Tour of Rome and Sorrento, ITALY 2016
Day 1
Our journey began at 1.30am in Askea car park, Carlow, on Sunday 24th April. From there we took a one hour bus journey to Dublin airport where we boarded our flight at 6.30am. Two hours later we arrived in Rome, the capital city of Italy.


Straight away we got a bus to the city centre of Rome. We then walked to the Vatican City, where we saw the Papal Palace and Saint Peter’s Basilica, home of the Pope. Once we walked back to our bus stop we met our lovely tour guide who took us all on a guided tour around the city. Firstly we visited the Colosseum where we were taken on a tour of the remains and learned about the gladiators. We then crossed the crowd to the remains of the original Roman Empire, the Roman Forum, where we saw some of the priceless artefacts of Rome. At 8pm that night we had reached our hotel which had stunning sea views and a balcony.

Day 2
Today we awoke with much disappointment to rain but nevertheless Ms. Murphy and Ms. Coburn cheered us all up. First thing after breakfast we hopped on the bus to proceed to Rainbow Magicland Fun Park, with all the roller coasters and rides. Even the teachers went on ‘Shock’ but it definitely wasn’t for me!

For some of us a whole day in a waterpark full of roller coasters wasn’t the best idea of fun so two of the teachers decided to bring some of us over to the shopping outlet across the street. It was full of all the major brands and of course Calvin Klein was a major hit among the majority of us. Later that evening we returned to our hotel where we had a walk on the beach at the amazing sunset and of course all of us “trying” to get the perfect picture.
Day 3
Our third day began with packing for our next hotel with a happy atmosphere all round due to the improvement in the weather. At 9am we boarded the bus to Naples where we climbed the well-known volcano Mt. Vesuvius, where at the top 90% of us nearly died of frostbite as the temperatures had decreased dramatically.

Afterwards we visited Pompeii where we walked around the archaeological site of the old city destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. We also got to see the well-known mosaic dog from our history books and the remains of people’s bodies who were suffocated beneath the ash of the volcano. Later on that evening after a scenic road trip down the Amalfi coast, we arrived to our hotel where we were delighted with the really nice food and rooms.


Day 4
Today was our last day in Italy. We began with a three hour walking tour of Sorrento where we visited many of the popular tourist attractions and churches and of course the Limoncello factory where we met a really nice man and had a sing along. Our tour ended at the beach where we spelled out ‘Pres’ with our bodies and then we got the famous lift up through the cliff where we had two hours free time to wander around the small city.

Our last day finished by getting a four hour bus journey to the airport where we later boarded our flight singing ‘That’s Amore’ quite loudly getting all the passengers to join in. We all landed sadly but safely in Dublin that night where we all departed for our homes.
By Shane Nolan