Written by Sixth Form student, Emma
We flew into Italy on Monday 13th February and came back on Saturday 18th February.
The students that went on the trip were Ollie, Stan, Ilya, Emma, Amelie, Louisa, Lawson, William, Noah and me. The staff that went on the trip were Julie, Megan, Phil, Mrs Price and Mr Fogg.
On Monday 13th, we left NCW at 8.30am in the morning. We got to Gatwick airport at around half past 12. We could check in from 1 o’clock for our flight at 4 o’clock. We had to go through the check-in process and then security. We also had lunch at the airport. We went to the gate at half past 3 and then got on the plane soon after this. We had special assistance the whole way through the airport and trolleys for our massive, heavy skiing bags.
Our flight was just over 2 hours with a 1 hour time difference ahead of the UK. We landed in Italy at around 7pm Italian time. We then got special assistance there through immigration and to the baggage hall. We were able to skip the queue at immigration because we had special assistance. Because of this, we got through to the baggage hall quite quickly. We also got our bags quite quickly. We then got a private bus transfer for 1 hour and 15 minutes to our hotel. We arrived at the hotel at around 9 o’clock. We then had dinner and went up to our rooms to bed.
On Tuesday, we got up at 7 and went for breakfast at half 7. We then had to meet in reception at quarter past 9 to wait for the bus to take us up to the mountains. It came at around half past 9 and we had to go up in two groups as the bus could only take 8 people at a time. When we got up to the mountains, we had to put on all of our ski gear. We had to wear ski boots, a ski helmet and a ski school vest jacket. In the morning, the instructors were seeing what we could all do on the ice. In the afternoon, we went off separately with an instructor. We skied from half past 10 until 1pm. We then got lunch between 1 and 2 in a restaurant which was on site. We then skied from 2 until 4.
When we had finished skiing for the day, we went back inside and took all of our ski gear off. We then went back to the hotel in our two groups as we had came. When we were back at the hotel, we could have showers and relax until dinner which was at 7.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we could also go into a mini spa which was in the hotel. There was a sauna and a hot tub available in the spa for us to use if we wanted to go down there.
On Friday, we had to pack our things in order to come home on Saturday. The staff took lots of pictures of us on the trip as well.
On Saturday, we started our journey home at around quarter to 8. We had breakfast at 7am. We then left at on the bus back to the airport. We got to the airport at 9, however, we found that you couldn’t check in until 10! Because we had special assistance, they put us up into a lounge until we were able to check in. We checked in at 10 and got through security by 11 o’clock. When we checked in, our flight had already been delayed by 20 minutes 12 to 20 past 12. We went and got lunch and then we went to the gate. We started boarding just after 10 past 12. Our flight was supposed to leave at 25 past 12, however, not all the bags were on the plane yet so they pushed it back by half an hour. The plane then lost its time slot to leave and so we had to wait another half an hour in order to leave the country! We left just after half past 1 in the end. It was a 1 hour and 50 minute flight back and we arrived back into Birmingham airport at 20 to 3 UK time.
I had an amazing time and I enjoyed myself, however, I wouldn’t choose to go again.
The most difficult part of the trip was the actual skiing. This is because you have to keep your legs in the same position for a long period of time and make sure that you stretch them far enough in order to control your speed. You also have to have the right pressure with your feet when turning otherwise you can’t control yourself that easily either. Even though I was scared to do it, the best thing on the trip was going up on the chair lift up to the mountains. I really enjoyed doing this but I didn’t enjoy skiing down the mountain afterwards as much. This is because, when we first started skiing, we were going up the nursery slope which you go up on the magic carpet. However, when you go up the proper mountains, you go up on a chair lift which takes you to the top of the mountain for you to then ski down it.