A group of girls inside the Colosseum during one of our many wonderful field trips!
As the weeks continue to go by it is becoming sad to see our wonderful European adventure come to an end. Chigi Palace, or what started out, as the “unknown” has quickly become our home away from home. We have been in Ariccia for eleven weeks now and have just about nine days left. The twenty-four students have gotten to see more cities, works of art, and churches than we ever could have imagined possible. Each week brought a new adventure and a new idea or place to explore.
As a group we started out having to get to know each other fairly quickly, but that did not stop us from all becoming new best friends and traveling to the most wonderful places together.
The group has had the privilege of visiting the magnificent cities of Florence, Rome, Pompeii, Orvieto, Venice, Cinque Terre, and Positano, along with many others. Many students, separately, have visited outstanding places over the weekends including Barcelona, London, Paris, Greece, Brussels, Austria, Turkey, Croatia, and Germany. The options really are endless here!
We have spent a great deal of our time in class as well throughout this summer, but do not worry; our classes have been filled with interesting professors and topics. We have taken courses including, but not limited to topics such as: filmmaking, art history, wine tasting, mythology, and fashion. What may not have been covered throughout the courses was presented by the students in a separate course through personal presentations, which included topics such as: the Italian economy, school system, futbol, and the Italian government.
As the summer begins to draw to a close I think it is safe to say that this is perhaps the best summer of our lives. We have been given the wonderful opportunity to visit so many magnificent and historical places. Furthermore, we have been fortunate to have weekends free so that we can further expand our cultural knowledge and visit many other countries throughout Europe. It is sad to see this summer end, but I am confident that the memories made will last us all a lifetime!
View overlooking Ariccia!
Leslie Kimball