TY Trip 2018 to Lake Garda, Verona and Venice

On the 10th April, 93 TY students travelled to Lake Garda, Italy, along with 8 teachers. We left the Enniscorthy prom at around 2:30am to travel to Dublin airport. We arrived to the Milan Linate airport at around 10:30. We were all exhausted but we were all looking forward to the following activities in the next couple of days.

We stopped to get lunch at Elnos Shopping Centre nearby. We spent around one hour there. My friends and I got a massive slice of mozzarella pizza. We also had some time to look around in the shops and buy some goodies. After that we travelled to Malcesine, where we got to go on cable cars. We saw the gorgeous site of Lake Garda and took lots of pictures. We went up to the snowy mountains beside the lake to watch the beautiful scenery. Later that day we went to our hotel, the Garda Family House. It was around 7 o’clock and we were all very exhausted. An hour later we had our dinner and then we got ready for the next day.

On the second day we went to Verona. While we waited for the tour guides to come, we had some time to buy some souvenirs and snacks. Class 4A and 4B went with one tour guide and 4C and 4D went with another tour guide. We had a 2 hour guided walking tour, where we got to see Verona’s most important sights such as Juliet’s Balcony, the Roman Arena and the Amphitheatre.  After the guided tour we had an hour of free time to get lunch and to go for a bit of shopping. Then we went on boat from Lazise to Garda on Lake Garda. It was great to be on Lake Garda even though it was raining. The teachers surprised us with gelato in a cone.  After that we went back to our hotel and got our dinner.

On the third day we went to Venice. We travelled to the city centre on a water taxi. We had an hour to eat and to look around before the tour guides came. It was a 2 hour guided tour and we got to see the Bridge of Sighs, St, Mark’s Square and Doge’s Palace. After the guided tour we had time to eat and to look around. Some of our peers went on the gondolas. We then had a 3 hour journey back to our hotel.
After dinner in our hotel, we got an opportunity to meet one of the English speaking nuns who run the hotel, the school, the convent and boarding school. She told us some of the history of the school and her time as a Mercy student growing up. Afterwards, we put on a little exhibition of dancing and singing for the nuns and staff of the hotel which I think they really enjoyed.

On the last day, we went to Gardaland, an amusement park. We spent around five hours at Gardaland, where both the students and the teachers enjoyed the different types of roller coasters and rides. We also had one last time to get some gelato before we headed to Elnos Shopping Centre to get some dinner before our flight. We then headed to Malpensa airport in Milan and we made our way back to Ireland.

I would like to say a huge thank you to all the teachers Ms. McConville, Ms. Whelan, Ms. Duggan, Ms. Quinn, Ms. McGuinness, Ms. Murphy, Ms. McDonald and Ms. Sinnott  who accompanied us and took great care for us, especially Ms. McConville who mainly organised our foreign trip.
By: Laura Olah 4D