Soon we will be gone on an adventure,
Traversing Mare Nostrum, no further.
Four months, five countries we will soon observe,
Unless from the proposed path we should swerve.
Cold, dreary London will our first stop be,
Then to Egypt the pyramids to see.
A ferry sends us to the Cretan isle,
Before we join Greek tragoi for a while.
We then receive a week’s reprieve, a break.
No readings, tests, journals, to ease all ache.
Parents will arrive, a week in Roma,
I will guide them through the Urbs Aeterna.
Once reconvened, to Turkey we will go,
Trekking up the coast, a fast-paced tempo
Will take us to Istanbul in no time,
Ere Italy we reach, full of sunshine.
To sun-soaked Hesperia we ride last,
Locus of sunset in the ancient past.
Like Aeneas, we will have traveled far,
With any luck, no Dido us will mar.
To Firenze we will go in due course,
As we study results of Roman force.
Temples, roads, cities, civilization,
Aged works, of Roman rule a bastion.
Before the Ides of May, we end, weary,
A band of travelers, warm and healthy.
Many wondrous sites seen, many books read,
What will I remember? The friendships bred.
