Saturday, July 23 - Florence & Pisa!!

After a long day of traveling yesterday, we were all looking forward to our first full day in Florence. We started the day with a nice, quaint breakfast and then headed to class at 9:00. In Ms Stokes’ English class, the grade twelve’s worked on their ISU essays while the grade tens and elevens read Othello in a nicely air-conditioned room in the hotel. The photography class presented their portrait photos and also learned how to take white balance photos in the beautiful courtyard of the hotel. The history class learned about the Peloponnesian War at the Duomo. The Italian class had a fun scavenger hunt in the centre square of Florence: their task was to find two gelato shops and then report back to their teacher in the piazza. After that, they watched an episode of their Italian show and worked on their essays.

Before we knew it, classes were over and it was time to head to the leaning tower of Pisa at 1:45. Those who didn’t go to Pisa had a free day to do their laundry, work on class assignments, and explore the town. The bus ride to Pisa wasn’t too bad, as it only took one hour to get there. The drive was very scenic and beautiful, as we could see miles and miles of green fields and rolling hills. Once we arrived, we all dispersed for our 2 hours of free time. Many of us headed straight for the tower and whipped out our cameras. We were all excited to take the famous shots: holding up the tower with both hands, kicking the tower, holding up the tower with one finger, and even putting a hat on the tower! It was actually harder than it looked to get into the right position to take a good picture. Afterwards we all sat in the grass around the tower in small groups and talked, laughed and ate gelato. At 5:30 we left the tower and headed back to the hotel.

Since dinner was on our own, we had the whole night to explore Florence. Some of us went for a nice dinner in the town while others grabbed a quick pizza and tried to get some last minute shopping in before closing time. Many of us visited the famous Ben and Jerry’s ice cream shop to get some of their cookie dough ice cream that we were all craving! All in all it was a fun-filled and exciting day in Florence.

By: Elena Demopoulos