5/28/12 To a Magical Place

A fun filled day.  We have another great breakfast and a rehearsal right afterward.

                Some lunch around the town then up to see the Hoff Weinstein castle (the one that Disney based his castle off of).  The tour area is quaint, with a lake, ring of Alps, farmland country side, running river, two castles and a lot of grass.  We take the mini bus up to the drop off point.  The trail is steady as we head up to a bridge on the map.  On the bridge, there is a fantastic view of the castle, but a thick mass of people each pushing their way around.  I got about 5 ft. onto the bridge before calling it quits.  On top of the hill there sat a man playing a zither and singing, I enjoyed his music and tipped him a euro. 

Still cool, despite the plasticwrap.

                The outside of the castle was undergoing renovations on one side.  We made our way inside the castle and heard the story about its origins.  King Ludwig II was a little silly about fantasy tales.  He had one castle as a kid made so he could pretend to be fighting dragons.  Then as an adult he made a second castle.  This castle’s outward appearance was so expensive that he couldn’t afford to finish the inside in quite such a nice fashion.  Most of the rooms were decorated by paintings, carvings, tapestries, all of which were based off of Wagnerian plays.  I wasn’t too terribly impressed by the 150 year old castle, but then again, I had just see buildings predating Christ, so that was a high bar to begin with. 

                The walk out through was tricky, because you have one souvenir shop following down to a café.  Then we headed down a spiral staircase to another souvenir shop, to another couple flights of stairs.  Finally an underground tunnel let us out halfway up the hill.

                Outside the exit there is another souvenir shop- one with all the same stuff as the other shops, but at a quarter of the price.  Here I buy another beer and a pretzel- pretzels are a German food, and delicious.

                We mosey on down the hill to where the horse carriages pick up people to give them a ride down to the bus lot.  As we arrive, the last horse carriage was just starting its journey with a full carriage.  We weren’t the only ones to have such bad timing, a couple of people from one of the other choirs also had to walk down the hill.  They made good conversation, and the walk was delightful, so no loss.

                We spend a little bit of time hanging out in a souvenir shop and barely make it back to the bus on time.  We headed back to Innsbruck proper, where we had dinner with a show of the local folk song and dance.

Great show! Great workout...

                The dinner was yet again fantastic- a French onion soup, followed by turkey in a teriyaki type sauce, potatoes, and fried zucchini.  The show, well, that was a great spectacle.  They wove the traditional liedenhosen and had the local yodeling (sounding exactly like Goofy from the Disney cartoons).  Their music was polka-ish, and they were always working hard with a lot of energy.  It was quite the show  At one point they got one of our choir lady folks to go up and sweep after a log cutting competition-it was great.

                Another night passing around a wine bottle, and a deep sleep to follow.

5/27/12 Innsbruck- Bridge of the Inn

                A late morning for once, but only to prepare for the long rehearsal we were to have with the other choirs. The other choirs are tired and not quite as used to the higher altitude as we are.  They sound rather ragged, but from a couple weeks of travelling, we didn’t sound in much better condition.

German Cathederal

                The day however is mainly spent touring the city.  The tour guide is a sweet old German lady with odd speaking patterns.  We bus up to one of the oldest cathedrals in the town.  It was interesting because it was Catholic, but not like the ones we visited in Italy.  We headed around the town, visiting a WWII museum and the Olympic ski jump they had there.  Then we drive around the town, finding out about its local history and traditions of the town.

Tomb of the original Hapsburg king, no he's not in it.

                We eventually wind out at a museum dedicated to the Hapsburgs.  It is a rather trippy museum, and never having really understood why Innsbruck was popular beyond skiing, was pleasantly surprised to learn from this museum.  Innsbruck is full of many secrets as it turns out, but only to those willing to explore.

                That evening, we had mass and a concert that took up almost all of the time.  It was far from our usual quality of singing, as after a week and half and a long day of rehearsal, we were tired.

                That night for dinner we head to a local pizzeria.  Never, ever, order the four cheese pizza in a country that is known for their stinky cheeses.

