Sicily Trip September 2024
Students give their reflections of five days in Sicily
Monday 31st September – Giardini Naxos and Letojanni
Around 2am, forty bleary-eyed students arrived at School, said their goodbyes to parents (who seemed happy to be waving their teenage children off for a week) and boarded the coach for Luton Airport. After an uneventful flight, we stepped down from the plane to be greeted by palm trees and the warmth of Catania, Sicily. First stop was the Ancient Greek archeological site at Giardini Naxos, the first Greek settlement on Sicily, before lunch and transit to the hotel in Letojanni. After unpacking, we explored the coastline of the village then had an early night, after a long first day.
Tuesday 1st October – Mount Etna, by Jack Cotuk
On the second day, we had our breakfast and got on a coach to a lava field at the bottom of Mount Etna where we collected some samples of the volcanic rocks and learnt about how the eruptions of Etna affect the number of small villages at the foot of the volcano. From where we were standing, we could see where the lava had flown down the side of Etna, almost like a river, towards the village below us. After a short stop, we got back on the coach to the cable car station and took a cable car most of the way up to the point we were headed to. A bus took us from where the cable car ended to the start of our walk up to the craters. After a short walk up, we reached our destination and learnt about the history of eruptions from those craters and the multiple craters on Mt Etna, with a fantastic view of most of Sicily. The weather was clear where we were so we were able to see all the features of the volcano, including the top crater. When we had taken the cable car back down from the craters, we had lunch at almost 2km up the mountain and bought some souvenirs of our time on Etna. After lunch, we returned to the hotel, enjoyed some time in the sea next to our hotel and had dinner.
Wednesday 2nd October – Vulcano Island, by Hamsini Raja
After a long, enjoyable excursion to Mount Etna, the next day we had an early start to our next destination: Vulcano Island. We began our journey leaving at 6:30 to the ferry port of Milazzo, which would take us to the island that is known for its volcanic activity, including one of the four active volcanoes in Italy that are not submarine, called Stromboli. When we reached to the island, we were taken on a very unexpected long hike up Vulcano. It was an amazing experience to get to see the views of Stromboli from such a height and also, to witness geographical processes that we learnt out of the textbook happening right in front of us. We saw sulphur gases being released and walked in many paths that lava had carved out during the eruptions. After the hike, we walked to the port and were then taken on a boat ride around the whole of Vulcano Island, where we saw more of the Aeolian Islands. With the sun burning above us, we were able to see many erosional processes and even see a cave or two amongst the crystal blue seas. Once the tour had come to an end, we walked over to a beautiful black sand beach, and although we had to walk through the constant stench of the sulphur gases being released onto the island by Vulcano, we were very much anticipating paddling in the sea to cool off after a tiring day in the heat. Finally, after having a mild lunch, at around 3:45pm, we took the ferry and bus back to our hotel, completing our day at 6:00 in the evening.
Thursday 3rd October – Taormina and the Alcantara Gorge, by Bronte Wyvill
On Thursday morning, we woke up, had breakfast and made our daily trip through the beautiful town of Letojanni to reach the coach. The town of Taormina wasn’t far, just a quick bus ride with another short journey on the shuttlebus and we were there. The views were already stunning as we made our way up to the Graeco-Roman theatre. With its 10,000 seats and scenic backdrop (including Mount Etna itself) it was an incredible sight that we all felt very lucky to have visited. After being given some free time to explore and take in the view, we reconvened to take the traditional group photo.
We then made our way down through the streets of the tourist town, where we were given a few hours to buy some food and visit the many gift shops that were on offer. Following the advice of our teachers, a few of us went to a very nice and affordable cafe, and then we went on the lookout for any souvenirs for either ourselves, or to bring back for our friends or family.
Many ice creams later, we made our way back to the shuttlebus, slightly struggling to fit 40 people inside at once, but we successfully made our way back to the coach and set off for our destination for the afternoon: the Alcantara Gorge. Equipped with our aqua shoes we ventured through the very cold water, surrounded by unique rock formations, the result of ancient volcanic activity. After watching a brief video which provided us with information about the origins of the gorge and then a quick trip to the gift shop (in which we sampled different types of pesto and spread) we made our way back to the hotel. After an incredible and memorable day, one that I’m sure was the favorite of many, we were given some free time on the beach back at the hotel, and many took the opportunity to participate in some volleyball. We then had some dinner and played some UNO on the terrace before going to bed, all of us feeling very mixed emotions about this having been our final full day in beautiful Sicily.
Friday 4th October – return to Bourne
The day was spent travelling home. Our flight headed north, passing straight over the Aeolian Islands that we had visited on the Wednesday. Leaving 28-degree heat, we arrived to a mildly respectable 14 degrees in Luton. The group was back at school by 6.30, met by refreshed-looking parents. We headed home, having experienced Physical Geography first hand. We would like to thank the students for their excellent behaviour and keen interest in the geography of Sicily.
Mrs. Greenfield, Ms. Lindley, Mr. Moxley & Mr. Murray.