#150 Gita Season
school trip time of year in Italy
Hello friend,
Well, it's that time of year again in Italy. Yep, it is the period of school trips, or as I like to call it, ‘Gita season’.
The weather begins to warm up a little at the end of March, and there is a lull in the academic programs in the schools after Carnevale and before Easter. This deader time of year is usually when schools schedule their so-called 'gite scolastici’, class trips organised by the school to places like Syracuse, Agrigento, or Naples. Technically, they are considered end-of-year trips, totally optional and unrelated to the academic year.
This element of school life is common worldwide and is interpreted in the usually chaotic and grotesque baroque Italian style.
A school trip to Australia is usually associated with some academic requirement, such as a geography field trip or a visit to a historical site or museum. But in Italy, the Gita is simply a mini holiday for the students with little or no educational value.
They usually start middle school for a few days in nearby cities, which in Sicily usually means places like Catania or Palermo. Then, in the first few years of high school, they move out of Sicily and onto the peninsula, like Naples or Rome. In the final year of high school, as most students turn 18 and are considered adults, they go somewhere in Europe, like Prague, Warsaw, or Vienna.
This year, the trend is Puglia. The local middle school is going, and many high schools are departing in staggered groups throughout the month. Someone must be giving schools a reasonable price. I imagine these trips are also designed to help Italian tourism in the slower months before the summer.
My 15-year-old son has never been interested in going, and I've always considered these types of school trips superfluous. But this year, he begged to go. I am happy to let him go; it is a good experience. My Anxious Husband is not on board at all. He is of the generation who never really went on school trips. So it was a bit of a challenge to convince him, but we did.
As I speak, my son is frolicking around Puglia, which is on the heel of Italy's boot. He has five days in a four-star hotel, with day trips and tours every day. He's doing a bit of everything from the trulli at Alberobello, Castles, churches and fortresses at Bari, Polignano a Mare, Lecce, Ostuni and Matera
They departed early in the morning and poured into two massive tourist buses. It was chaos, as many different classes were milling around with their backpacks, trolley suitcases, nervous energy, Adidas shoes, and other trendy merch worn at this moment.
It took them 45 minutes to board the buses parked in front of their school, which looks like an industrial correctional facility.
The spicy, hot scirocco winds bending the trees over didn't help the confusion. The weather has been unseasonably hot, as the African desert winds whip up the temperature into the high twenties (°C) as quickly as they ruffle people's hair.
Our son insisted we say goodbye out of sight of his classmates. Yes, he's still at that stage of adolescence. So it was a quick peck on the cheek, and he dashed off to meet with his friends.
We introduced ourselves to the teacher who was accompanying the ten students from my son's class who were attending. It turns out she is the vice principal. She assured us we could call her anytime and that she already had our numbers in an emergency. There is one teacher for every ten students.
Anxious Husband was mildly satisfied with the interaction and slightly irritated by my son's shame and embarrassment for his parents. But teenagers are like this sometimes. Pazienza!
Overall, there was a lot of chaos, anticipation, and a few tears from the Anxious Husband, who isn't ready for his son to grow up.
I'm happy to give my son some freedom, a lot of experiences and the opportunity to witness the beauty of growing up in Italy.
This is his first school trip, so far away and the only time he's been away from us. No tears from me, just the bitter-sweet realisation that he will fly the nest one day. And that will be fine with me because I did my job.
But that's still a little way in the future. I'm happy my son's off on his first solo adventure, and I'm looking forward to hearing all about it.
I wouldn't mind a five-day holiday in Puglia, but parents aren't welcome.
Needless to say, my son is having an incredible adventure. Who wouldn't mind having a school trip to an Italian region in the early spring?
That’s all I have on my mind for now.
Thanks for reading along.
Stay well, be kind to everyone, including yourself, and we’ll speak again soon.
Rochelle
Sometimes, I talk about Sicily.
Other times, I talk about whatever is on my mind.
My writing is always about lightning, the mental load, and sharing my thoughts.
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It is so important to visit other regions - I can't remember the poem that goes something like this: and so we shall return to the place from which we started and know it for the first time.
Che favoloso!! When I was young (in Chicago) we went to camp for a few days or to a museum. 😆