Best Beer EVER

               I should also go back about the other meals that day!  Breakfast was as good as it was in Rome, a wide spread of just about everything you could want.  It also had a lot of local cheeses and meats, which was great!

                The lunch was at a local biergarden, whose local tap was perhaps the best beer I’ve had in my life.  The first course was another fantastic soup- garlic cream.  Followed by a cream chicken sided with cheesy grits (I don’t know if they were really grits, but I couldn’t tell the difference).  And dessert was a cream-your-pants oh so good and delicious apple streudle.

5/26/12 Italy, May I Never Forget You

                Early rise to catch the bus, just as well since the breakfast was still completely unimpressive.

View from the "long bus ride"

               The bus ride is long, but the scenery is fantastic.  Driving into the Alps, we passed from terracotta roof tiles to the more slanted, red pine roofs of the German style houses.  We make the typical truck stops en route to Innsbruck.

                We arrived in Innsbruck in the afternoon.  We all wander around for a few hours getting a feel for the town.  The cities in Italy are crowded, busy, congested with frantic traffic.  Innsbruck is quiet, settled in the Alps, less frantic, but not as laid back by any means.

                The dinner is at the hotel, and on the way to it we ran into another choir we were to be singing with.  They hailed from Jackson, and were made of mostly older singers.

DAS BIER!!

                The dinner was made of three courses, like usual (and I’m still feeling really pampered).  The soup was what I think of us affectionately called “pancake soup.”  It was delicious, with some type of flatbread noodles that greatly resembled pancake strips.  Next came the region’s food of fame- the Weineschnitzel.  That was basically just breaded, thin sliced chicken; it was ok.  The dessert was Sachretorte-a chocolate cake with marmalade to cement the layers.  It wasn’t my favorite dessert, but I’m not a big cake fan.  The beer though was a locally brewed pilsner.  It was delicious beer, fresh, and wheaty.

Karate Chop Pillows!

                The room I have is great.  Small, cozy, but with a great bathroom.  I head to bed and crash.

                The day was mostly spent admiring the alps, a sight beyond words.  I also spent a lot of time observing the changes from Italy to Austria.  The architecture slowly moved from Italian to German, but the language also became a cross between the two languages as well.  

5/25/12 Venice, be Nice

                The breakfast this morning was rather confusing.  Me and my roommate headed down at 7, the time we were told breakfast would be at.  As soon as we got to the main restaurant our maestro told us that the breakfast was supposed to be at 7:45 and in one of the secondary restaurant.  Well, of course I wait until the time for food, but find that the place is locked up.  So as I peek at each restaurant, and sure enough, the first place I went to was the one place I was supposed to eat at.  As it turns out, the person working at the front desk before 7:30 was a complete idiot.

                Anyways, these breakfasts just get progressively worse we get further out.  Our guide says “These Northern Italians, hard workers, but a-so stingy.  You take a picture of the breakfast you have in Rome, and eat it, will fill you up better.”

                We make our way back to Venezia, this time dressed and prepared for the hot, humid weather.  We waste no time heading to the church we are going to perform at later, Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli, and drop off our costumes.  So the rest of the day (up to the performance) is to get lot in Venice.  The first thing I do is head over to the ATM and finally withdraw money, because it was payday.  The girls decided to have a girl day and go shopping.  Ironically we all wind out at the same lunch spot, and some of the girls decided they weren’t up for the girls day. 

View off the Rialto

               So, our now reformed group wandered around Venezia trying to find the Rialto Bridge.  Flavio made it sound so easy, “Go straight that way *whistle noise* turn right, bam!”  No, instead we got lost.  But that was ok.  There were opera hawkers handing out fliers for a show that night, and we found a local charcoal artist, whom I bought a picture from because she was actually really talented.

