Hunting for Treasure

Friday was a day to relax and enjoy what I like to call the "Central Park of Rome", Villa Borghese. When we arrived, we split into teams for a scavenger hunt around the park. We were joined by several members of the local CIEE staff, as well as some Italian peers - Lorenzo, Matteo, Gabriele, and Ronny. One member of the group was designated as the "Christopher Columbus" to read the map and lead the group to each stop. Another member was designated as "Dante Aligheri" to write the answers to the questions about each point on the map. All groups started off at Pincio's Terrace, a beautiful terrace overlooking the city. Students had to identify two important landmarks before moving on to the next stop.

The second stop for our group was the "Water Clock", a fascinating piece of architecture from the nineteenth century in which the force of the water moves a pendulum to wind the clock. Amazingly, it is still working! Here, students had to recall how to say "What time is it?" in Italian and record the time on the clock. From there, we found our way to the "Laghetto" or "Small Lake" where students had to identify which animals they could see (birds, ducks, squirrels, etc) and ask about the cost of a boat ride (in Italian). We also visited the Seahorse Fountain, where students had to record the number of horse legs (also in Italian).

Students even witnessed a piece of London in the middle of Rome: a replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, where they had to record a video of themselves reciting a verse from Romeo and Juliet (good job, Sarah!):

At the "Siena Square", students chose to race each other in paris either by wheelbarrow (one person holding their partner's ankles while they walk on their hands) or piggyback ride. Tylar's group couldn't stop laughing!

All groups met at our final stop, "Il Cinema dei Piccoli" which is the smallest movie theater in the world. After lunch, it was time to relax, play some games, and enjoy the park. The scavenger hunt activity was a fun way for us to explore the massive area of Villa Borghese, one of my favorite places in Rome.