On 9 April 2012 three Lower Sixth girls, accompanied by Alessandra Symons, set off to spend a week in Orvieto in Italy.

This type of study trip has been tried and tested in the past, but we were once again charmed by such a beautiful, picturesque and quintessentially Italian destination. In addition, the trip had a new format this year. For the first time we collaborated with Marlborough College. This proved very successful; their students, two girls, being delightful and mixing well with our students. Their accompanying teacher, Mr Peter Morley-Fletcher, also contributed very positively to the trip with his knowledge of Italian language and culture. The second new feature of the trip was the use of host families, recommended by the Italian language school. It worked very well and the girls remarked on how this was very useful for their Italian.

The students enjoyed five action-packed days of activities to experience life and culture in Italy. The programme included language lessons in the morning and excursions or cultural events in the afternoon. To list a few: we had the opportunity to visit the Duomo of Orvieto and be guided through the masterful depiction of Heaven and Hell inside it; we had a cookery lesson during which we learnt how to make fresh pasta; we explored the network of caves under the town and we descended into a medieval well (and climbed out again!). Read the full report.