The second part of camp in Cimadolmo continued to keep us on our toes—we took an evening trip to the nearby city of Treviso, challenged our campers with various escape rooms, enjoyed a surprise visit from Carl the singing guitar man, took a field trip to Venice, and conducted a second scavenger hunt all in the first three days!
Despite our vast range of activities throughout the week, the kids somehow always found a way to work one line from our popular “City Camp Rocks” song into absolutely every aspect of their days. If someone so much as dropped a pencil, jumped in the air, gave a high five, or did nearly anything else, one or two kids would suddenly exclaim “BOOM! Shake it up, shake it up!” Which, with this song being a call-and-response song by its very campy nature, would require a follow up response from the surrounding kids of another resounding “BOOM! Shake it up, shake it up!”
Wednesday was an adventure within itself—the entire camp took a day-trip to Venice to visit museums, wander the city, and give the children a chance to practice their English in another setting. While the older campers spent the morning amongst the all of the paintings, photographs, sculptures, and other lovely things at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum of Art, I accompanied the younger groups to the Natural History Museum for a visit with our new friend the largest crocodile in the world and a laboratory where we made castings of trilobites and other cool fossils.
After the museums, we ate lunch on the museum campus and strolled around the city until it was time for us to return home (more often than not with that infamous “shake it up” line or some other camp song serenading the passing tourists). Our journey back to Cimadolmo required not only a train but a school bus as well, since the town does not have its own train station. Both the train and the bus rides to and from our little Venetian adventure kept everyone entertained with lively (and lengthy) renditions of five or six different camp songs and many rounds of Uno (with some children willingly acting as the table for the cards because our transportation did not provide tables).
After one of our classically long camp days, my coworkers and I treated ourselves to an evening out among the tiny, winding canals and cozy streets of Treviso. The time out away with all my coworkers was exactly what we needed to recharge. After a nice stroll as the sun set we took an aperitif in a cozy piazza near the city center and enjoyed the peaceful break from scurrying children and constant theatrical play. As much as I love my work with the kids, the songs, the games, and the busy going of it all, it felt refreshing to have this time to step back from camp and chat together about everything else in our lives aside from camp.
Our final day of camp together was tiring and busy, but lovely just the same. In between practicing the songs, games, plays, and questions that comprise the final show, we took naps, drew more pictures, played new games, and fought off ravenous mosquitoes while enjoying the sunshine outside. Once five oʼclock rolled around, we took a two hour pause at our respective homes before returning in the evening for the show that is our camp farewell. In my room, we had one of the liveliest arrangements of songs and games Iʼve seen at any of my camps (not to mention our wonderfully decorated classroom thanks to the fleet of artists I had the pleasure of tutoring at this camp). It only seemed fitting that we ended our final evening of this immensely artistic and musical camp with a massive dance party to the “Cha Cha Slide” (and we even roped our camp director into joining in on a second round of the song).
I will miss the insane artistic drive of these campers, their enthusiasm, my long evening strolls through nearby vineyards, and post-camp relaxation time with my host sister Vittoria but at the same time I am excited for what my next and final camp has in store for me. Each and every camp this summer has tired me to a new degree but has also led me to make some phenomenal friends, meet wonderful people, try a plethora of new things, continue to see the immense beauty of Italy, and left me feeling full of gratitude.
I will miss my time in Cimadolmo but I look forward to the next adventure ahead of me in the beach town of Marotta! ‘Til then, ciao for now.
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