1995 School Magazine

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v .-___l ^trt4 DISCOVERY T

@rrld' @remmar Sc!100t @rrshanr 1995

OUR 95

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16 June, 1995, ten Grammar girls and lour adults \-rl.-Urrt ed on a History tour, rearing to discover the "old" n'orlds of Italy and Greece. The gloup consisted of: Mr and Mrs Basford, Jenny Campbell, Amy Kent and Mrs Kent, Melissa Kingston, Sophie Paige, Catherine Richard, KatyKhalagi, Emma Peel, Gil1i Roberts, Claire McCurdy and Mrs McCurdy and Caroline Nunn. 'W'e went away for twenty-one days of excite- ment and discovery, spending ten days in Italy and the same amount of time in Greece. \ile ended up discovering more than we had hoped. Upon arriving at Brisbane International Airport we discovered that our connecting flight in Singapore wouid no longer by taking us to Rome. Instead we would be taking a slight detour via Zurich on Singapore Airlines because Alitalia was on strike; however, as they say: "Al1 roads lead to Rome," and we eventually arrived there on Swiss Air after a spectacular flight over the A1ps. The same could not be said lor our luggage which didn't catch up with us for another three days, resulting in another discovery: living together with only the barest essentials! Nonetheless we were still able to purslle our tour of Rome. \fle saw all of the popular tourist attractions like the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, St Peter's Basilica, the Tivoli gardens, the catacombs, and the Sistine Chapel. However there were bonus surprises constantly awaiting us, like the bathrooms that were rigged with "radar" to activate hidden flushing systems and soap-squirting machines. Another eye-opener were the Roman road rules. The common practice is, if yoti see a space, fill it. Otherwise, as Dino our tour-bus driver proved, you beep your horn and ye1l abuse. If this is ineffective, you actually move the car onto the pavement - if another car isn't there alreadyl Everyone left Rome with favourable memories and is assured of returning some day after throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain. Next our trip took us north to Lake Maggiore at the loot of the Swiss Alps. Here we saw some breathtaking gardens and an equaily extravagant bed that Napoleon and Josephine slept in.

After this we continued our trip to Florence and Venice, the latter definitely being one of the trip's highlights. Although it was not particularly concerned with the Ancient History aspect

Florence ancl the Riuer Arno

of the tour, a serenaded gondola ride through the rnoonlit canals of Venice was enchanting and something none of r-rs will ever forget. Another highlight of the trip was unexpectedly 'bumping' into Mrs Seckold, our very own Latin teacher, on a

Mrs Seckctld at Pompeii

bus to Pompeii. The timing could not have been better as she was able to accompany us on a tour of the ancient ruins and explain the signilicance of the mysterious dining room decor. Luckily by this time, Alitalia had finished its strike and we were able to fly to our second destination: Athens. After adjr-rsting to the forty degree heat of the Greek summer we soon got into the swing of things by mixing wrth the locals at the Plakka markets. Mr Basford, being unused to females, was amused at our ability to shop constantly at every opportunity. After three days of hard-earned leisure we launched upon

Tbe tour group at Iake Maggi.ore

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