                Finally we headed over to a local tourist info spot, and shell out 3 euro to get a map.  Of course, upon examining the map, we find out that the directions we were given were backwards; it was straight on then directly right.  So away we go, stopping along the way for some yummy green apple and lemon gelato (and a less satisfactory Apersol Sprtiz).  We finally make it to the Rialto Bridge where the view was quaint, and the markets aplenty.  There were also a few more mask shops around which I took plenty of time to peruse their wares.  In the second mask shop the clerk was much more aggressive about her sale- by actually talking to me and what I’m looking for.  My checklist- 1)green 2) with sheet music on it 3) made in Venice, not China.  Well, she finds one for me, a girl face, but other than that exactly what I’m looking for (and I’m fairly certain they just made the masks in the room upstairs, but hey, I like it).  Its partial imperfections are great to me, but only because I like things that are perfectly imperfect.

                After the mask shop we head up to the end of the bridge, another line of shops of course was in store.  We round the corner trying to stray off the beaten path a little. To the far left we find a specialty shop that sells vinegar, wine oil, spirits and the like.  One of us purchases some wine then we find a very odd type coffee shop.  Now, it would fit in right in America, but in Italy, it was rather corporate and “Starbuck-esque.”

                Next we headed back up the Rialto Bridge to meet back up to the rendezvous point by St. Mark’s, but along the way I decided I needed one last slice of real Italian pizza, best slice I ever had.

                Now meeting back at St. Mark’s the choir heads to our final concert in Italy.  The church was resonant, and illuminated by the evening sunlight.  The audience was remarkably grateful and active throughout the concert.  I believe it was our best concert on the tour.

Organ from inside the church

               We ended our stay in Venice with some pizza for dinner, and purchasing real Tuscan wine for 2 euro.  Then a couple people in our group threw down with our tour guide in a card game known as Briscolla (very popular in Italy).  Our guide beat them, badly.  So it goes, he put on a good poker face.

                With one last boat ride, we bid farewell to Venice.  The hotel that night I spent most of the time looking for a way to open the wine I bought while not having a corkscrew.  Well, after an hour or so I head to the bar to see if they would open it for me free of charge.  Of course they did, but while the bartender was uncorking, a man at the bar started hitting on me, asking if, “I was buying some champaign for a lover.”  His English wasn’t that good, though, he still had that stereotypical gay lisp.

                Well, I head back up to my room where me and my friends pass the wine bottle around until it’s all drunk (we had no glasses…).  After the wine, we all head to bed.

5/24/12 To Venice, my Love

        Another early morning when I wake up at 6am.  We have quite a full docket for Venice today, so must be on the bus early and beeline it to our destination.

        Like always, the bus ride feels longer than it is, but not without a wonderful view of the countryside.  I look at to see the hills of Tuscany flatten out into farmland.  I also notice that beautiful flowers blossom along the area like weeds, I wonder why we don't have nice looking weeds like these back home.  We make a pit stop and I decide to pick some of these flowers for myself and dry them in my journal.  I will say that updating a journal and driving this road is difficult since it goes through a great many tunnels that screw your vision up.

View from the connecting bridge

        The drive goes about the same as always, but coming to Venice is something of an oddity.  The outlying city that surrounds Venice proper is an industrialized, near eastern European looking city-very grey, very dull, and ontop of a less than ideal terrain.  Then you enter the bridge that connects to Venezia proper.  The water that streams along, the sight of a city on the horizon and ships coming to dock, the town is a wonderful and alien place to me.
   
        The city of Venezia is full of fantastic history.  The city itself was founded when local farm villages were tired of being ransacked by Barbarian hordes some 1800 years ago.  So they fled to the marshlands to found new villages.  Well, sand doesn't make good foundations, so they needed to improvise.  They used a technique of combining local clays and sediments with the local woods to create pylons that were almost as strong as cement.  They would then drive these pylons into the ground and create an impromptu foundation.  But still, the buildings must be constructed lightly or else they will sink into the bog.

        Now, the city is also home to a few famous individuals.  The Doges are from this area, and since Venezia was the world's leading trade capitol for a few hundred years, that is a big deal.  Amerigo Vespucci, that man who funded Christopher Columbus, was also from here.  St. Mark's Cathedral is in Venice as well.

        "They" tell you (in this case every Italian that talked to me about Venice) that Venezia is a city of impossibilities coming true.  It was a city made by farmers on water, a city that takes your emotions and magnifies them and betters them, a city of romance and mystery.  I can say, without going into great detail, that I find this to be absolutely true.

