Hey guys! 

I was looking through my camera photos while I was having a break from studying and I came across a map called 'School trips'. I've been to some great foreign places with school, places I'd never been before. As the end of high school for me (finally!) is coming pretty close, I thought I'd share the greatest trips of these with you and start a new series called 'Travel Throwback'. Today I'm starting with my favourite city of all the cities I've been to and the trip I was looking forward to the most when I started doing Gymnasium seven years ago: Rome!

I think it's fair to say that the trip to Rome is one of the reasons why I started doing Gymnasium. I also really liked to learn Latin, but when I heard you're going to Rome in class 5 (the year before your graduation year), I knew I wanted to do Gymnasium. And it's the one of the best decisions I've ever made. 

On May 21st 2013 at 5 AM we had to be at Rotterdam The Hague Airport. Our plane would depart around 7 AM and two hours later we'd be in Rome! Our hotel was near Termini, the most important trainstation of Rome. We stayed for seven days and every day was full of walking and seeing amazing architecture and musea. In the evenings we had free time so we went out for drinks. The last day was also free so we did a bit of shopping and especially eating, because when you're in Italy you have to enjoy the amazing food! We also went a day to the beach and a day to Pompeii and the Vesuvius, which was so cool. I'd really recommend going there! Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad (when we were on top of the Vesuvius a hail storm started) so I don't have many good photos of that day.

Pompeii, May 27nd 2013.

Colosseo, May 21st 2013.

As soon as we were all settled at the hotel, we went straight to the most famous building of Rome, the Colosseo. And now I understand why it is so famous. What a huge and beautiful building! Definitely worth a visit!

I think Il Vittoriano looks beautiful, but most Romans hate this building, because many ruines and old buildings have been taken down to build this memorial and it's different than the most buildings in Rome. It doesn't fit in. I think it's still worth a visit though, espescially because you have an amazing view over Rome on top of the building.

Pantheon, May 22nd 2013. 

After we visited Il Vittoriano, we went to the next hotspot: the Pantheon. Again, amazing architecture. It was build by Marcus Agrippa (that's what the Latin text says on the building) and it's still in a good condition. The dome of the Pantheon has a hole in the top, the oculus, so sunlight can lighten up the building.

Forum Romanum, May 23rd 2013. 

I was really looking forward to going to the Forum Romanum, because I had to guide my group around. It was a school trip so of course we had to do assignment for it. We all had to prepare one of the things we were going to visit and do a presentation about it when we were in Rome. My friends and I chose the Forum Romanum, which includes many buildings so instead of one presentation, we had to guide the group around. 

If you're going to Rome for the culture, you can not not visit the Forum Romanum. It shows the best how the Romans lived in the Ancient times and how a Roman city looked like in those times. 

St. Peter's Basilica, May 25th 2013. 

The day after Pompeii we went to Vatican City to visit the Vatican Museums and of course the St. Peter's Basilica. I can understand why the Pope lives here, amazing buildings! Unfortunately, I couldn't go up to the Dome and enjoy the amazing view because I twisted my ankle and I made it worse by going up the Vesuvius. But hey, it's not like you're visiting a vulcano everyday right? I also couldn't visit Villa Borghese that day (I was looking forward to that so much :() because we had to walk far, but those are good reasons to go back some time!

Luckily, the day we went to the beach the weather got a lot better and it stayed good until we went home. On our free day we just wandered around some shopping streets and we went out for lunch with a group of 20 people, it was so much fun. 

On our last and free day we went back to the Spanish steps. We'd been here before this week but it was raining and we were the only ones there so we went back to the hotel soon. But on the last day the weather was beautiful and the vibe at the Spanish Steps was completely different. 

 As you can see I enjoyed the Italian food a lot: every day at least one ice cream and we ate pizza twice. (:

'What an amazing trip this has been. I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to visit this beautiful city with school. I'm in love with this city and I hope to go back some time, to visit the places I haven't been yet but also to visit all these places again.

I hope you liked this post, would you like to read more of these? Have you ever been to Rome? And have you travelled with school too?

x Sherilynn