Ana Jimenez

One of my favorite moments on the trip was going on the gondola ride in Venice, and being that close to all the buildings and getting to see such nice views.

Many students, like myself, dream of being able to travel abroad, but aren’t sure whether it’s possible. The Salinas Valley Dream Academy provides students from several schools around town the opportunity to make those dreams come true, and travel to places we would never think we would be able to go to.

Around the beginning of last year, the Dream Academy announced that they would be traveling to Italy, and would be visiting the same 5 cities that they did 5 years prior. “[Italy] was the place we thought was the most visually stunning and spectacular from the other countries we had visited, so we wanted to go back,” head director Ruben Pizarro said. 

When I first applied, I didn’t know anyone that I was super close to that was going to join as well, but I didn’t let that stop me from continuing the process of it all. Throughout the process before the trip, and on the trip itself, I got to create new friendships, as well as become closer with the ones that I already had. 

At our Saturday meetings, which would happen about once a month, all 100 students would get together and interact with each other in several different fun activities in order to get to know one another and start feeling more comfortable around each other. 

Going into the trip, I knew I was going to have lots of fun taking pictures, learning about different monuments, and about the cities in general. We visited a total of 5 cities – Venice, Pisa, Florence, Assisi, and Rome – all in a span of 11 days, including traveling days. 

Starting off the trip, things didn’t go as planned. Our flight going from San Francisco to London, which contained all Dream Academy members, got delayed about 5 hours. Once we got to London, there were originally 3 different connection flights set. One of those flights (which was the one I was on) was supposed to have a 6 hour layover before heading to Venice, and the other two flights that were heading to Milan, only had a 2-3 hour layover, plus a 3 hour drive to Venice after their flight. Due to the delay on our first flight, the two groups that had their connecting flight to Milan, unfortunately missed their flight and got stuck in London until the next morning which caused them to miss the majority of the one day that we were in Venice. Although I would have liked to stay in Venice for longer, I still really enjoyed it. We got to visit St. Mark’s Basilica and Doge’s Palace, where we got to see the beautiful artwork and sculptures that were handmade thousands and thousands of years ago. One of my favorite moments on the trip was going on the gondola ride in Venice, and being that close to all the buildings and getting to see such nice views. 

In Pisa, we visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa where we climbed all 296 steps to the top where we could see all the beautiful buildings, as well as the Pisa Cathedral next door which we were able to go into and explore around at our leisure. We didn’t have that much time in Pisa, since it was a travel day to Florence, but it was still a good amount for us to walk around and get gelato which was one of my favorite things to do in Italy. Along with my friends, gelato was something we would get very often, and my go-to flavor was Stracciatella which is chocolate chip. 

In Florence, we visited the Ponte Vecchio Bridge, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Basilica Di Santa Croce, Piazzale Michelangelo Square, Accademia Gallery where we got to see Michaelangelo’s famous statue of David and the University of Florence, where we got to take part in a class about the transformation of Europe. 

Overall, Florence was my favorite city that we visited, which I expected since it was my sister’s favorite when she went to Italy back in 2019 with the Dream Academy, and we are very similar when it comes to things we like, therefore I was really looking forward to visiting Florence the most. I especially liked shopping there because of all the familiar stores that there were compared to the other cities that we went to. 

In Assisi, we visited the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi where we got a tour inside the beautiful church, as well as below the church where St. Francis’s tomb lies. Due to the harsh wind and rain that day, we weren’t able to do much besides that excursion, so we boarded the bus and just continued our drive to Rome.

In Rome, we got to visit the famous Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Piazza Navona, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. In Rome was where I ate the best fettuccine alfredo that I’ve ever had. I was expecting the food portions to be smaller since that is what everyone was saying but they were pretty normal, decent portions. Visiting the Trevi Fountain was my favorite in Rome because I already love fountains in general, and seeing a fountain as big and beautiful as that was just amazing to see, and also a really good place for pictures. 

The people that we encountered during the entire trip weren’t too bad. Some servers and other store workers weren’t always the nicest, but we could manage. My group and I never really had an interaction where the other person couldn’t understand us at all since mostly every Italian knew a bit of either English or Spanish. What we did realize was that when we spoke Spanish to them, they would somewhat be more open to speak to us and be nicer in general. Spanish is very similar to Italian, therefore we felt more comfortable talking to them in Spanish, and I’m sure they did so as well. 

We got a lot of free time throughout the trip, in about every city. At this time we were able to leave our team leaders and assigned groups and be able to walk around and explore wherever we wanted with whoever we wanted. We did have a certain time and place where we had to meet, but besides that, we pretty much we’re on our own. I did love our tours and admissions to the different monuments, but our free time was definitely one of my favorites because that’s when it hit us that we we’re in Italy “on our own”. 

Every single day, we pretty much had a set routine. We would be up very early in the morning (which wasn’t the funniest), have breakfast, board the bus, and go off to our destinations. We would often get back to our hotel late which would mean we would be even more tired the next morning, but the adrenaline and the excitement for the different excursions kept us going. 

Overall, the entire trip itself was one of a kind and it allowed me to become more independent and to grow within myself. I’m now more comfortable to be on my own and take the responsibilities that come with traveling at such a young age, with such a big group. I would 100% recommend the Dream Academy to anyone that is thinking of applying, or having doubts on whether to join or not. It truly is an unforgettable experience, and I can’t wait until next year to travel with the Dream Academy once more.