In the recent holiday Mr Chambers, Mr Pyne and Mr Scali led a group of thirty students to classical Italy and Greece. The boys were keen to see for themselves the sites they’d so often heard about or studied and were always going to squeeze every temporal drop out of the tour.

Beginning in Rome, they covered the Roman Forum (Mr Chambers was very excited to be in the House of the Senate), Trajan’s Column and the Colosseum. The following day, we visited the Vatican and St Peter’s Basilica, as well as the famous Spanish steps and Piazza Navona. Edmond Cheng (11/FL) was so infatuated with the local gelato that he had more than twenty of them in total!

From Rome we moved down to the Bay of Naples, which is dominated by the imposing Volcano, Vesuvius. Highlights included Pompeii, Herculaneum, Solfatara, The Archaeological Museum and, of course, the beautiful island of Capri. We were treated to a boat ride around the island and not only did we visit the Blue Grotto, we even dived off the back of the boat for a swim! From Naples, we then took a ferry to Sicily. On the crossing we watched the Euro Football final and Mr Scali could not hide his disappointment when Spain defeated Italy. In Sicily we visited the beautiful cathedral of Monreale and en route to Agrigento our bus broke down. To make matters worse, the replacement bus broke down! This only strengthened the group’s resolve to make the most of every minute and on Mount Etna, and we went as high as we could in specially built vehicles. Many of us enjoyed our stay in Taormina, where, after visiting the theatre, we had a great swim, followed by more impromptu street football with the locals.

Leaving Sicily after five days, we flew on to Greece. Mr Chambers and Mr Pyne loved the new Acropolis museum and returning from it to the hotel, we stopped in at a chocolatier. Courtesy of the Iannuzzi family everyone availed themselves of the good things on offer there. After a brief stay in Athens, we moved to sites such as Marathon, Delphi, Epidavros, Myceanae and Olympia and mixed these visits with regular dips in the sea outside our hotel. We learnt so much about Greek theatre, warfare, Homer, medicine, politics and the ancient Olympic Games. Because of this incredible trip, we can all appreciate a great deal more about what the classical world has to offer. A great tour and one that we will never forget!

Theodore Iannuzzi (11/MO)
Stefan Rajcevski (11/PR)
Mr Mark Chambers