Da Boat

        We make our way from the bus stop to the boat docks.  Here we board onto our GT water cruiser, woohoo!  Well, we made our way up the main split between the islands- a large highway type canal.  It is interesting to watch this city zoom by, with its seaside churches and city scape that is the same level as the water.   Even crazier to think is that this city is made up of hundreds of tiny islands connected by hundreds of tiny bridges, truly a city that was made out of impossibility.

Inside the Doge's Palace grounds

        We head to St. Mark's Piazza, to a nearby storage place so we can stash our costumes and excess baggage.  The square is wide, surrounded by the Doge's palace, St. Mark's, and numerous museums.  We are granted a few hours to "get lost" in Venezia.  Which, with my current group, meant finding shops and that didn't get us very far into the city.

        When it comes to the shops in Venice, there are three main things they sell there: 1) Glass goods (the Murano Glass factory is there, and for every piece of fine glass they sell, there is an entire vendor hocking knockoffs) 2) Masks (The Carnival of Venice, but these are a great souveneir and cheap too! Locally made as well) and 3) Art supplies (a lot of fantastic artists and art museums exist in this city).

View, from the bridge- of-a SIGHS

        We head back to our spot outside of the Piazza by the docks, where we meet our next tour guide.  I didn't actually get her name, but there is a quote I will never live down because she said it so many damn times- "The Bridge; of-a SIGHS."  Well, to get to that quote, I should explain the story.  We entered into the tour of the Doge's Palace.  The building stands out to me as being unique in that it is 1) The first true Baroque building we've encountered, 2) Made out of wood, yet still very Roman, and 3) Impressive given its layout.  In any case, I am not too impressed with the museum of the building itself, only because the time of Venice's worldpower was before America, so I have a hard time grasping its influence and impact on the world.  There is some cool clockwork and art within the building which made it fantastic, as well, as our tour guide kept saying, the bridge, of-a SIGHS- don't get any romantic ideas.

        Then we had a quick tour of the inside of St. Mark's.  This building is proof that vanity is a sin.  It is made entirely out of marble with gold flecked mosiacs for the ceiling.  All this weight has caused the church to start to sink, so careful restorations are being done to try an preserve this landmark.  I will say, it is a rogue church in the Vatican's eyes.  As you enter, there is a Greek Cross hanging from the ceiling, and the layout and decoration of the church is very much Greek Orthodox.  This Duomo was built before St. Peter's, and so was allowed this leeway by the Vatican.  However, even the officials from Mark's are a little rogueish as well.

Dude making a 200 euro vase in 5 minutes

        Well, after our free time is spent meandering and observing the locals, we head back to our rendezvous point outside of St. Mark's.  From here, we headed to the Murano Glass factory for a tour and demonstration.  Talk about cool too! Glass blowing, in my humble opinion, is a very understated artform that is as practical as it is beautiful.   We are taken to a demonstration room right inside the entry way.  Here we watch a middle aged man blow a dumpy ball of glass into a beautiful vase within 5 minutes- and judging by how much the vases inside were, it would have probably sold for around 200 euro.  Then after the demonstration, we are admitted into the shop area.  Here we are given another salespitch and demonstration about the quality of the glass.  I will admit, the product they sell is damn worth the price- if you like gold on everything.  Still, it was how I imagined Charlie always felt when walking into Wonka's chocolate factory- bright tasty colors in fun shapes bouncing everywhere.
     
        We head to dinner after the demonstration, curving along the back alleys until Flavio finds the place he knows and made reservations for.  The place is rather large for Italy (and Venice as well).  They serve us a tasty (meat free) lasagna for our first course.  For our second course we have roast duck.  I had never had duck before that tasted this good, and I somehow wound out with 5 peoples helpings (guess not a lot of people were fans).  And for dessert, delicious raspberry gelato!

        We hopped onto the boat, to get back to the bus, and headed back to our hotel.  There, we watched a thunderstorm roll over us from the balcony we had attached to our room.  Overall, a great way to end a day in a city as wonderful as Venice.

