In November last year, I was invited on a trip to Roman Tarragona with the Latin class. I don’t have classes with this group at school but a couple of the students had prepared something to say in English and they asked me if I could check what they had written. Many students from first and second Batxillerat prepared an explanation of the things we would see during the day and they all did a brilliant job of presenting this to the other students.
The day started off with a visit to the aqueduct just outside of the city, the weather was beautiful and the surroundings even more so. We then got back on the coach to head into the city, the next stop was the amphitheatre. This was a highlight for me as the amphitheatre is situated right next to the sea which was a lovely sight! At this point, the students gathered and two students, Marçal and Dina, explained to the others the connection between Tarraco and Julius Caesar. Both students did a great job and I was very impressed with Marçal who presented his part in English!
We then continued onto the National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona where we saw remains from Roman Tarraco, including mosaics, sculptures, busts and daily life objects from the era. The next place we visited was the Volta del Pallol which is now an exhibition hall where you can see a large model of the Roman city. Here two students, Cristina and Alba, presented to us the buildings and urban planning of Roman Tarraco. Alba did a brilliant job explaining her section in English!
Afterward we went to the Praetorian Tower, where we went all the way to the top and saw some amazing views of Tarragona. You could see the Cathedral of Tarragona, rooftops for miles and the sea which was a great sight on such a beautiful day! We finished off our day with a trip to Tarraco’s Roman circus.
We had a brilliant day in Tarragona and I was very impressed by the hard work that the students put in to explain all the different things we saw during the day! Marçal and Alba in particular did a great job of taking on the difficult task of presenting in English!
Amy Willett
What a surprising blog! It’s a good idea to put trip moments on the net, and better if it’s in English! I’m glad you enjoyed the trip, Amy, we had so much fun in Tarragona with you! I wish we could do more trips like this one. Hopefully this blog will be full by the end of the year!
Alba.
Salve!
Good job Amy! I like very much this article!
I had a great time in Tarraco with my class of Latin, and the city is incredible! The amphitheatre, the circus, the museum… I liked this experience because I think that is more interesting the old life of romans in Catalonia.
See you soon Amy;
Vale!
Salvete!
Amy, I think that your article was an excellent one. I had gone to Tarragona before 2015. In my oppinion, the best building was the amphitheatre. It was circular. The gladiators fought among them. Many Romans went there to see battles because they thought that shows were funny. A doctor, Juvenal, didn’t like that the Roman plebeians only enjoyed going to big shows, and he said the famous phrase “Panem et circenses” to criticise this habit.
Another interesant site in the city was the Ferreres Aqueduct, which carried the water from Gaià River to Tarragona until some years.
I would like saying that I did an article about the trip to Tarraco. It is a very important archaeological site and it shows us our past. I believe that studying our history is very important, because, as Ciceron said, “The populations which forget their history are condaimned to repeat it.” If we forget our past, we will repeat our errors.
In conclusion, romans have passed a cultural legacy (many public buildings: aqueducts, circus, amphitheaters) and an immaterial one (their philosophy, Latin, …) and I esteem both of them, because forgetting them will be renouncing to a part of our culture.
Valete!
I see that you really remember the trip. Thanks for commenting in English. Languages are a tool, nor just a subject, and this new blog GEPsters is trying to show that in Albéniz high school are proud of it…
Hello, Amy!
What an excellent article! I’m glad that you enjoied the visit to Tarraco, it’s sucha a beautiful city!
For me, the best part was the amphitheatre, it was very cool and pretty, it had a very beautiful view of the beach. The other part that I liked of the visit it was the Praetorian Tower, the views were amazing.
See you soon, Amy!
Salve!
I like very much your article Amy! It makes me remember the beautiful day that we spent inTarragona, visiting the Roman’s ruins. I hope that you too enjoyed a lot of experience and learned new things , as we did.
As for the blog , it seems a very good idea! So we can better develop all of different languages worked at our institute.