ITALY - DAY 13 This morning we were going to pay part of the optional excursion money to be taken into Milan but after a discussion with the receptionist at the hotel we ditched the group and headed into Milan by train. One of the other group members came with us. She was extremely excited when the train ended up being a double decker train. After arriving in Milan we walked towards the massive castle. It was awesome. The exterior walls with towers on each co...

ITALY - DAY 12 We left Venice and headed for Verona. We got to see Juliet's balcony and a statue of her. Her tomb was somewhere there as well but we didn't know where. I wonder if there really was a Romeo and if so, where is he buried. There is no mention of him when you are in Verona. The place is really quite pretty. You can't get into the city so we had to park the coach and walk along the city wall into the old part of the city. After leaving Verona we c...

ITALY - DAY 11 It was back to Venice today to explore the city on water. As we headed to our first stop, Murano Glass Factory, we found out that the public transport was on strike, so getting back to the hotel was going to be interesting. We sat down and was amazed by the talents of the glass blowers as within five minutes he had created a vase. Then his father a master glass blower, created a horse. It took no more than two minutes from the time he took the ...

ITALY - DAY 10 We left Assisi behind and headed by bus towards Venice. We drove for several hours, stopped for morning tea, drove another two hours, stopped for lunch and drove a further two hours before arriving at our hotel. We are not staying in the heart of Venice, not even the outskirts. We are staying approximately half an hour from Venice. After waiting around the hotel for an hour we headed into Venice by water taxi to tour the sights and smells befor...

THE DAY THE WORLD WENT BLACK A story by Ellexis Laurelanne D'Onofrio It was a sunny morning in Pompeii when Josepina went out to collect some water from the street well. She spotted some of her friends, Poppea and Delma, and she wandered over to say hello. The baker was busy making bread in his pistrinum for the day and it smelled delicious. Josepina's stomach rumbled and she waved goodbye to her friends and ran back home for breakfast. Little did she know th...