Getting home

To those kind people picking us up. We will call or message from a stop along the way from Sydney with an estimated time of arrival.
Arrivederci

Student Thoughts

The Europe Trip 2010 was an amazing experience in culture and aspects of various European cities, witnessing first hand many places that I have wanted to see. I enjoyed every day with friends and got to know classmates in detail. A trip of a lifetime, I highly recommend it to other students - Simon

Best experience ever... would definitely do it again - Roden

The Europe trip for me was a completely worthwhile experience. Everything from Paris to Florence and Venice, the things we saw and cultures we experienced were incredible - Lena


A trip of a lifetime with all my friends seeing things I never thought I would see, especially with them - Taylor

I enjoyed the new experiences, such as travelling on the Metro, trains and the plane. I also loved Lausanne in Switzerland because it was so beautiful and I really enjoyed it - Alison

Got to eat amazing food, see wonderful and thrilling sites and walked a hell of a lot. Super-awesome!! - Shannon

Highly recommend the next year 12 group to go! Loved every bit and didn't want to leave... EVER! Amazing experience :) - Caitlin

Had the best experience ever in another culture, with all of my friends. 5 stars - Dylan

Trip was fan-tastical! 2 thumbs up :) - Jess

An experience of a lifetime where I made new friends and saw beautiful places. I want to come back again - Heather


Had the time of my life in this once in a lifetime experience. If you don't go next year you will regret it. Worth every dollar! :) 1 Up! - Emily

I got to see everyone's true side and I hated it, as well as seeing my $5000 could have been better spent - Ryan

Italy was my favourite country. And I loved Switzerland because of the mountains. Can't wait to get home - Courtney

This has been a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to explore Europe with all of my friends. I know that I am never going to forget it and I know for sure that I'll come back one day. All in all, I must say my favourite place was Florence - Emma xox

Had a great time in Europe, especially Italy, but can't wait to be back home - Claudia

I loved seeing paintings and statues that I've learnt about in class, and also visiting ancient places. I loved experiencing the different cultures, and seeing the great landscapes that are so different from Australia - Kirrilee

I enjoyed Florence because it had the most free time - Regina

Haggling, Florence and Switzerland was where it was at, yo - Conner

Billet Family!!!!! - Xavier

The Eiffle Tower glittering at night and my host family were my favourites - Hayley

I enjoyed the sightseeing in Paris and Italy and my time with my host family - Breanna

Good experience, have seen lots of different sites that will be remembered - Ben

It was a good experience and met a lot of interesting people - Jake

Made new lifelong friends, was a good trip - Matthew

It was great, made new friends and had fun - Nick

Can't wait to touch down in Sydney - Jenna

Day 17: The Vatican

Roden Hung and Caitlin Day

Hey people, this is the last blog that individual students will be writing.
Waking up at various times we left the hotel at 7.45 am. After a short walk to the metro station, we all packed into a train and headed off to the Vatican... :) The line was huge to get into the Vatican museum... luckily for us we were able to skip these lines and laugh at all the 'average' people that we passed... :)
At the front entrance we met our guide Mr. Francesco Marini for a guided tour of the Vatican museum. All the students were amazed at the brilliant historical value of the extraordinary site... :o

Francesco then took us inside the Sistine Chapel, where the students saw Michelangelo's famous frescos on the ceiling, such as, 'The creation of Adam' and 'The last judgement'. It was a marvelous experience for all concerned...
A tour of St. Peter's Basillica was next on the agenda for the day. There the students and teachers saw Bernini's famous artworks and marveled at the size of the church.
It was huge. :O
The tour guide left us in St. Peter's square where we got free headphones... :) There individual groups set off for a fine luncheon.
At precisly 12:20 all parties ;) met Mr. Tim Fisher, the ambassador for Australia in the Holy See (Vatican). Students and Teachers were all delighted by his extensive knowledge and humour...
Later, 21 students had the oppurtunity to climb the dome of St. Peter's Basillica which consisted of more than 500 stairs. All the students were amazed and awed by the stunning views of Rome from the top... :)

