Abington High School’s Global Education trip to Greece/Italy will take place in February of 2020. It was offered to rising juniors and seniors. Those who were accepted into the trip found out in January. The trip will be run by EF tours and  include round-trip airfare, transportation, and breakfast and dinner daily. The group will be accompanied by a full-time Tour Director. In addition to the tour director, AHS chaperones Ms. Gerhart, Mr. Holzman, and Mr. Donahue, and Mrs. Peck will be accompanying the 27 students.

Sophomore Aleena Magnasco, one of the 27 students, said she chose this trip over the Peru trip because she has “always wanted to go to Greece and Italy so it was an easy choice.” She also is looking forward to seeing Athens because her great grandfather is from there. When asked why she decided to go next year instead of waiting until her senior year, she said, “I felt that I should not pass up the opportunity to go on such a great trip and decided not to wait until my senior year. But if there is a trip I’m interested in for next year I will probably consider it.

Itineraries were given out for both trips. Here is a more in depth explanation of the trip. The trip begins with the group flying into Greece on a 10 hour overnight plane ride and touring Athens in the morning. In their five days in Greece, they will tour major historical sites like the Plaka District, the Temple of Zeus, Olympic Stadium, Syntagma Square, Acropolis, Delphi Museum, Temple of Apollo, and the Meteora monastery. On the fifth day of the ten day tour, they will go to Igoumenitsa and travel on an overnight ferry to Ancona, Italy. The group will travel to  Florence and tour Piazza della Signoria, Ponte Vecchio, Chiesa di Santa Croce, Gates of Paradise, and The Duomo. They’ll also spend a day in Rome and see the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. Mr Holzman said he has always been “fascinated by the history of that city [Rome].  There are new buildings right beside ruins that are thousands of years old. Also, the intersection of culture and religion is amazing.” The group will spend a day in Vatican City to see the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica too. Then after the ten days, they’ll depart home for Boston. 

The first Global Education trip was to Italy in 2014, led by the former school library Mrs. Crowley and Abington Middle School English teacher (formerly an English teacher at the high school) Mr. Regalbuto. The following year there was a trip to Paris in April of 2015. Other Global Education trips have been to Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, and Iceland. The students who go on these trips often come back with a new way of looking at the world, mainly understanding how much bigger the world is than the four walls of the High School. Global Travel also gets students prepared to travel on their own when they’re older, without parents helping with everything. And, it offers students a sense of freedom and brings those who are on these trips closer together. After spending over a week in a new place with people, they often bond over the whole experience.