31 October 2019
On the first Friday of half term, 30 boys and four staff set out for a week-long tour of the classical sights of Sicily. It was a packed itinerary with visits to Syracuse, Taormina, Morgantina and the extensive mosaics of the enormous Roman villa at Piazza Armerina.
We then headed west for the second half of the week, with a particular focus on Greek temples: at Agrigento, Selinus and Segesta. Throughout the trip, the sixth form students gave talks about the various sites we visited, with more thematic presentations from George Carver on the Greek colonisation of Sicily, Tom Phillip on Cicero’s Verrines at the various sites from which the corrupt Roman governor had taken statues, and finally from Alasdair Emmett and David Haar on the First Punic War from the top of Erice.
We were lucky to be based in this delightful town for the last two nights with its stunning views over the western extremity of the island. Earlier in the week, we had also gone up Etna to a height of 2600m by cable-car to visit one of the secondary craters: the volcano did not disappoint as it was erupting spectacularly (but safely)! Like Etna, the boys themselves were models of good behaviour throughout.
