Upper School Latin Students Visit Classical Italy

Over spring break, 36 high school Latin students and four teachers spent 11 days in Italy. With a few days each in Rome, Sorrento, and the island of Sicily, our group had the opportunity both to go on tours of sites and to explore Italy in smaller groups on our own.

We visited classic sites such as the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Pantheon, as well as less crowded sites such as the Museo Borghese (an art gallery in Rome) and Paestum (a Ancient Greek city known for having some of the best preserved Greek temples in the world).

One of my favorite sites we visited was Herculaneum, a town that, like Pompeii, is well-preserved by ash from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Here, we could see an echo of what daily life might have been like for wealthy Romans living in Herculaneum: floors decorated with colorful tiles and mosaics, walls covered with frescoes whose colors are still vibrant, an advertisement for wine painted on the side of a shop, and even a set of wooden doors that were carbonized by the eruption. We also got to learn about some of the history and methods of preservation and restoration of archaeological sites like Herculaneum. After studying Latin since middle school, I was amazed to see in person the ruins of a place where actual Romans once lived!

When we were not going on tours of sites, we had time to explore whatever city we were in on our own. In Rome, my friends and I went to some shops, visited a cat sanctuary where cats roam freely among ruins, relaxed in a public garden, and got gelato. In Sorrento, we visited several lemon stores (Sorrento is known for its lemons) and, of course, got some gelato. In Taormina, Sicily, we waded into the Ionian Sea and had some beautiful views of Mount Etna (oh, and had some more gelato). Having this unscheduled time to explore on our own gave us a sense of what modern life is like in Italy and showed us how residents balance respecting the country’s ancient history with embracing modern life.

We are incredibly lucky to have been able to go on this trip, and I am very glad we did so! As a Latin student, I was overjoyed to finally visit places I have been reading about for years. As someone who had never been outside of North America before, I got a wonderful reminder of how many different ways of life exist both in the world today and through time. I definitely hope to return in the future to visit more sites, eat more delicious food, and catch some more glimpses of Ancient Roman life. Fortunately, everyone in our group tossed a coin into the Trevi Fountain in Rome, a tradition that, according to legend, guarantees the thrower’s return to Italy.