Monday, 16 Apr 2012

Location: Rome, Italy

Today we visited the colosseum and the forum area. We also visited a private catholic school and the girls enjoyed the opportunity to talk to students their age. The Italian students presented information on history and legends before taking the girls on a tour of the school. It was clearly a flash area of the city and the school was very nice. The students had great English and were friendly and ready to chat. They had made a huge effort to make our visit worthwhile for us. The girls thanked our hosts with a small gift from the school and by singing Te Aroha wonderfully well.
No surprise that the colosseum featured prominently in the girls' highlights today. They commented on the view across it and from it, and enjoyed learning that gladiators were idolised like the footballers of today.
Other highlights were the panoramic bus tour of the city and the impressive buildings.
The girls are really enjoying our Italian tour guide Laura and driver Emanuele. They especially like Laura's random facts, as an example she told them today that in the early years of the colesseum they would remove the stage area and flood it so they could have mock sea battles and synchronised swimming! Other highlights were hearing the story of Romulus and Remus, seeing the nuns teaching in the primary school and the way a smile and wave work well, no matter what language you all speak.

Seeing the tomb of the unknown soldier from the bus was impressive and gave us an idea of the white marble effect that would have been all around Rome in times past. From the bus the girls also saw giant wall plaques showing how the Roman Empire grew over time, this visual certainly showed the rapid spread of roman ideas. History teachers will be pleased to know the girls also made several connections with their learning as Laura spoke about Mussolini.

We are very tired so all trying for an early night so we can make the most of the final 3 days we have here. :)