Itinerary
- Day 1 ROME
Spanish Steps
Trevi Fountain
Walk around Rome
Irish College
Staying in the Park Hotel Ginerva
- Day 2 ROME
Vatican
Colosseum
The Forum
Staying in the La Meridienne
- Day 3 SORRENTO
Pompeii
Mt. Vesuvius
Staying in the Bleu village
- Day 4 SORRENTO
Beach
Amalfi Coast
Amalfi Town
Home time!
Day 1 Rome – Allie Cuddihy
We arrived in Carrick at 1:45 am for departure to Dublin Airport. We arrived in Dublin at 4:30 am, got through security and customs and got on our 3-hour flight. We arrived in Rome Airport, and went straight to the centre of Rome, got lunch and then got into our groups of 8-9 and started a scavenger hunt. This included trying new ice-cream, visiting the Trevi Fountain singing on the Spanish Steps and walking around Rome itself. We then walked to the Irish College and got a tour by Ella Delahanty’s relative who is a priest. After a tiring but exciting day, we went to the hotel and had dinner.
Day 2 – The Vatican City and Colosseum
We got up early this morning with half of the year having breakfast at 7am and the rest at 7.30am. We left the hotel at 8am and drove to the Vatican. We had to wear clothes that covered our shoulders and knees. We got there early enough and queued up to get into the Vatican where we were separated into two groups, students who wanted to climb to the Dome and those who didn’t want to. The climb to the top of the Dome was very tight but the view from the top of the St. Peter’s Basilica was beautiful; you could see the whole Vatican and the city of Rome around it. We then got time to walk around the Vatican and buy souvenir there. When we were finished touring the Vatican we walked into Rome and had an hour and a half for lunch and shopping. Following shopping, we put our hands into the ‘Mouth of Truth’. Thankfully we all survived! From there we went to the Circus Maximus and into the Forum. We got an hour to visit the Colosseum before getting collected from there and driven to Palestrina where we stayed the night in the La Meridienne.
Day 3 in Rome- Jessica Enright
We had an early start, getting up at 6:30am in order to arrive at Mount Vesuvius in time for our tour bus.
As there was an accident half way up the volcano, it would have taken two hours for the bus to go up. This would have resulted in us missing our tour of Pompeii. We had to decide between climbing Mt. Vesuvius and leaving early so we could go to Pompeii instead. We decided to go to Pompeii. We got on the bus again and set off to Pompeii. We had lunch in a nearby village and then started our tour. It was very interesting and educational. We saw the frescoes, baths, restaurants and homes of all the people who lived in Pompeii. We also saw an amphitheatre that according to our tour guide had been built before the Colosseum. There were also plaster castings of some of their bodies. We saw a praying man, a child and a dog. There was pottery, cooking utensils and art to see. It was really interesting to see the ruins of all the buildings. They are in remarkably good condition, considering they are over two thousand years old. You can still see the art on the walls and also the countertops where they prepared fast food in restaurants. We saw a massive garden owned by a very wealthy woman in Pompeii. After we finished our tour, we got the bus back to our hotel. This hotel was different from the others, as we each had our own mini bungalow. That night, we had dinner and watched part of an old movie. We went to bed half way through as we were all exhausted after our trip.
Day 4 – Gwen Flatley
On the 4th and final day in Italy we got to have a nice sleep in; we didn’t have to be at breakfast until half 8 which was music to our ears because all the other mornings we had to get up a lot earlier. After breakfast we went to a beach in Sorrento for the morning. It was a nice beach, but it was covered in rocks, but it had black sand which was cool to see. Not everyone wanted to go swimming but most of us did. I personally did and it felt like getting into ice it was so cold, but it was lovely.
After the beach we went on a bus tour of the Amalfi Coast, which was beautiful, but it was very high and if you were anyway afraid of heights it would be a very hard journey. It was amazing. When we got to Amalfi itself, we got to stop and have our lunch and buy a few things there. We spent around 2 hours there. When we were finished in Amalfi, we made our way to the airport and waited for our flight. On the flight home we had a bit of drama as one of the girls choked on a hard sweet but thankfully she was okay and got it up. Other than that our flight was fine, and we got home from Dublin in no time.