Everyone then had a excellent :S walk back to the hotel to have a nice nap before consuming an evening meal.
Cya back in Oz soon
Love Caitlin and Roden xoxo :) :)

Day 16: Exploring Roma

Regina Russell & Conner Spicer
Buongiorno!
We woke up at 7:15 to go to a delicious breakfast in one of the smallest breakfast rooms I have seen in my life.
This was followed by our long walking day touring the sites of Rome with our exciting guide Mr Francesco Marini.
Our group walked up the Palatine Hill which provided us with a great view of the Colosseum. Going inside the Colosseum gave us opportunities to take some pictures with friends.

Starving, we went to the supermarket and then had a long walk to the Piazza Navona where we ate lunch.
We then visited the Leonardo Da Vinci museum where we all had a well deserved break. From then on we continued walking down to the Fiume Tevere and then on to Spanish steps.
On our return to the Piazza dei Cinquencento we had dinner in the Restaurant L'Orsetto for the second night, before blogging and having an early night in preparation for tomorrow at the Vatican.
Ciao!

Day 15: from Napoli to Roma

Breanna Neville and Hayley Duncan
The day started with a wet tour of Naples with our guide Nino. We splashed through the puddles and dodged traffic in the busy city as we saw the sights. The highlight of the tour was the dry, warm Galleria where we sat and ate donuts and cafe nutellotto. We also had a strange cultural experience when we were surrounded by another school group who formed a circle and ran in at us screaming!
After our sugar fix and little scare, we set off for the train to Rome with our feast from the supermarket and our soaking wet shoes. Mr. Deitz, as usual, gave us a lecture about our security and safety before leaving the train station.
We got settled into our motel where we put on dry clothes and got ready for another 'Mr. Deitz's guided tour'. This tour took us to the ancient ruins of the Forum and the Trevi fountain where we all threw money over our shoulders into the water in the hope that we will travel back here some day. By this time we were all tired and hungry so we made our way to L'Orsetto Restaurant where we enjoyed pasta, veal and beans, and a delicious chocolate tart.

Day 14: Pompeii and Herculaneum

Matthew Priem and Jacob Shaw
Well, hello there gracious community of Tumut (and Batlow), its Matt and Jake typing away here. Today, day 14 of the Europe trip was started with a rather delightful breakfast consisting of croissant filled with cheese and ham with a side of cocoa pops and juice. Shortly after breakfast at 7.30 we jumped onto a bus that took us to the ancient city of Pompeii which was covered by falling ash and pumice to over 10 metres deep.
Here we found our tour guide Nino who pointed out the major buildings and artefacts such as the Forum, Amphitheatre and last but not least the many Brothels.
After the guide left, the Ancient History students accompanied by Mr Boyd continued to explore the site taking many photos needed for the course. After a selected few had lunch, the bus then went off to the next archaeological site of Herculaneum. Herculaneum unlike Pompeii was covered by a pyroclastic flow which covered the town with 20 metres of mud and molten lava. After about 3 hours of wandering the ancient streets of Herculaneum we headed back to our bus which took us back to the hotel where we chilled for 20 minutes until being summoned to perform the almighty act of blogging.

Love to all the family back home can’t wait to see you soon.
This is Jake and Matt signing out.

Day 13 - Napoli, Buffalo mozzarella and Monte Cassino

Jenna Mitchell
Today, at 8 am, we set off on our six hour long bus ride to Naples.
We saw some of the lovely countryside of Italy and the Monte Cassino Monastery. We also got to experience some buffalo mozzarella cheese at a cheese factory in Cassino.
Once we arrived in Naples our bus dropped us off at the Grand Hotel Europa and from there we made our way on foot to the Naples Archaeological Museum where we were greeted by our tour guide Nino. There we got to see the larger than life statue of Hercules and some ancient Pompeii frescos. The ancient history students really enjoyed getting to experience these artefacts up close and couldn’t stop taking photos of them.