Monday, April 9th 2018 - the day had finally come for the 16 boys and three teachers to head to several foreign countries, experiencing brand new cultures and atmospheres for 23 days. No going back really!

3.05pm we were all packed and ready for our first flight of many. We all seemed very organized waiting around in the Christchurch airport for our flight leaving at 6.05pm, heading to Dubai (via Sydney). Clearing all our bags through customs the first time in Christchurch was a breeze, everyone knew exactly what was happening and where to go. (This proved to get more difficult as our tour played out). 16 young men and three of the finest teachers boarded Flight EK413 to Dubai all very exhilarated.

16 hours and 35 minutes later (including the stopover in Sydney) we arrived in Dubai at 5.40am. Remaining in transit for four hours gave us the chance to explore the third busiest international traffic airport in the world. This was our first overseas experience as a group testing our navigation, communication and self-management skills. Exhausted from our first leap across the globe and now with full stomachs, we boarded our next Flight EK97 to Rome. Many movies and sore legs later we had finally landed in the first European country, Italy.

Clearing immigration and passport control, smoother than I expected, we collected our luggage and boarded a coach off to our Hotel Navona. This was, I believe, the boys' first experience in Europe like myself, with our eyes wide open looking out the windows of the coach watching the outskirts of Rome fly past. All amazed that we were finally here taking it in, a very contrasting environment. This is when we knew we weren't in Kanzas anymore!

Reaching the main centre of Rome we disembarked our coach and headed to our hotel. The first assortment of room keys was handed out, this being our first responsibility for the trip. We all settled in and it was time to get our heads around the atmosphere of the oldest continuously occupied site in Europe. Built by Romulus and Remus, being one of the major world centres of the Renaissance period and fascist architecture. It was finally dinner time, our first European cuisine. Think of all the options that you could have at the palm of your hands right in the Piazza Navona, we thought we would go all out, we thought we would sit down and have a nice delicious... pizza!

Breakfast was provided by our hotel before setting out for a guided tour of downtown Rome. Visiting bewildering monuments with the likes of the almost impossible Pantheon towering above us, and the once in a lifetime Spanish steps all packed with tourists and locals alike. The tour lasted three hours. We started off the first full day with some of the most well-known hotspots in the world. The culture never falling behind us we were always being immersed inside it, learning small key language tips from our tour guide and teachers. It’s safe to say we all got comfortable with Rome very quickly. We made our own arrangements for lunch meeting back at a certain point at a certain time.

Next would be another walking tour, this time of Old Rome. Four hours of exploring some of the greatest architecture known to man, such as the Colosseum taking 60,000 Jewish slaves to build this entertainment arena pleasing crowds for 390 years. The Roman Forum taking over 100 years to excavate, until the 20th century, where it was fully excavated and the Basilica San Pietro in Vincoli. Experiencing some of our first encounters with Italian art and what was yet to come from the art of the 14th and 15th century.

Day one gone and onto the next, the boys all hungry for more as we headed for the next destination, the Vatican Museums. Witnessing some of the greatest renowned classical sculptures, and the most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world, containing approximately 70,000 works of which only 20,000 are on display to the public. The Vatican Museums also house a collection of modern religious art created by the likes of Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. The Museums also house the Sistine Chapel and with that comes the Sistine Chapel ceiling painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512. Entering St. Peters Basilica, the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture and regarded also as one of the holiest Catholic shrines, we experienced such immense beauty and the general immersion of religion surrounded us all so much we were all stunned.

A mere 17 minutes from the Basilica is the Castle Sant’Angelo (Castle of the Holy Angel), once upon a time being the tallest building in Rome used by the popes as a fortress and castle. Becoming decommissioned in 1901, the castle is now a museum. Returning back to the hotel at 7.30pm, we all thoroughly enjoyed our day and were now feeling the impact of jet lag just in time for a 7.00am start in the morning.

The next day we visited the Borghese Park and Galleria. Here we saw Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s sculptures such as the baroque marble sculpture of Apollo and Daphne and his 170cm sculpture of David. Next, we headed to the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo and the Santa Maria della Vittoria Church. These two smaller buildings didn’t look much from the outside but once you were inside there were some stunning architecture and sculptures with shining light blaring across their torsos from the stained-glass panes along the walls. A truly brilliant way to end our time in Rome.

