I studied Latin for three years and flew 10 hours to Italy with 17 other students, all to pack thousands of years of history and culture into my 10-day spring break. I need a vacation from my vacation.

The trip was a school tour, open only to Latin students at Lawrence High School. What made it unique was the preparation required. Everyone attended Roman history classes for two hours every week and did independent research on specific sites in Rome. Each of us receives a letter grade on our transcript and half an elective credit.

Because of our Latin backgrounds, nearly everything we saw in Italy enriched our studies. Each student reported on site about their research topics, and we often attracted other English-speaking tourists, including a couple on their honeymoon, who wanted to learn more about ancient Rome.

One of my favorite experiences was visiting Ostia, the ancient port city of Rome. We quickly got bored of listening to our tour guide discuss the laundry practices of antiquity and crept away from the larger group, one by one. Once we had escaped, we spent two hours exploring the baths, gardens and homes of an abandoned city. We saw more of the city than the tour group did, and climbed to the top of the tallest ruins in the area. Our chaperone and teacher, Jason Lichte, always has been an advocate for student-driven learning. This was an opportunity to discover for ourselves what we had seen in books and bond as a group.

We saw the most famous art in the world in the Vatican and at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. We haggled in a leather market, threw coins into the Trevi Fountain and stood on the Spanish Steps in pouring rain.

On our visit to Pompeii, we were allowed to enter the house of the Vettii brothers, which has been closed to the public for restoration since 1999. Lichte told the director about our project to renovate our courtyard at school in the style of the Vettii, and he let us take a tour. Everyone was fascinated because we were finally seeing the garden we had spent hours studying and duplicating. Knowing that only one or two people are allowed in a year and hearing the teachers in the other tour groups talk about what a good teacher Lichte is solidified the experience.

We spent our last day in Italy at the island of Capri, probably the most beautiful place on earth. This was the private island of the Emperor Tiberius, but after the boat tour around the island, we forgot all about historical significance and focused on the breathtaking scenery and excellent shopping. Throughout the day and the long trip home, I had conversations with almost everyone in the group about how close we had all grown. Spending every minute together for 10 days could have made us all sick of one another, but because of our shared interest in Latin and everyone’s easy-going style, we became friends. Italy helped me meet some of the brightest, funniest and most genuine people I have known.