Catherine Glembotzky

May 1, 2019

Italy

Our school has been using ACIS for several years and has been happily satisfied every step of the way. We are already planning for 2020! This is my 4th trip abroad with them and I have had the most pleasant communications with every representative from start to finish. This year we went to Italy, and had a relatively glitch free experience. Our Tour Manager, Cheira, was incredibly well prepared with art reproductions, handouts and other items of interest that pertained to each site we visited. We had a very ambitious list of sites to see and she managed to get us to all of them on time. She was kind and patient with the students and her talks were interesting and informative. The only problem we experienced were the enormous crowds - everywhere, but particularly in Rome due to the Easter, Passover and Liberation Day holidays. Parts of the coliseum were closed off, St. Peter's Basilica was swamped and despite having tickets, we couldn't get through the security in time for the Papal General Audience. As always, our flights and hotel accommodations were excellent - good breakfasts and central locations to many sights and terrific local guides; most of the dinners were pretty good, although we did have a couple of casualties in that regard. All in all, a great experience combining learning objectives with plenty of free time for the teens to explore at their own pace and enjoy the gelato!