Cameron Penney
With their bellies filled with pizza, pasta, and gelato, members of the Fort Frances High School Travel Club returned late Friday night from their nine-day trip to Italy.
A total of 33 students, along with four teachers serving as chaperones, travelled overseas to visit the European country.
The group departed Fort Frances on May 12, taking a bus to Thunder Bay before flying to Toronto and finally Venice.
“I was super-excited to get to Italy,” enthused Grade 11 student Lauren Hamilton.
“I have always loved travelling but had never been to Europe,” she noted.
“I also had some usual traveller worries, like if I forgot to pack something or didn’t bring enough shoes,” Hamilton admitted.
“The plane ride actually didn’t feel long for me at all but landing in Italy was amazing,” she added.
“It’s absolutely beautiful there, and to be able to finally be on the trip that we had been talking about for over a year was a wonderful feeling.”
“The day before the trip, I was getting pretty nervous about being so far away from my family but also excited for such an awesome experience,” recalled Grade 11 student Taylor McQuaker.
“Then getting there and out of the plane was exciting because the experience began even though not a lot of us got sleep,” she noted.
For Grade 12 student Cam Gushulak, the trip almost ended before it even began.
“I left my passport on the plane from Thunder Bay to Toronto,” he recalled “We had a five-hour layover [in Toronto] and I didn’t realize it until it was two hours until boarding.
“I had to run around the airport and I found it with I’d say literally two minutes before we boarded the plane.
“We also had an hour delay so if that plane wouldn’t have been delayed an hour, I would have missed the whole trip,” Gushulak added.
“It was scary,” he admitted. “I got lucky—I thought the trip was going to be over.”
The first stop included a walking tour around Venice and a trip to the island of Murano. The group then continued on to Florence to explore that city and visit some art galleries.
Other stops included Sorrento and Rome, as well as visits to Pompeii and the Vatican.
After returning home from a trip filled with memorable experiences, many of the students had favourite moments to share.
Hamilton’s highlight was during a last-minute tour around Rome on the final night.
“We were on a bridge near the Colosseum and we found a street performer singing some songs we knew, and we all just danced and took in the beautiful view on the last night of Italy,” she recalled.
“Just the little bonding moments like that were super fun,” she enthused.
For McQuaker, she enjoyed the time spent in Sorrento the most.
“The bus ride there was long but well worth it,” she recalled.
“The scenery was so beautiful and the hotel was probably the best one we stayed at.”
“We also had a really good meal, and the late- night pizza was some of the best we had,” McQuaker added.
“We had some beach time when we first got there and the beach was absolutely beautiful.”
Grade 11 student Socorro Galusha found that even some of the simple aspects of life in Italy were enjoyable.
“My favourite thing was so simple—it was how all the windows had shutters,” she recalled.
“You could open them and hear people and see plants—it was so beautiful.”
Students even found parts of the trip that initially weren’t expected to be memorable to be a ton of fun.
“Honestly, I didn’t really expect to enjoy all the tours of the buildings like the art galleries, but I actually did,” said McQuaker.
“We had ear pieces to wear to hear the tour guide, but mine didn’t fit in my ear so I couldn’t hear her even when I wanted to,” she noted.
“So [chaperone] Mr. Michaud told me to experience it in my own way, and I did so and actually really enjoyed everything I saw.
“The lack of technology, I was surprised by that,” Gushulak said.
“I was expecting the cities to be more advanced and stuff, but it still had that old-town feeling to it and I found that pretty cool.”
Galusha said for anyone considering a trip to Italy, they must include a gondola ride in Venice as part of it.
“It sounds really cliché but it was unbelievable,” she enthused.
“It was the best experience.”
Gushulak added that now that he’s experienced pizza in Italy, it will be difficult to appreciate one back here at home the same way he did before.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat a Canadian pizza again,” he remarked.
“It set the bar too high, my group of friends—we had at least one pizza a day.
“I’ll never be able to eat pizza here again,” he added. “It’s not the same.”
