Orientation: 5 città in 3 giorni!
Wow. What an AMAZING past couple of days.
As a school, we left Thursday morning on top of a huuuuge double decker coach bus to begin our orientation beach trip.
We took the scenic drive to Sermoneta, a medieval city built in and on top of a cliff that is just as I could picture a medieval Italian city looking. There are unmarked streets and the pavement doesn't line up. There is a huge castle that is the city's #1 destination- but unfortunately it closes on Thursdays :/ However, Mr. Sanmartino, my Ancient History teacher, gave us the scoop. The official name is Castello Caetani, named after the Caetani family. Their rivals, the Annibaldi family, were actually the ones who built it in the 13th century. It was built as a fortress, and housed Pope Boniface VIII and even Pope Gregory VIII over the years. Napoleon's troops once used it as a prison! Pretty cool stuff.
Following our pit stop in Sermoneta, we went to perhaps the coolest giardino known to man- Ninfa! Ninfa was an ancient city that again housed Popes and was influenced by the power of the Caetani family. Ninfa is special because it has a microclimate thanks to its location. It is more humid in the garden and the temperatures are more moderate than the surrounding area since it is completely surrounded by mountains and a crystal clear river runs through it. Plants grow up to 3 times faster in Ninfa than normal and they have been imported everywhere from South America to Asia to prosper there. The water is so clean and naturally filtered that we drank straight from the river. It was delicious! It is so hard to get into since it's open only three days a month, but I am SO glad we didn't miss out on it.
Our accommodations were bungalows on the beach in Terracina. It was surreal. The whole class went swimming together, watched the sunset on the beach, and just bonded like no others. I loved every minute. Not to mention the mayor loved having us- he invited us down to city hall to wish us well. He offered to buy us all drinks and gave us a book filled with pictures of the city!
The next day, we headed out to visit Sperlonga, another beach town but with a little bit of a different history. Some Greek influence impacted Emperor Tiberius (ruling 14-27 AD) who had an enormous statue commissioned for his Grato that interpreted the killing of the cyclops Polyphemus in "The Odyssey" by Homer. We did some work with the sculpture but more importantly got to see the ancient party house- the Grato! It was surreal. I now believe you know you have made it in this world if you have your own grato. Just wow.
The last destination for orientation was L'Abbazia di Montecassino, the oldest monastery in the world that was founded by Saint Benedict. Monks still live there today even though it's been destroyed 4 times, most recently in WWII. Most of what we saw was the rebuild, but there were still plenty of ancient scriptures and even altars that are still there. We got an exclusive tour and saw 3 chapels closed off to the public. It was surreal to be in a place that has been used for so long and appears to be going strong.
All in all, I was so sad when it was all over. I am already feeling closer to the entire group, and we made some INCREDIBLE memories. Has it really only been 3 weeks? Mamma mia!
As a school, we left Thursday morning on top of a huuuuge double decker coach bus to begin our orientation beach trip.
We took the scenic drive to Sermoneta, a medieval city built in and on top of a cliff that is just as I could picture a medieval Italian city looking. There are unmarked streets and the pavement doesn't line up. There is a huge castle that is the city's #1 destination- but unfortunately it closes on Thursdays :/ However, Mr. Sanmartino, my Ancient History teacher, gave us the scoop. The official name is Castello Caetani, named after the Caetani family. Their rivals, the Annibaldi family, were actually the ones who built it in the 13th century. It was built as a fortress, and housed Pope Boniface VIII and even Pope Gregory VIII over the years. Napoleon's troops once used it as a prison! Pretty cool stuff.
Following our pit stop in Sermoneta, we went to perhaps the coolest giardino known to man- Ninfa! Ninfa was an ancient city that again housed Popes and was influenced by the power of the Caetani family. Ninfa is special because it has a microclimate thanks to its location. It is more humid in the garden and the temperatures are more moderate than the surrounding area since it is completely surrounded by mountains and a crystal clear river runs through it. Plants grow up to 3 times faster in Ninfa than normal and they have been imported everywhere from South America to Asia to prosper there. The water is so clean and naturally filtered that we drank straight from the river. It was delicious! It is so hard to get into since it's open only three days a month, but I am SO glad we didn't miss out on it.
Our accommodations were bungalows on the beach in Terracina. It was surreal. The whole class went swimming together, watched the sunset on the beach, and just bonded like no others. I loved every minute. Not to mention the mayor loved having us- he invited us down to city hall to wish us well. He offered to buy us all drinks and gave us a book filled with pictures of the city!
The next day, we headed out to visit Sperlonga, another beach town but with a little bit of a different history. Some Greek influence impacted Emperor Tiberius (ruling 14-27 AD) who had an enormous statue commissioned for his Grato that interpreted the killing of the cyclops Polyphemus in "The Odyssey" by Homer. We did some work with the sculpture but more importantly got to see the ancient party house- the Grato! It was surreal. I now believe you know you have made it in this world if you have your own grato. Just wow.
The last destination for orientation was L'Abbazia di Montecassino, the oldest monastery in the world that was founded by Saint Benedict. Monks still live there today even though it's been destroyed 4 times, most recently in WWII. Most of what we saw was the rebuild, but there were still plenty of ancient scriptures and even altars that are still there. We got an exclusive tour and saw 3 chapels closed off to the public. It was surreal to be in a place that has been used for so long and appears to be going strong.
All in all, I was so sad when it was all over. I am already feeling closer to the entire group, and we made some INCREDIBLE memories. Has it really only been 3 weeks? Mamma mia!
(better viewing coming shortly.....)
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