Ahead of the Easter holiday, a group of 21 A-level art pupils travelled to Venice, Italy for a three-day trip. Accompanied by Miss Jiggens, Miss Platt, and Mr Shaw, the group soaked up some Venetian art, consumed enough Italian food to last a lifetime, and experienced an eventful return flight back to the UK!
The following writeup of the trip comes from Year 12 pupil S Bathe-Taylor:
We landed around midday at the airport in Venice, collected our luggage and proceeded to the boat which would take us to the island. Most of us took to the boat ride quite well - the journey took around half an hour with the occasional bump here and there. Little did we know that the bumps and constant swaying from side-to-side were something that we simply had to get used to! After docking, we began our walk to the hotel (Casa Sant ’Andrea) and while the sun was not quite beating down on us, the weather was noticeably better than what we had left behind in England.
After getting our keys and unpacking our bags in our rooms, we met outside and were given the opportunity to explore the town in groups to find our bearings and find a place to grab some lunch. Once we were released, everyone took the chance to find somewhere that served pizza so they could finally say that they’ve had pizza in Italy. I’m not sure if I can ever have a UK pizza again as I can guarantee you that it tastes so much better in Italy!
After dinner, with darkness starting to wash over the city, the group ventured towards St Mark’s Square and up St Mark’s Bell Tower. The views were one-of-a-kind, and it was so much higher than I had expected. St Mark’s Square is stunning at night, and it was completely different to how it is during the daytime. The pop-up-tourist stalls had all been packed up and it was like the city had another side to it which was just as beautiful and interesting.
The next day, we all went out to explore a different part of Venice. However firstly, we made a stop at a mask-making shop where we were told about the history surrounding the unique Venetian masks. Shortly after, we were given the opportunity to make our own masks with gorgeous designs on every table you looked. No two masks were the same which, in my opinion, was the beauty of the experience. Afterwards, we were allowed to explore the city and get lunch with some of us hopping on a Gondola ride to get a feel for the culture as well as admire the city from the water.
Our last stop in that part of Venice was made at the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery which was tucked away in one of the many corners of the glorious city. It was certainly smaller than we had all expected but nevertheless, we loved walking around and looking at all the artwork it had to offer! This was a great opportunity for us to do drawings from the artwork we had researched back at school. Our final stop of the day was the Hard Rock Café where we all ate a nice meal (though it was not Italian by any means), and we then explored the city at nightfall for one of the last times.
For our final full day in Venice, we spent time in Murano (where they have a traditional way of making all sorts of glass sculptures) and Burano (a town full of colourful houses - an Italian Balamory!) With our first stop being Murano, we had the opportunity to see glass getting blown and to look around at what the shop had to offer. The entirety of our afternoon, however, was spent leisurely wandering around the rainbow streets of lovely Burano where we got lunch and sat down for a bit of sketching and painting of what we saw. We then took the waterbus back with some off us coming off it saying that they still felt as if they were swaying! We stopped at our hotel briefly to clean up before heading out for our last dinner in Venice. We then stayed out to take one last look at Venice as well as get some last-minute gifts for friends and family.
The morning of our departure was bright and early as we finished packing our bags before heading to the airport via one last boat ride. We got off and took our bags with us to check them onto the flight when disaster struck - our flight had been cancelled! All of us stayed in a large group while Miss Jiggens tried to find us a flight back home with no luck it seemed. Our wait at the airport lasted for another eleven long hours and after what felt like an eternity, news came through that we had got a flight! However, it was to Birmingham, and it wasn’t until 7.30pm at night. This news brightened up hopes for a lot of us and we continued to quietly, and now more calmly, pass the time until we were required once more to go and check our bags in and get our boarding passes - only this time it was a success and all of us were going home! We arrived back at around 10pm at night where we collected our bags and got dropped off home.
To sum it up, the trip was everything that I had expected and a whole lot more. It was really nice to get to know some of the other pupils (the Year 13 pupils in particular) who I wouldn’t necessarily have had the opportunity to speak to at school. It was also quite refreshing to see a different side to everyone outside of school (and even a wackier side to the teachers too!). Thank you to Miss Jiggens, Miss Platt, and Mr Shaw who came on the trip with us!
