The Year 9 students learning Latin started the whole thing!  They kept saying how much they wanted to visit the ancient town and home of the characters they were reading about in lessons, and to see at first hand the places which appeared as pictures and sketches in the textbook.

So, in October 2010 a pioneering party of pupils from Years 9, 10 and 11 flew to Naples and travelled on to ahotel in the little cliff-top town of Vico Equense.  Pompeii, a world heritage site, was our destination the next day, the home of Caecilius, his wife, son and slaves, now familiar to the pupils.  

We climbed,on another day,to look into the crater of Vesuvius; our lunch-time picnic was in view of Pompeii below. We studied the painted interior of the villa at Oplontis, again delighted to find many of the images of Roman life we had seen in our books. 

We often travelled on local trains, visiting Sorrento, (for shopping, for pizzas …), and had an evening walk to the shore to look at the lights around the bay. Many pupils took great pleasure in trying out their newly acquired phrases in Italian, and had a warm response from local people.

On our last day we took a cable-car from Castellamare to a high viewpoint to see the bay of Naples spread out below, and then finally explored Herculaneum, tranquil in contrast to Pompeii, butwithplenty more archaeological treasures.

We can’t wait to do this again next year!

Liz Scott, LanguagesDepartment, Latin