Charter says Ciao!
April 19, 2023
With most schools having a partnership with the Education First tours program, Pines Charter has been a loyal promoter with two trips every school year. This 2022-2023 school year, the school chose to give students the option of touring Italy. It was open to all students at the school and consisted of ten days during spring break. Each day was at a new location to explore. The trip had a total of 15 students and was led by Ms. Ramierz and Mrs. Altimore.
On Friday, March 17, the group took off and landed in Milan, Italy where they met with the other schools they were going to be with throughout the trip. One of the groups consisted of 8 students from a private school in Manhattan, New York and the other group was made up of three families from a middle school in Boca Raton, Florida. Senior Chanel PortoAru says “At first I was unsure about grouping with other school groups, but after interacting with them I realized that it’s not as bad as I thought, and [it] was pretty fun because we got to make new friends from another part.” The students were able to have a great new experience while making new friends at the same time. Every day the students were granted a certain amount of free time for them to explore areas they wanted to without any guides. They were offered various ideas, like visiting different types of museums and cathedrals in the areas, or going to places of interest.
After landing in Milan, the group visited 8 popular cities in Italy. Venice (two nights), Pisa (Day excursion), Florence (two nights), Assisi (one night), Pompeii (Day excursion), Sorrento Region (One night), Capri (Day excursion), and Rome (Two nights). Every city was amazing in different ways and the group was amazed by the culture learned and views seen. Teacher Mrs. Altimore says, “Assisi, Italy is one of the places I enjoyed the most, and definitely would like to visit again because we didn’t have enough time there. It was such a beautiful old town on top of a mountain. It was so peaceful and full of history that I would love to go back and spend the day there browsing!” The students visited many cathedrals filled with history, and at the end of the night in Assisi, students were offered to attend a real mass in a beautiful cathedral called St. Maria Degli Angeli.
Just as anyone would expect, the food was definitely one of the key elements of the trip. Food in Italy is a huge difference compared to food back in the U.S. They even have different customs, like always having three-course meals, and it is normalized to serve pasta as the appetizer. Junior Sofia Grullon says, “The food in Italy was amazing. You could tell you were having authentic dishes and all of the ingredients were fresh. Just one bite packed a bunch more flavor than anything here.”
Going to Italy during your high school years is definitely an experience like no other. The students were able to create memories that they will take on forever. It even gave them a sense of how it is to travel independently. Being a part of this program is one of the many benefits Pines Charter offers and is highly recommended.
