This summer, 10 Students and two faculty members are traveling to Italy to examine the Etruscan, Greek, Roman, medieval, renaissance and modern footprints on the Italian peninsula and in Sicily. Please enjoy this blog post below from Emily ’28 and Chelsea ’27 where they share about their day filled with train travel, ancient Greek ruins, the mysterious Tomb of the Diver, and the best pizza yet as the group settles into their new home in a Sorrento convent.
By Emily ’28:
I arose early at 7 A.M. in order to make it to breakfast before 9. Today we are leaving Reggio Calabria for the train ride to Paestum. At 9:15 A.M. we gathered in the hotel lobby and split into groups of four judging by the sizes of our luggages. I squeezed between two classmates on the car ride and stared out of the window; we discussed how Reggio Calabria resembled outer New York City and that there were bronze statues, named Riace bronzes, found in the ocean nearby.
We convened at the train station, and after carrying our heavy luggages down the steps, we reached our platform. Eventually our train arrived, and in a hurry we stored our luggages away as we found our way to the seats.
The train ride lasted about four hours. It was a great time to take a nap, have conversations with friends, watch movies, and relax. Finally, we arrived at Paestum, a major ancient Greek city located in Magna Graeca with ruins including the three Paestum temples, a Roman Forum, and an amphitheater. Before heading to the site, we had lunch at a nearby restaurant. Although the dishes (paninis and pizzas) were simple, our hungry stomachs enjoyed the meal with a drink of our choice (Tè Pesca remains a popular choice among many) and we bought bottles of water to prepare for the long walks at the site.
By Chelsea ’27:
After lunch, we went to the Paestum Archeological site, which featured ruins of Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. This site featured the Roman Forum, prisons, temples, and altars. The Temple of Hera and the Temple of Athena date back to 550 BCE, which was amazing considering how well preserved they were. We continued our study of ancient temple architecture and got to climb through the temple ruins.
On our way to the Paestum museum that contained some of the artifacts found in the archeological site, Ms. Delwiche, Maeve ’27, Joshua ’26, Skylar ’27, and I got lost and took a slight detour! Fortunately, we found our way to the museum and saw the only surviving Ancient Greek painting, the Tomb of the Diver. Sophia, our guide, explained that the water could represent the underworld and the diver is the deceased person crossing through the two worlds. The museum also contained the pots of honey that were found when the archeologists dug up the site. We saw thousands-of-years-old honey, which quite frankly, looked horrible.
Then, we took a bus ride to Sorrento (which ended up to be 4 hours long). We arrived at the convent, which is where we will be staying for the next 4 nights. This convent is active, so we already met a few nuns and will be eating breakfast with them tomorrow.
Finally, at 10:17 pm, we arrived at a pizzeria for dinner. We each ordered a pizza, which ranged from margaritas to exotic pizzas that were folded in half. They didn’t have thé pesca, so I ordered peach juice instead, which was phenomenal. The pizzas trickled in and we all had our food by 10:45 pm. While our dinner was really late, this is the best pizza I’ve had so far. We quietly returned to our rooms to not disturb the nuns around 11:30 pm and got ready for an early 8:00 am departure for Pompeii tomorrow.
