GUEST POST: The Family Comes to Italy!
Hi! For those who
don’t know me I am Corynne’s dad. We
just returned from visiting Corynne and seeing some of the many sites of Italy.
Corynne asked me to write a guest blog entry to give another perspective to her
adventure (as well as mine!)
While I always knew SYA was the right choice for Corynne,
leaving her at the airport in Boston last August was not an easy task for a
parent. Following her blog and
semi-regular Skype sessions kept me smiling. Our trip to see her, however, was even more fantastic.
We flew into Rome and rented a car to drive down to
Viterbo. We were very excited to see her
and meet her host family. Viterbo is a
beautiful city and we were fortunate to stay at a lovely bed and breakfast
right in the heart of the town. As we
walked the streets we continually ran into her classmates and teachers. The Christmas lights were very pretty and it
was lots of fun for us to explore the place Corynne has gotten to know so well
over the last few months. Thanks to some
lost luggage, I also discovered that Viterbo has some excellent men’s clothing
stores – my family declared that I had never looked so nice. (It is amazing what you tell a guy who has
nothing to wear to appease him.) On
Sunday we had lunch with Corynne’s host family.
Her host mom outdid herself with a wonderful authentic Italian
meal. It was very nice to meet the
people who have been such a big part of Corynne’s experience. They are wonderful people and I can only hope
we have the opportunity to return the hospitality for them in New Jersey.
After a few days in Viterbo we were off to Florence. Corynne joined us and we had some great
guided tours of the sites. Our first
night, dinner was at Cantinetta Antinori, which is owned by the winemaking
family of the same last name. The next
morning we took a tour of the city and we learned about the dying art of
mosaics and picked out a wonderful picture of the Duomo to take home with
us. We also learned about the Medici’s
and their great influence on the entire city as well as visiting
Michelangelo’s David. That evening we
were joined by old friends, the Bonciminos, who decided to crash our vacation
at the last minute. Having them there
made the trip even more special. We went to midnight mass at the Duomo –
although the late hour and having the service only in Latin made that adventure
shorter than expected. Christmas day was
lazy, but we did manage to make our way up to Basilica of Santa Maria Novella. The following day we toured the Ufizzi
Gallery. Meals were all wonderful, and
we learned that the Italians love their Lemoncello and enjoy sharing with
tourists. The kids all love the gelato
and the boys were particularly taken with the waffles. According to Jake B. they taste like the
“Tears of Jesus”, which I think means he liked them. Frank B. tried his hand at street performance
(i.e. begging) and had very disappointing results. After some additional shopping we left
Florence on our way down to Rome.
The Bonciminos took a tour to Siena, and we drove down to Rome
with a stop in the beautiful city of Orvieto. It is a walled city similar to Virterbo and is known for their
pottery. We have a new “Biscotti” jar to
remember it by. We arrived in Rome and
stayed right on the Spanish steps. In
Rome we took tours of the city including an underground tour. We saw the Vatican and many churches and
ruins. We also had an amazing cooking
class and learned how to properly prepare various types of pasta and gnocchi. The meals were all wonderful (ask Nicole B.
about gnocchi!), and even McDonald's seemed special with an Italian twist. We enjoyed some water from the Spanish
Fountain, and like Corynne discussed in previous posts, we also all threw our 2
coins into the Trevi fountain – all wishing to return to Rome someday.
Corynne left us to meet up with her host family to continue
her adventures – this time in Berlin and I am sure she has a lot to tell you
about. We went to see Pompeii without
her and then finished our trip and headed back home.
A few notes for fellow travelers and for parents of
potential students:
·
Try not to rent a car – the convenience is
overshadowed with streets that were made for chariots and not autos. I used to valet park and I never parked as
close to other cars as I did in Italy.
·
Parents – you will be amazed how much your child
grows as a person – it is an awesome experience I am still jealous of.
I am sure my entry is not doing the entire experience
justice. We have so many tales and
adventures that I could not do them justice without a blog of my own. I will let Corynne and others tell their
perspective. I can’t tell you how proud
I am of Corynne and will always remember our adventures.
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