A thousand memoirs on a school trip to Italy!

Are you a Food Enthusiast? Because you seriously need to peep into the culinary calendar of a nation before deciding on a trip. And not just food, other considerations say weather, budget, cultural events, seasonal atmosphere and ambiance prove to be of utmost importance.

Italy has strived to be amongst those nations hugely contributing to the cultural and historic heritage to the whole of Europe and of course to the World! A nation indulged in offering world class food, music, heritage or art, Italy hosts events and festivals of international significance carrying forward a vibrant and lush style of its own. The country’s vibrant style has only come out of its glorious and celebrated history.

Winters were on it’s way to arrive. It was ‘special’. Absolutely! As this time our School authorities have planned to take its high school students on a trip to Italy. That irresistible feeling and all my crazy friends - We were ready to boast!! Witty poses, random clicks, capturing the famous attractions and worldwide popularity - all for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. (You never know, Life’s too unpredictable!)

Adding some percentage to the world of 46.1 million tourists a year, we ‘banged on’ to the fifth highest tourist earning nation. The symbolic hills, the sacred Vatican city, imperial Roman landmarks accompanied by the best of cuisine and fresh fashion; Italy was more than successful in gathering and luring tourists across the globe. We were pretty excited to explore Italian, a romance language, related to other Latin languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese and Romanian. However, the official Italian language spoken today originated from the Tuscan dialect (of Latin). Tuscany a.k.a “Birthplace of Renaissance” was a flourishing state in Italy having seen the birth of noted men - Galileo Galilei, Leonardo da Vinci, Petrarch, Dante and many others.

On our way to Florence - The birthplace of Renaissance, we got introduced to a dazzling app -RouteIt, none other by a native of Florence. This amazing app takes you on a virtual tour on both Android and iOS devices. We covered some of the most  famous and historical Italian place such as Florence Cathedral, Piazza della Repubblica, Orsanmichele, Piazza della Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio, Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti, Basilica of Santa Croce, National Central Library.

Rome stands the "Eternal city" and also "Caput Mundi" (Capital in Latin), to the 25th most-developed country where Milan was home to fashion and finance. The one amongst the richest countries in the field of art and culture house a state that locked it’s own gates at night - Vatican City. We all were simply bowled by the uniqueness of the festivals and operatic seasons offered by Milan’s La Scala and the Verona Arena. Opera came out in the 17th century by Italian music composer Claudio Monteverdi in theaters "Teatro alla Scala" in Milan or ancient "Arena" in Verona.The compositions in19th and early 20th centuries on the birthplace of Opera are reckoned as the most famous operas ever performed.

Dating the country’s architectural achievements from the late 14th to 16th century, Italian art have had three phases - Early Christian, Romanesque, and Gothic (Now that we were school students we penned down some facts). The homeland of Palladianism and Neoclassical architecture got lit up by the museum works of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and many more. Following the construction of arches and domes, Italian architecture was flooded with masterpieces from Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome (world's largest church) to The Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence, (world’s biggest brick dome).

Therefore, the art cities of Italy are counted amongst the most travelled and explored destinations in international cultural tourism.

The Nation with maximum number of World Heritage Sites showered the guests from Canada (Us) with the relaxed culture of Italian food. (Today you see numerous restaurants operating from different corners of the world having Italian cuisines and flavors. In large cities, you would see increasing number of Italian population spreading their love and culture). Though initially it was challenging for us to grasp the stubborn Italian words. But all was sorted when a Native introduced us to LingoDiction.  

LingoDiction is an offline app for iOS users making easy for wanderers like us get an idea of common words of other foreign languages along with their audio pronunciation. Do you know the English speaking population in Italy accounts for 34% from the eligible population of 20,300,000!

P.S. - We were so much moved by this breathtaking app that in turn inspired us to try our hand on the national anthem of Italy “Inno de Memeli”.

Words at your hand with LD SAT

Preparing for an English language examination and memorizing words and their attributes can be a Herculean Task for anyone. But in this era of smart on-the-go devices, how can we not find an app that can raise our proximity to the expert level of the language. I found one- LingoDiction SAT, an app by MediaAgility. 

Let me elaborate on a few points why this app is among my favorites.

1. It is more than a dictionary or thesaurus. This app offers the meanings, synonyms, antonyms, usage, origin and root for more than 6000 words. It was amazing to find out even the most unusual words.
2. You can quiz yourself. Set the number of questions you want to take under the category of your choice and get quizzed! The app maintains a scorecard of your performance, which can pride or embarrass you later on.
3. Play games. I fell into nostalgic state when I played the 8 mini-games including Scramble, Match it, Guess the Word and Army of Synonyms. It is a unique combination of education and entertainment. You test your English vocab while games maintain the thrill.
4. Share your scores. I flaunted my quiz scores on my facebook timeline. You can do the same. However, you need to score first. Wink!
5. It’s user-friendly. Unlike any other app, LingoDictionSAT never takes its users as already the master of language, it respects new users. With uncluttered interface and help screens, it was easy to sail across the first time.
6. The combination of book and cube in one app emits that required touch of Edutainment. Edutainment, I believe is the best theme to facilitate learning process for any living being.  
7. I can practice English language for as much time as I want. The boredom and monotonous text would not be able to bother me anymore. It is preparation for any exam in USA, UK, Australia or Canada, I know I can practice English for hours. While I am using this app for IELTS, my friends are using it for SAT, TOEFL, GRE and GMAT.
8. If I don’t like anything in LD SAT, want to offer suggestions or feel like adding my knowledge to the app, I can do it! There is a feedback option that keeps me satisfied that this app is for our personal convenience.
9. The words I have found difficult, the words I often forget and other important words can be stapled in self-fabricated categories. This allows me to keep those words handy for future reference. Hence, LD SAT became my ideal SAT tutor.
10. I get an option to download 3 types of packages with 2,000 words each.

Seldom do we find such a vast English tutorial, which has a plus point of interactivity. I keep on adding words to my vocab, so that I can score better in English games. The more I score in English vocab games, the more I am assured of my performance in entrance examinations.

English language learning has indeed been made easy by LingoDiction SAT. I can leave my English vocabulary worries on this app.