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Geography Trip to Italy
Mrs Rodell-Jones wrote the following report on the school trip to Italy that took place over the half term.
“I am not sure whether words or images can fully encapsulate the experiences thirty-five students from SST had this half term on our visit to Rome and Naples. Our time in Rome saw us on a whistlestop tour of the Trevi Fountain and Spanish steps on our first night, as we sought to understand the architecture of this city of over two million people.
We were fortunate enough to have tickets for the Vatican City – the smallest country in the world and home to the Pope – on Ash Wednesday and the area was filled with people who had come for an audience with the Pontiff. We were tested in our knowledge of Greek and Roman gods by our guides and, having watched ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ on Disney + recently, our students were able make connections to the myths and legends they had heard or read. Words cannot describe the Sistine Chapel and the frescos and artwork we saw, and the Basilica of St Peter’s was breathtaking in its opulence and grandeur. For many of us, seeing what we have only read about in books, seen on film, or learnt in lessons put context to the impressions we had made in our minds. Speaking personally, to see the ‘hand of God’
SST - where learning has no limits
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image with Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel was the highlight of the trip for me and hearing and seeing the students’ reactions was amazing.
On our second full day we had a tour of the Colosseum which could hold over fifty thousand people on ‘fight-day’. Seeing the floor of the Colosseum and the chambers where gladiators awaited their fate next to lions who had been starved for weeks to ensure a bloody battle was awe-inspiring and chilling. That afternoon, we travelled to Naples for the second part of the trip and the sunshine that had enhanced our visit to Rome was seen in abundance in the Bay of Naples. Seeing the sun set on the bay, framed by the city lights and the foreboding outline of the active volcano, was picture perfect and every hair-pin bend you turned revealled the horizon from a new angle.
The third day saw us climbing through the caldera of Monta Somma to find the Vesuvius volcano; it took a little time but the views across the landscape were worth it and it set the rest of our trip in context. We could see the two sites of devastation that we would visit later in the trip. When the volcano erupted it 79AD, the tiny port town of Herculaneum was covered in a river of volcanic mud (lahar) in less than 10 minutes and the town of Pompeii was showered with volcanic ash, unaware of the pyroclastic flow that would entomb the town three hours later.
The town of Pompeii was beautiful but sombre; you truly see a location caught in time and every home, shop and landmark is preserved, frozen in time. We visited the local amphitheatre that could seat 5,000 people and saw the smaller local theatre – the Odeon, which lends it name to a national cinema chain– which held a more intimate thousand people. Walking the streets and seeing the shops, well-worn footpaths and forum felt like you were stepping back in time. Herculaneum, with its mosaics and artwork, rightly inspired the Renaissance artists, as long forgotten techniques were rediscovered by artists in the walls and floors of this submerged town. Students took time to reflect at what was once the dock edge as we remembered the people who died as they sought refuge from the lahar. On the day Vesuvius erupted, the residents of Herculaneum ran to the dock edge to try to sail away from the mud flow only to see their boats on fire in the sea and their homes covered in the mud as the lahar moved towards them.
Our last morning was spent in Sorrento, a beautiful town that clings to the rugged hillside on the Bay of Naples. It is hard to recall, as I write this review in a rainy and cool UK, that last Saturday morning I was sitting in a sunny square at a pavement café drinking a cappuccino and enjoying the sunshine in a balmy 20-degree heat. Those students who had brought shorts were certainly the canniest packers, whilst I wilted in my wool jumpers.
It was just as well that our average step count was 18,000 steps a day, as the food was carbohydrate high; pizza, pasta and bread was the foundation of most of our meals and the students were keen to remark that the Italian McDonald’s menu is far better and varied than in UK counterpart.
It takes many people to make a trip successful and so, to those staff who gave of their own time, the parents who dropped and collected when the rest of Maidstone slept and Mrs Smith who ensured the trip was well organised and risk assessed - I say a heartfelt thank you. It was a delight and privilege to escort these students on the visit and I hope the sights, sounds and experiences stay with them for a lifetime.”
To see the full album of photos, please see the full newsletter here
