The 20 high school students and faculty chaperones Pierce Wade, Brittany Johnson, and Maya Welch ’10 began their February 2018 Classics Trip in Rome by exploring the ruins of Ostia Antica with its labyrinth of funerary sites, temples, and storefronts. From there, they rode the bus to picturesque Nemi and its museum dedicated to the lost monumental yachts of Caligula.

The following day at the Domus Aurea of Nero they donned hardhats to view an archaeological site that is still under restoration and excavation.
At the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine, the group learned about the human costs of the Imperial construction, and on the Palatine Hill they traced Roman history from its first emperor back to its earliest foundations.
Each day offered the girls a chance to experience rich historical and artistic sites such as the Capitoline Museum where the art of classical antiquity rests cheek-by-jowl with the greatest achievements of the Renaissance and the Vatican Museum, including the splendor of the Sistine Chapel and the majesty of St. Peter’s Basilica, where they found the statue dedicated to St. Angela herself.
Our travelers experienced Italy by walking through the Baths of Caracalla, the largest surviving Imperial construction of its kind, on bicycle along the Appian Way, by ferry to Capri, site of the Julio-Claudian Emperors’ personal villas, and on a chairlift to the summit of Monte Solara. The girls enjoyed gelato and cappuccino at Piazza Navona and had fun learning how to make gnocchi from a local chef.
