Over spring break, parents and students in the Grizzlies Abroad program traveled to Italy, Vatican City, Monaco, France, and Spain. This was a 10-day trip that was full of sightseeing, history, culture, eating European cuisine, and everything in between.
This was the biggest Grizzlies Abroad trip to date. Originally, the trip was only supposed to have about 80 travelers, but because the demand was so high, a third bus was opened up. This made 110 travelers, consisting of Wadsworth students, relatives, and teachers.
The trip started as soon as the planes landed in Rome, Italy. With only a few hours of sleep on the red-eye flight, the travelers met their tour guides and headed toward the city of Rome.
The travelers spent their first day in the heart of Rome and saw the iconic monuments. Some threw their coins into the blue water of the Trevi Fountain, saw the incredibly detailed sculptures in The Pantheon, explored an Italian marketplace, and experienced creamy gelato. Then, to finish off their first night, they enjoyed an Italian meal of pizza, meatballs, carrots with olive oil, and an ice cream treat for dessert.
The next day, the travelers woke up bright and early to see the ancient architecture of the ancient Roman empire.
They got to visit the Colosseum to see where epic gladiator games took place and got to walk on the grounds of The Roman Forum, which was once the center of ancient Roman’s day-to-day lives.
All three buses traveled to Vatican City, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church and home to the Pope. This city was bustling with visitors as it was the day before the Pope was going to give his speech in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. The tourists then went into the Basilica while being led by their tour guides showing them all of the hidden gems inside of the Basilica.
The teachers, students, and relatives then traveled to the Cathedral Square in Pisa. Their bus ride was about four hours. They got to walk around Pisa, seeing the leaning tower and many holy places. After this, they traveled to Florence, Italy.
While in Florence, they walked around Piazza San Giovanni looking at the Uffizi Gallery and into shops to their next stop. They had a late dinner because they got to make their own meal, which consisted of homemade pasta, meatloaf, salad, bread, and a fruit and cream dessert.
After dinner, they went back to their hotels so they could rest up for their next trip to Monaco and France. The next destination was Monaco. At the end of the day, in Monaco, the groups got to stop at the rocky beach.
They went to Nímes, France to see the Arena of Nîmes. They then got to walk around the streets of Nímes getting lunch and going into the street shops.

On the same day, they traveled to Barcelona, Spain stopping at Vers-Pont-du-Gard first. They explored there a little bit and then went to dinner and back to the hotel. The next day they went to the beach and had some free time to walk around and go to tourist shops before dinner.
The next stop for the travelers was Park Güell in Barcelona which was on the last day of the Grizzlies Abroad trip. Once they finished at the park, they drove to the Basílica de la Sagrada Família where they learned some history about the basilica while walking around outside of the church.
The final thing the groups did was go to La Rambla, a street in central Barcelona. They were there until late at night spending their time walking around while some went to the Flamenco dance.
The trip, including travel, was ten days long and was full of taking adventures, spending time with peers, and most of all having fun. Wadsworth High is talking about doing a trip similar to this again in the future to give more people this amazing experience to look at different cultures.

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