De La Salle Italy

It was the last full day of our awesome Italian trip. So today we were having a day trip in Pompeii. It was a 3 hour bus ride from Rome to Pompeii so everyone made sure that they had some sort of entertainment with them. We left the hotel at 10am. We traveled a good 1 1/2 hours before we stopped at a servo and got something to eat and went to the toilet. Another hour later we arrived at Pompeii. We got off the bus at the front of a market. We waited about 30 mins before finding the tour guide. The city was still in good tact from its chaotic disaster nearly 2000 years ago. It was a very well built town. It only had 4 main roads though. A north, east, south, and ... read more

Today we woke up to what was going to be our last full day in Italy. Today we were having a day trip in Pompeii. We boarded the bus at 10.00.am It was a 3 hour bus ride from Rome to Pompeii. We stopped off half way and refueled the bus, stretched our legs and got some lunch. When we reached Pompeii we all got of the bus at little market selling fruit. I saw some of the biggest lemons ever in that market along with all the regular fruit and vegetables. From here we walked to the entrance of the ancient city of Pompeii. With our tour guide providing information we walked through the city. The first thing I noticed was how well the city had been preserved. You could still see the brick that ... read more

It was the time we were all dreading, the time to say goodbye to our newly made friends. As we arrived at San Quirico D'Orcia emotions were running high knowing that every minute we spent that night was a minute closer to our departure. When we entered the room, it was a surprise to see one long table, enough to seat about 60 people, running almost the entire length of the room. With the parents down one end and all of the students down the other there was still plenty of room to move around. Soon we were called to sit down and get ready for the start of what was going to be an enticing Italian meal. Appetizers were then brought out, consisting of many different types of bread and dips. As the night flew ... read more

The boys and girl from the De La Salle Tour of Duty in Italy arrived at the holiest place in the world for Christians and Catholics . . . the Vatican. The World's Smallest Country was swarmed with thousands of tourists, most of them Americans, but once the wait to enter the Vatican's galleries was over we saw trackloads of fine art, mountains of statues and the area of Melbourne painted in frescos. But the most beautiful sites in the Vatican were artforms of a diffrent kind. It was the first time i'd really admired something religious. The places i am talking about are the Sistine Chapel & St. Peter's Basillica. When you walk into the Chapel you are told a few things that you need to do: be quiet, silence, don't talk loudly, don't take ... read more

The frames of our bus windows filled with the darkness of the Montalcino night. Standing from the seats seemed an inconceivable notion, as their warm embrace had carried us from Venice to a deep corner of Tuscany. Had we not chosen to leave the bus it may have carried us onward, a shaky magic carpet sweeping us across the country. Though had we not left the bus driver with the peace he had truly earned, the coming weeks of our lives would have been something very different. This new chapter of our adolescence began as we stepped of that bus. The first steps of our Montalcino adventure... read more

After a tiring bus trip and through much fog, we finally reached the long awaited Lake Garda. I personally was told that Lake Garda was beautiful and that it was like nothing else. However when we arrived there unfortunately it was a foggy day. However it was still magnificent to see. When we arrived we walked around the town and then proceeded to the peer where our boat was docked. While we waited for the captain to finish his pasta for lunch some of us went to a gelateria and bought gelato. Others bought postcards, the italian newspaper, and a range of sweets and savouries for lunch. Once we boarded the beautiful vessel we proceeded to be taken on a breathtaking journey, one where picturesque sights were all that we could see. We see saw many ... read more

My host family is located near the picturesque town Montalcino. They have been producing honey for 26 years and currently they are producing hundreds of different types. The house i am staying at has four hectares of sangiovese vines and produces two different types of wine- They produce rosso di montalcino and the famous brunello. Brunello takes five years to produce, it is only made in montalcino. Rosso only takes 10 months to produce. The family i am staying with also produce honey, wine and olive oil. During Easter it snowed, I couldnt believe it. For lunch we had multiple cources. The underground level, downstairs had about 40 people in it for lunch. Course after cource i was told to pace myself. I tried but still I couldnt get through them all. One of the brothers ... read more

Our day began with the arrival in Milano after the long flight from Melbourne. Although many of us were a little tired and just wanted to relax we were off to begin our tour of the town of Milano. As we walked out the front door of Hotel Oranto, we were surprised to find the cars driving down the right hand side of the street.... This gave many of us a fright because as we all know, in Australia the cars drive down the left. We were also all surprised to find that the trams were a bright orange colour and that the traffic lights used to tell pedestrians when to walk also had an orange man symbol. When we arrived the the town centre, we walked the streets as we didn't begin our tour until ... read more