Classic Classics Tour
By Anna Comet
You know that feeling you get when you’re travelling? The one that you feel kind of around your heart but also in your stomach, your gut? It feels like longing, but it also feels like adventure. You feel this a little bit at the start of your journey, and sometimes even before it, if you’re anxious enough. It lasts the first few days, but then it disappears completely because you get swept up in the wonder and excitement of being away from what you know. And always, always, always you realise how big and glorious the world is, no matter what you’re seeing, because you think ‘how do any of these things even happen?’ How do you become so fortunate to live and breathe and feel all of these things?
I feel this every single time I go travelling. Even if I’m having a terrible time and I miss my family and friends dearly, this emotion wraps itself around me so tightly, like a humungous blanket. I felt this going on the Classics Tour, because I’d never been away from Australia for three weeks before, and I’d never been to Italy. I knew quite a few people going, but that only takes you so far. They wouldn’t be able to help if you, for example, lost your passport. What are they going to do about it? What can anyone do about it? Is there any way out of it, at all? What if you get stuck and trapped in Italy until you’re 20? And soon you spiral downwards, and find yourself worrying and panicking about nothing at all.
Fortunately, none of us lost our passports. And we never lost our sense of freedom and open-eyedness. I don’t think that’s a word, but that’s the only way to describe it. Everywhere I turned my head, something else would catch my eye and I would stop, finding myself lagging further and further behind the group, because I was so intrigued by Leonardo Da Vinci, or Michelangelo, or Botticelli. Italy is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to, because of the natural wonders and artistic works of genius. Also, their food is delicious. I never thought, after eating pasta for three weeks, that I still wouldn’t be sick of it. And the gelato, oh my word. We had this delectably refreshing lemon and basil gelato in Rome, and I could honestly have eaten 2L of that semi-solid, semi-liquid masterpiece.
I could go on about the food all day, but what I really loved were the views, and the uniqueness of the art. Before Michelangelo sculpted the famous David in Florence, no one had considered David to be a strong character. David had always been seen as scrawny and small, but intelligent. Goliath was always the figure depicted as muscly and as tall as an oak. Michelangelo created David to be astounding (about 5 metres tall) and based upon the Greek models that Michelangelo used. These were often well-built men, hence why David is so well-defined.
One of my favourite places was Taormina, a town that looks out onto Mt. Etna and a beautiful bay that was clear blue and made my eyes water at how gorgeous it was. I also adored the ferry ride back from Sicily to mainland Italy, where we visited Pompeii and went on to Rome. The ferry went for twelve hours, and was overnight. After we had dinner on the ship, I went out to the deck and stared over the edge into the deep, black water for hours. We could see the lights from Sicily for a while, but eventually even they disappeared and we were surrounded by blackness. Darkness, whichever way you looked, for miles and miles. It’s amazing. I felt this overwhelming sensation of smallness and insignificance. Not unlike a wave crashing over me, I was pulled in by a current of philosophical thinking and just outright… awe. The ocean is a beautiful and dangerous place, that we, as humans, know nothing about.
We visited Naples, Sorrento, Agrigento, Milan, Florence, Venice and more, and I had the absolute best time. Now that we’re all home and safe in Australia, the Classics kids are reminiscing and thinking about how much fun we had over our three weeks in Italy. All twenty of us would highly recommend going on the next Classics Tour, which will see a group of adventurous Uni High students going to Greece in 2018 or 2019! Good luck!