Grammar Gazette - Issue 1, 2024

Our next stop was Florence, which included tours of the Uffizi Gallery: the home of Botticelli’s Prima Vera and The Birth of Venus, and works by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. At the Accademia Museum, we were awestruck by Michelangelo’s David, and our musically-inclined students loved the ‘Museo degli strumenti musicali’ collection, which includes instruments made by Stradivarius and others. Other sites in Florence included a tour of the Palazzo Vecchio Museum, the Baptistery with its famous ‘gates of Paradise’ bronze doors, the Opera del Duomo museum, which now houses the most precious masterpieces from the cathedral, and the historic Ponte Vecchio. We also undertook the physical challenge of climbing to the top of Brunelleschi’s magnificent dome, an architectural marvel that inspired generations of designers throughout the Renaissance and beyond.

En route to Sorrento, we broke our journey by visiting the historic hillfort town of Orvieto, where the students chose their own adventure—from visiting the magnificent Gothic cathedral, to exploring an underground cave network that attests to the city’s Etruscan roots, to studying the ancient artefacts in the National Archaeological Museum and Etruscan museum. The halfway point of the trip saw us staying for several days amidst the terraced lemon groves of Sorrento. From this base we visited the archaeological sites of Herculaneum, the villa at Oplontis, and the incomparable Pompeii, where, among many other historical wonders, the Latin students were able to see the house of Caecilius—a citizen of Pompeii upon whom the Year 7 Latin textbook was based. Looming in the background of these sites was Mt Vesuvius, which we also climbed. South of Sorrento, we travelled to Paestum where we explored some of the most well-preserved Greek temples in the region. We concluded our stay on the Bay of Naples with a visit to the National Archaeological Museum in Naples before travelling to Rome.

The Eternal City was all that it promised, with visits to the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Capitoline Museum where the Latin girls came face-to-face with the bust of Cicero, whose speeches they study in their senior years. Other important tours in Rome included the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s Basilica, the Ara Pacis Museum, the Pantheon, and the Church of St Ignatius. A nighttime visit to the Trevi Fountain was also a treat. A trip to Italy would not be complete without indulging in the local cuisine, and our girls ordered an adventurous variety of meals, including the local seafood (mussels were a particular favourite). Naturally, every dessert was gelato and our travellers became experts at ordering this special treat in Italian. The girls were a delight to travel with, and were wonderful ambassadors for Brisbane Girls Grammar School. In every interaction they showed their deep curiosity, their excitement for learning, their compassion and humanity, and sense of fun. The accompanying teachers were proud of the students’ maturity, their courage, and their willingness to challenge themselves.

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CAPTIONS 1 STUDENTS WORKING IN THE PALAZZO VECCHIO, FLORENCE 2 OUTSIDE THE COLOSSEUM, ROME 3 TEMPLE OF ATHENA 4 MT VESUVIUS 5 OBSERVING A GREEK TEMPLE AT PAESTRUM 6 STUDENTS WITH A STATUE OF ROMAN GODDESS MINERVA, AT THE NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF NAPLES 7 THE TRAVELERS IN VENICE

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BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL

GAZETTE • ISSUE 1, 2024 ISSUE 1, 2024