Welcome to Canadian College Italy’s 2014 Summer Academy.
Our students arrived safely last Thursday and have since been busy with orientation, residence meetings, and classes.
Lanciano is over 3000 years old – older than Rome – and our school is located in the heart of the historic centre. Below you will see the entrance to our school: a charming door within a door.
The students, and teachers, were given Friday and Saturday mornings to sleep in and recuperate from jetlag. Classes were held in the afternoon. It didn’t take long to get into the swing of things.
After class was over on Friday, we took the CCI bus to San Vito to enjoy the sun and sand that the Adriatic has to offer. It was a wonderful way for our young people to get to know each other and form new friendships.
Saturday was more solemn as we visited the nearby town of Ortona. This was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of WWII. In December of 1943 Canadian troops fought their way through rain, mud, and artillery fire, to make their way into the town. There, they fought from one house to the next, claiming one street at a time, and eventually liberated Ortona from the Nazis.
Our first stop was the War Museum where Mr. Budani, our Italian teacher and native Ortonese, explained the significance of the battle.
The students then had time to explore the museum and examine its many artefacts from the war.
Later, we were led to the centre of the museum that holds a model of the town, showing us what Ortona had looked like during the battle.
During a tearful speech our dear friend Tommaso, who was 10 years old during the battle, shared his experiences of the war with our group. He asked our Canadian students, upon returning to Canada, to please let WWII veterans know that there are still many people in Ortona who remember them, and who will forever be thankful for their sacrifice.
We finished the day with a tour of the nearby Moro River Canadian War Cemetery. Here are the resting places of over 1300 fallen soldiers. For many of our students, it was an emotional experience to read the names, and the ages, on the tombstones of the soldiers that died during that horrific battle.
