Students and teachers discuss experiences on Italy trip

A boat holding 20 students and three chaperones cruises around rocky islands that slope steeply into the clear blue water. Latin teacher Lee Krasnoo teaches the group about the historic sites around the island of Capri. Library media specialist Joanne Schmidt lets the view wash over her like waves on the shore.

The group walked, hiked and rode a bus down the Mediterranean coast of Italy, starting in Sorrento and moving south down the Amalfi coast and to the island of Capri.

“On my first day, we drove the Amalfi Coast,” Schmidt said. “So you’re up on a big cliff overlooking the ocean and it takes hairpin turns which was pretty scary in a bus. We were watching from the left side of the bus and it just kept looking like we were going to hit the other cars. But the kids on the right side felt like they were going to fall off the cliff. Then we got out and hiked. It’s beautiful scenery.”

It was Schmidt’s first time chaperoning the trip to Italy but she had been to the country many times before. One of the things that she looked forward to was the boat trip around the island of Capri. She had seen the beautiful scenery only in pictures, but on this trip she got to see it in real life.

“We took a boat ride around the island of Capri,” Schmidt said. “That had been on the list of one of the things that I wanted to do, but I had never had the chance to do it before. So we were in three separate boats and we kept passing each other and seeing each other in these small groups. We saw caves and coral and just the color of the water. Most of our days we had spent walking and learning history and this was just a beautiful, relaxing day.”

Sophomore Jeff Prince said that the island of Capri was one of his favorite experiences on the trip, calling the views “indescribable”.

Lee Krasnoo, along with WorldStrides Educational Student Travel, was in charge of getting things organized, including deciding where to eat, where to stay and what to sightsee. At many of the historical sites, Krasnoo would stop the group and teach them about the historical importance of the site. These sites included the Colosseum, Pompeii, the Sistine Chapel and the Temple of Apollo.

Sophomore Jeff Prince took advantage of his Italian experience by trying new foods that were not available in the U.S.

“In Italy for dinners, they have a huge first course of pasta,” Prince said.“Then a second course of meat. We had already had the first course, which was lasagna. I was full after that. So I decided: you know what, why not, and I tried pig stomach. That was an interesting experience. I wouldn’t say that’s something I would order regularly, but I’m glad I tried it.”

Prince also indulged in the Italian culture by getting a haircut from a barber who didn’t speak English in a town called Orvieto, about two hours north of Rome.

“We saw a haircut place and we were just like: why not? So we just kind of sat down and the guy sort of looked at me and started speaking Italian,” Prince said. “I kind of shook my head and I guess he understood. Then he just started cutting. It was much better than an American haircut, because rather than just scissors and a razor, he had a bunch of little tools which made it kind of fun.”

However, the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean, the grottos, volcanoes, chapels and museums eventually came to an end with Schmidt’s least favorite experience of the trip: a three a.m. wake up call to catch a plane and fly back to Boston.