By Suzy Quinlan
Ten days, seven planes, boats, not-a-boats, busses, and so, so many steps! Nine students and two teachers adventured to Venice, Italy, Mainland Greece, seeing Athens, Mycenae, Epidaurus and Corinth, as well as one of the Greek islands, Samos. Our highlights in Venice included a tour of the MOSE flood control system with the director of the project, going to the top of the Campanile of San Marco standing where Galileo Galilei explained his Horizons of Man on Aug. 21, 1609. We toured the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Cathedral and had rowing lessons, each learning to row a gondola both in canals and in open water.
In Greece, we crossed the country seeing the Acropolis, Olympia – where the Olympics started and where the torch is lit every two years prior to the torch relay to the host country. We experienced the acoustics at the theater in Epidaurus built in 340-300 BCE. We saw the Treasury of Atreus and the Lions Gate in Mycenae. We then walked the old town of Athens and saw Greek and Roman artifacts and ruins galore.
Lastly we flew to Samos, a Greek island 20 miles from Turkey. Here our highlight was climbing Mount Kerkis (the 2nd highest peak in the Agean) and entering the cave of mathematician and philosopher, Pythagoras. He fled to the cave while being hunted by Polycrates in 400 BCE.