Florence was our second destination two hours from Rome by train, we had all packed our gear and left our hotel by 7.30am, by now we realised there was no more sleeping in for a while. Once reaching Florence we disembarked our train and transferred by coach to our second hotel, the Hotel Colomba. We then took a self-guided tour of Florence for the first few hours. We visited the Galleria dell Accademia where we were able to meet Michelangelo’s David in person, we then headed to the Uffizi Gallery, personally my No. 1 gallery of the trip. I would highly recommend this to any art lovers/historians as we saw many priceless works from the Italian Renaissance. My favourite, the ever gorgeous ‘Birth of Venus’ by Botticelli, her almost sensuous beauty standing before us, mesmerizing.

After a late lunch of flavoured gelato to cool us off, we visited the Brancacci Chapel, a smaller Chapel but encasing two key works ‘the temptation of Adam and Eve’ and ‘the expulsion from the garden of Eden’. Another whole new scope of works now in front of our very own eyes, works made around 1425, many centuries ago. New experiences kept unfolding, we didn’t think the trip could get any more spectacular, but we were all very wrong! The sun sets as we head back to our hotel around 8.00pm.

Day 8 saw us walking to our first location at the San Marco museum. This is where the Medici family’s favourite architect, Michelozzo, was commissioned to rebuild the San Marco convent on renaissance lines. The Il Duomo di Firenze (Florence Cathedral) our next stop on the Florence tour. We were to meet at the Cupola of the dome at 4.10pm, prior to that we had access to the surrounding buildings such as the Baptistry of St John and Giotto’s bell tower. 463 steps later everyone had reached the top of the dome on the cathedral, was it worth all those steps - 100% YES!! The view was out of this world 114.5 meters above Florence, truly a once in a lifetime view of the city, like nothing I have ever seen before.

We were lucky to have the opportunity to visit so many countries in Europe, 16 kiwi boys and three teachers who led us along the way, through many time zones and centuries of art history. 7.00am came faster than we all would have liked, we headed to the Medici Chapel, the last stop in Florence. Tombs of Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici and Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici. Each tomb had two sculptured figures of different times of the day, dusk and dawn as well as night and day. 10.30am our train left for our third destination of the tour, Venice.

Two and a half hours later the train screeched to a halt at the Venice Santa Lucia Station where we hauled our luggage onto a water taxi, splashing through the cool waters of the sunken city. Unimaginable sights as we drifted past a city with no streets, cars, lights - nothing. 25 minutes and we had reached our new hotel by the name of Mercurio. After navigating the tight walkways of Venice we had accomplished a small tour of Venice ready for dinner by 7.00pm. Our Vaperetto to the island of Murano left at 8.00am where we then got free time to roam the island known worldwide for its glass making. The most incredible detail was put into such small glass animals being sold in nearly every open doorway. Nothing had failed to amaze any of us. Our time in Venice felt very short-lived, this being our last day now to enjoy the water-filled city. The Vaperetto dropped us off at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the first of a few modern art galleries we saw on this trip, very different to what we had just recently seen.
That’s all from Venice.

7.30pm saw us in our beds to catch a 5.30am flight the next morning to our next country.

Arriving in Spain at 11.40am, Barcelona-El Prat International airport, we cleared immigration with only minor casualties, collected our luggage, met the coach and transferred to our 4th home away from home, Hotel Acta Azul. No messing around, we were witnessing a fast change of scenery from the more calm and easy city of Venice, to the bustling noisy city of Barcelona. We headed off to the Mies Van Der Rohe Pavilion, known for its simple form, it is an important building in the history of modern architecture, with its use of extravagant materials like marble, red onyx and travertine. Commissioning of this building started in 1928 and it had to be built in less than a year. After the pavilion, we set out towards the Montjuic Magic Fountain Show starting at 9.00pm. A great night of singing, dancing, lights and loud music and many of us getting wet. We all enjoyed a little night out on the town.

Halfway through the tour already – 11.5 days left till we head back to reality …

Part two of this article will be published later this month, keep a look out for it!

There will be an exhibition of photographs taken by the boys on the trip held on the evening of 28th June (Thursday Week 9) in the Big Room, a formal invitation will be sent out next week. Save the date.