers and french fries, not good while in Italy. After lunch, we went to Accademia Gallery were we visited Michelangelo's the David. Wow!!! Stunning piece of art. Our students were quite intrigued by the detail of the sculpture. This was also one of the smallest art galleries that I have ever been to any where in the world. There were just a couple of rooms, but that statue was worth the price of admission. After David, our guide took us on a beautiful tour through the city of Florence. The architecture of the churches and buildings are phenomenal. Our final stop on the tour was a beautiful piazza. Then out of the corner of one of our chaperones eyes was a leather and gold shop. Italian leather is Perfecto. After our leather and gold adventure, we walked about a mile to cooking school. Our students prepared pasta, Ms. Spencer and Ivesaj prepared the sauce. Your bloggerwith Safiya, Theresa and Ms. Robertson Prepared the best cake, I have ever eaten. (a little bias here). Minyara and Mr. Holley prepared meatloaf and so many more students teachers and chaperones prepared various part of our meal. What a delicious meal we cooked, probably the best so far in Italy. I have never saw all students so engaged and working hand in hand to create such a masterpiece. After dinner, we enjoyed a beautiful night walk with our wonderful guide Oshry through Florence and a little stop at a wonderful Gelato shop. By the way I enjoyed the Nutella Gelato. I do recommend for your visit to Florence. Tomorrow will take us to Tuscany for lunch and a visit to the countryside. More soon Today brought us lots of rain, but that did not stop us from enjoying our final day in Venice. Rain is not a good thing here in Venice, since the city tends to flood when it rains. This does not stop the people of Venice though, its like a city on stilts when it rains. I will not ruin it for you though by explaining. Anyways, we first visited the Doges Palace where we felt like royalty walking up the stairs of gold. Wow what a sight and our students were overwhelmed by all of the beautiful architecture that so many famous people such as Napoleon walked. The rooms of the Palace were absolutely breathtaking, it really compares with the Palace of Versailles without the huge garden. One of the most interesting parts of the Palace was the Bridge of Sighs, where prisoners once crossed and sighed on their way to a lifetime in prison. The prison itself had around six people in each room and we wondered how these people were able to live a lifetime in such a place. Our next stop we walked on stilts to the Doges Church, the architecture was overwhelming, even though it is one of the first places to flood in the city, so these so called stilts were very important to us.
After becoming becoming very wet, we took a boat to the Moreno Glass factory, the oldest glass blowing factory in all of Europe. During our demonstration, our glass master created a vase and a very cool horse. We then visited the shops where you can buy a gold tea set for 4,600 Euro, not quite in this bloggers price range, but it was very beautiful. After the factory, we went back to our hotel by boat to seek dry clothes. For lunch Ochiri took us to a wonderful place to eat Pizza and pasta. absolutely delicious and the service was exceptional. We also found Mr. Holley who had been missing for the past day, but We will let him tell that story. Finally back to beautiful Venice for shopping and Dinner. We encountered lots of rain on our shopping trip around Venice which made several of us seek shelter in very nice cafes. We enjoyed coffee, tea and expresso. Dinner was very nice, even though we were quite wet again by this point. We enjoyed pasta, salad and veal. We also celebrated Harmoni Petty's birthday. She turned 13 today and will probably never forget it. Tomorrow, we head to Florence. More then. Our first day took us on travels through Amsterdam before we arrived at breathtaking Venice. What a beautiful city. When we arrived in Venice, we were met by our great tour director Osciri. We were a quite tired group, but once we arrived on our water taxi, something woke us up. It was probably the stunning sights of Venice and the many islands that make up this great city. We arrived at our hotel after a 45 minute boat taxi.
Once at the hotel, we took about a 45 minute break to freshen up and then we were off to St. Mark's Square, We spent most of our day shopping, taking in the sights and climbing up towers. At about 6:30, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner on our first night in Venice. We ate seasonal risotto with peas and carrots, turkey and gravy and a wonderful apple pie. After dinner, we were quite tired, but some of us were able to stop for gelato. Today we will head back to Venice to take a city tour with a local guide. We will visit Doge's Palace, the church and take a Gondola ride as long as the weather holds up here. We are expecting rain, but lets hope that doesn't happen. More tomorrow. |
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AuthorMr. Lopez is the primary author of our blogs. However, on each trip Mr. Lopez invites guest bloggers to add their flair to our experiences. Guest bloggers will be noted at the bottom of the blog. Archives
April 2018
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