Avon Graduate Talks at Avon Senior Center About Class Trip to Italy

Avon High School graduate Michael Russo knows three languages in addition to English – Latin, Greek and Spanish.

So, why not dabble in another Romance language? Italian.

He presented a slideshow of his high school trip to Italy, which included 21 others and their teacher, Tyler Nye, at the Avon Senior Center Thursday.

Avon resident Samira Fahmy, who is originally from Egypt, said that she has been to Italy four times and liked learning more about a country she would like to live in someday.

Fran Meyer, a retired secretary from Avon High School and Roaring Brook, came with her husband, Bob, both Avon residents. Her maiden name is Cesare and she is a possible descendent of Augustus Caesar.

“Michael did a great job describing Roman history and taking us on a private tour,” she said.

Russo has ancestors from Sicily, Calabria and Naples, and the trip marked his first time in Italy. His favorite place was the Roman Forum.

“There I was able to learn the most about ancient Roman society in connection to my studies in Greek and Latin,” Russo said.

Some of the ancient buildings in the forum even had nicknames. The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuelle II, which borders the forum, is known as the “wedding cake.” The memorial blocks any view of the ancient forum from the street, “so most Italians don’t like the building,” he said.

He shared both Italian and Latin translations of site names with the senior citizens present.

Il Lido di Ostia,  a port city on the harbor of the Tiber River, or Portus Ostiae in Latin, stems from the Latin root, os, for mouth, and means “Mouth of Tiber.”

Fran Meyer enjoyed Russo’s description of Ostia the most because she “did not get to see that” when she was last in Italy 25 years ago.

 Even certain body language can be traced back to Italy, such as the thumbs up and thumbs down. During gladiator tournaments in the Coliseum, a thumbs up meant approval for killing a gladiator and thumbs down meant “let him live,” Russo said.

There is debate over whether Saint Peter’s remains lie in the catacombs of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, or Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Italin and Basilica Sancti Petri in Latin. Constantine had a shrine built in his memory on the spot that St. Peter was martyred in 64 A.D.

“It’s largely controversial whether the remains of St. Peter are in that tomb,” Russo said because Constantine did not want the public to think that in case grave robbers tried to steal the remains to make a profit.

Russo saw the tomb, as well as a box next to the tomb that his tour guide says contains bones that DNA research confirms were probably from St. Peter’s body.

In Pompeii, the remains of the people who died when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. are very visible today. Historians were able to fill hollows in the ground of bodies that decayed in molten lava with plaster. He showed seniors a photograph of the cast of a gladiator who sat crouched with his hands over his head, most likely the position he died in.

The group also visited smaller, more pastoral regions, like La Costa Amalfintana, which he described as “quaint and quiet.” Like in Spain, Italy has a siesta of sorts, so children go to school from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., and then go home to their families to eat and rest. The shops close from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., or so, he said.

Russo said he enjoyed “every minute of the trip” and he will continue his studies at the College of Holy Cross next year. He received the prestigious Bean Scholarship from there this year, which is awarded to exceptional Latin and Greek scholars.