While some MSMS students used spring break as rehabilitation from a long week of research papers, tests and boundless other assignments, others chose instead to travel to one of history’s oldest and most cherished places: Rome, Italy.

Accompanied by MSMS’s world traveler and history instructor Julie Heintz, approximately 25 juniors and seniors and six chaperones loaded onto a shuttle, drove to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and flew to Rome. There, the group experienced everything the city had to offer, from historic tours around the former capital of the Roman Empire to walks inside the Coliseum.

“I have never seen anything so beautiful, ” said junior Kresha Patel from Pearl, Mississippi. “The architecture, the streets littered with boutiques and cafes, I was immersed into a culture that I never thought I would be able to experience.”

“Being a minority in Mississippi, I am accustomed to being the quote-unquote ‘cultured’ one, so for that entire mindset to be flipped on its side was just bizarre,” Patel said.

“I wouldn’t take it back for the world,” he concluded.

While on the trip, MSMS students traveled from Rome to other famous locations in Italy such as Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri and even the smallest country in the world, the Vatican.

“The Sistine Chapel was one of the most breathtaking buildings I have ever seen,” said senior Josh Seid.

“Although I’m not Catholic, I can easily respect and admire the devotion from the faithful that built the cathedral,” Seid said. The modern wonder of the world wasn’t the only site on the trip that caught Seid’s eye.

“Pompeii was just plain crazy,” Seid said. “The whole time I had the Bastille song stuck in my head. Oh, and the food. The pizza in Naples, the lasagna we had in Rome, it was all amazing. I probably gained ten pounds then burned it off before the day was over with. I even got serenaded with the song ‘Feliz Navidad’ by a dude in Sorrento.”

“I don’t think I could have had a better time,” said junior Taylor Willis. “The trip had its ups and downs, but overall, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life.”

“I had a great time with all my friends and I am so thankful that I got the opportunity,” Willis said.

Following this international excursion, MSMS students will travel to Greece in the summer and England and France next spring break.

“It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” junior Catherine Min said. “The Vatican, Rome, Sorrento, all of it was amazing. I’m just really happy that I got to go, and I can’t wait to see more of the world.”

The group of students returned early Monday morning, just in time for the first day of school, post Spring Break.

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Courtesy of Edith Marie Green