Yep, this Texan will wander overseas for a fantastic adventure - a 17 day trip to Italy and Portugal. One of my partners-in-Wine-Tasting-crimes and I wrote a fantastic grant for/to Fund For Teachers, a wonderful non-profit organization that encourages teachers to plan their own professional development. Well, Jamie and I decided that our classes would benefit by us being smarter about the world - and Italy in particular since it's the birthplace of the Renaissance, home to the Catholic Church (a very influential political game-player for a long time), and ancient Rome. For 14 days, we'll tour Milan, Venice, Verona, Bologna, Florence, and Rome to collect examples of media, tour art museums and ancient structures, churches, take photos of European city life, etc. and share our spoils with our classes next year. PLUS we over-budgeted our airfare by a couple of hundred dollars and we'll be using that money to extend our trip - we have a layover in Lisbon so we're staying there a few days to do the same thing. Now we'll have examples from TWO European countries to compare to America.
So, needless to say, I'm excited. I've been to Europe before - twice to London, twice to Paris, and once to Rome, but this is a most-expense paid trip to do what I love - learning about cultures and history.
Here's our list of definites:
Milan: random tour of city ("The Last Supper" is already sold out)
Venice: gondola tour, St. Mark's Basilica, maybe the Murano glass museum
Verona: Romeo and Juliet tour (hey, we're English teachers)
Bologna: Nothing definite, just exploring the small town
Florence: Uffizi, Accademia, Duomo, various palace gardens (day trip to Pisa)
Rome: Vatican, Coliseum, Forum, Gallerie Borghese, the palazzos, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon.
Anyone else have any recommendations?
Happy travels, and I leave you with a picture of the Texas state flower: the bluebonnet.
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