Torre di Babele students at Appia Antica

Pebble stone roads, birds chirping, grass blowing in the wind, ancient ruins standing off in the distance of a massive field. Via Appia Antica is truly the ideal escape from the noise of a city and easily accessible in under ten minutes using public transport.

This previous weekend a group of students from the school and I were fortunate enough to experience this part of Rome through the Saturday cultural activity offered through Torre di Babele. With a tour guide arranged for us, all we had to do was show up and follow! The guide was really helpful as she was able to cater to all the different levels of Italian. As the group had several really advanced students and then me (level 1, baby!!), it was impressive that she kept the upper level students engaged while still ensuring that I understood the general gist of the story. The tour was varied with a stop at the basilica, the ruins, a visit of the field where the movie Ben Hur was filmed (cool, huh?!) and a lot of fun facts about all the little things we passed as we walked along the “via.”

It was also a really economical trip as we got tour guide and entrance fees to everything for under 10 euros. With the advantage of a British passport (always carry a copy with me!) and a student ID, I am able to get discounts to a lot of places around the city, and Appia Antica wasn’t any different. Being young does have significant advantages in the city!

After a good day of strolling around ancient Rome, I am definitely looking forward to the upcoming tours of regions of the city offered through the school – next week we are going to Rione Colonna which should be cool! We’ll get to see the Pantheon and other awesome things in that neighborhood.