My Middle School Two-Day Trip To...

...VENICE
At 5:15 on Thursday morning I was to be found at Cocchi.
At 5:30 one teacher and two students arrived.
By 5:45 (the time we were supposed to be leaving) the whole class (- 5 who weren't going) was assembled and ready to go...minus one thing. The bus hadn't arrived yet!
10 minutes later the bus came...except it went down Via della Piagge-the steep 1.3 km. road down to Ponte Naia which begins right next to the school.
10 minutes later the bus backed out of Via della Piagge, blocking the ENTIRE road, and then went back down it.
15 minutes after that the bus emerged again (the right way around this time!) and drove into Cocchi and we boarded and were off!
About 5 hours into the trip, Giorgio got about half of the class singing church songs.
Once we got to Venice, we boarded a boat and went to St. Mark's Square where the teachers told us to stay in the square and the surrounding shops and let us wander off. When the tour guide came, the teachers rounded us up and we took a nice tour of St. Mark's Cathedral.
After the tour, we had to take up a collection for the boat ride back to the hotel because the "organizers" had failed to organize that part of the trip.
At the hotel we had a two-course dinner plus dessert, and then we took a 3 km. passagiata ending at 11:30 p.m. (!) during which we discovered Professor Lemmi's method of getting the class across the road. Here's his method:

1. He crosses the road.
2. He looks both ways to make sure that there aren't any cars that will reach him within 5 seconds.
3. He calls a student over.
4. Said student sprints across the road.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until all the students have crossed.

The next day we got up, had breakfast (yes, they did have coffee at the table- unfortunately just the American stuff), took a tour of a couple villas, and came home.
We arrived home at 10:30 p.m.

-Jeremy

p.s. The next day, only 5 students in my class came to school, 4 of whom did not go on the trip. I was the fifth.