Farnborough Hill

Rebekah Overton UVI reports:

Veni, vidi, vici!

At 4.30am on the Friday before October half-term 2007, 45 students and 6 teachers left school for a Classics trip they'd never forget.

Having arrived in Rome at midday, we started our trip by going back in time in the 'Time Elevator' - a short film accompanied by motion simulation, giving a brief overview of the history of some of the places we were to visit.

We spent the next morning touring the Vatican, experiencing the incredible artwork in St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. The afternoon saw us spread out on the Spanish Steps enjoying ice cream and gazing through the windows of the designer shops. As we wandered around Rome, we often enjoyed taking the 'scenic route', with Mr Forrest-Biggs in the lead uttering the reassuring words "I think this is the right way..."!

On Sunday we toured the Forum of Ancient Rome, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon, visiting places including the Curia (Senate House) and the Rostra where famous figures of histroy such as Cicero and Julius Caesar would have spoken, argued and made important decisions. We also all made sure that we'd had our turn of tossing a coin into the Trevi Fountain to wish for a return trip. In the evening we had a slightly different tour of Rome, viewing many of the sights we'd seen during the day, beautifully lit up in the dark.

The next day was our transfer from Rome to Sorrento, in order to experience a different side of Italy, out of the city. On the journey we stopped off to look around some Catacombs - underground tombs where the early Christians buried their dead.

Pompeii was where we spent the next day, wandering around the ruins of the ancient city that was buried in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. All were very excited when we managed to see Caecilius's house - the legend from the Cambridge Latin Course.

Wednesday we had a tour of the breath-taking views of the Amalfi coast. We passed through Positano, Amalfi, Salerno, then visiting Paestum to study the incredibly complete Greek temples and the ruins of a Roman civilisation.

The following day we visited Herculaneum, another ancient city, where some buildings were better preserved than Pompeii because the town was covered in rock debris rather than hot ash in the eruption of Vesuvius. This also meant that we were able to see some of the original wood in the houses, because it had been carbonised. In the afternoon we took a coach partway up Mount Vesuvius and then walked the remaining distance up the volcano and around the crater. Unusually for that time of the year, there were even some patches of snow on the summit;.

For our last evening in the hotel we all took part in a quiz. This was a fantastic way to spend our last night, and everyone, including all the teachers, had great fun.

On the Saturday morning, on the way to the airport, we visited a second volcano - Solfatara. Having been reassured that it was virtually dormant in terms of eruption potential as the last eruption was in the 12th century, we set off across the crater, past jets of sulphurous steam coming out of the ground at 162°C, and mud pools that appeared to be boiling because of the escaping gas!

Overall, a truly unforgettable trip!