Dance the Tarentella and explore Cumae.

Jillyan learning her moves.

This post will start with the end of the day first and dance us backwards through the events of Sunday. This evening we were able to take advantage of an opportunity to have the kids learn and perform an Italian folk dance called the Tarantella. Click to learn here about it. The dance was originally created to cure bites of the spider known as the tarantula or more interestingly to cure women of "hysteria" if they danced it for twenty-four hours straight. Not so sure about its effectiveness for either of those problems, but the kids had fun. They spent about an hour and a half of practice, laughing and having fun with four dancers in their theatre. I have uploaded some pictures of the kids below. Jana and Svea also got a chance to try out some songs before our lesson, and that picture of their duet is included as well.

Before the dancing class, we spent the early afternoon at the Cave of the Sybil at Cumae. Click here to learn about Cumae The Sybil was a type of oracle who could see the future and features prominently in the Aeneid. Her caves and ruins were toured extensively by the kids and they were very impressed with the cave system and rock excavation done by the Romans. Included are some pictures of the caves, ruins and the kids.

This photo of Cody and Tyler shows the Bay of Naples and off in the distance the island of Capri. We will be visiting Capri on Tuesday.

This shot of Sarrah, Kayla and Jillyann shows the ruins in the lower right corner and the Bay of Naples in the background.

Lunch was in Naples at a pizzeria. Naples is the birthplace of the pizza and the thin crust and light sauce with mozzarella and the pies were excellent.











Before lunch in Naples, which made the kids feel fortunate to live in a place were cleanliness and recycling are practiced by the people, we visited the National Archaeological Museum. The museum holds the mosaics, frescoes and sculptures there are famous for having been discovered at Pompeii. Many of these works of art were known to the students due to their Latin classes. Below you can see some of the works the students saw today.

The "gang" on the steps of the museum.

Tomorrow we are off to Almalfi and Pompeii, so keep your fingers crossed that the good weather and mild temperatures hold out. Ciao!

PS..Parents and friends, please post up with comments so we can read them!