5/23/12 Highs and Lows

                A reprieve today, that we were allowed a few hours of down time (a few meaning 6).  We started our day around 8, our phone didn’t quite make it back on the hook after yesterday’s wake up call, so we had to wake up on our own accord-hence the late morning.  So our day starts in a panic and we barely make breakfast, but we still made it and quickly scarfed it down.

               Rehearsal was at 9 down in the basement of our hotel.  It was not the ideal location, acoustically speaking-carpeted, filled with furniture, and inconsistent materials making up the walls.  But hey, it was a space large enough we could rehearse in!  We went over the songs we were going to perform for our final concert in Innsbruck, Austria.  The music was not difficult, and it seemed that a lot of people hadn’t taken the time to even look at the music, so the rehearsal was frustratingly slow.

Up the mountain

                After the rehearsal was our long awaited down-time!  A group of us headed to the cable car (fulicore, in Italian) and bee-lined it up to Montecatini Alto.  Montecatinit Alto is the sister city way up in the mountain from Montecatini Termi (hence the Alto-Termi bit).  It was worth the 4 euro to just see the two cities from the steep climb of the fulicore.  On this ride, I kept accidently getting in the shots of a touring group of British folk, and them in mine.  We talk a little, share snarky comments, and come to terms with the fact that we like each other.  The main individual I was talking to, whose name was Charles (older than the prince by the look of it, but still…) just quips when we get off the tram saying “Trevor, you seem to have become a big part of my life, how would you like to be adopted?”  Great quote, good people.

                Once off the tram my group decides they want to go eat at a fancier resteraunt.  I was willing to pass on this in lieue of 1) I still had no money and 2) I wanted to explore with the shop hungry girls around.  Oh well, I went in and sat with them (for a 2 euro charge).  The place outlooked the eastern valley, and was well worth the 2 euros.  Their food was also spectacular, though I ordered nothing (only taking nibbles of other people’s food) and enjoyed the scenery, as well as caught up on this journal.

                After we ate we wandered the Alto a little, discovering that the olive oil in this area costs 3-5 euro, where in the States it would easily cost $15.  Crazy! (it reminds me of Vanilla in Mexico, dirt cheap and higher quality than what the States can produce)

                We then noticed the time, about 2:45, and we needed to catch the bus back down (we opted out of taking the tram back down just cause we wanted to experience something different).  Well, to begin, you have to buy the bus ticket from a station in Italy- not on the bus.  The gentleman at the ticket-shop spoke next to no English, but we caught the gist that we weren’t going to get a ticket from him (he was friendly and kind too, something that apparently breaks the language barrier-good to know).  Well, now the  bus shows up and we ask the driver if we can just pay on the bus, he tells us no and that we have to go buy a ticket.  We head back to the gentleman and explain, he walks out, exchanges words with the bus driver, and manages to let us know we can ride the bus for free.  Sweet! Only… now for the most exciting adventure a tourist can have- dealing with the local bus systems.  Well, to begin, the driver is a jackass (something that also seems to break international boundaries-rude bus drivers), and a mad man driver.  The roads are barely wider than the bus, and they make hairpin turns down the mountain.  It could be that the driver just wanted to scare us, or it could be the way he normally is, but in either case, he successfully scared me half to death.  Then I realize- we’re going down that eastern side of the mountain, exactly the opposite way we want to go.  We wind out in another town on the other side of the hill, when he turns around and comes right back up the way he went down.  This is a bit of relief, because if we stop right where we got on, we could still make the fulicore down and make the bus ride to our next tour stop.  Well, then the driver goes down the north face of the mountain, and heads west.  The entire time I was in the bus I was trying to make out the route maps posted on the windows, they had the national, the regional, but not the local map posted, so they were next to worthless.  At this point me and my companions are faced with another realization- we have no idea how to stop the friggin bus.  The driver stops to pick up another lady, thank goodness too.  Because this lady goes about half a mile, hits a well hidden stop button (right about the handlebars), and we get off with her.  Now, we are a little freaked because we still need to find the hotel again, but at least we know we’re in the right city this time.  We head along the main road we’re at, until we see Antiono and his tour bus pass, us, and we know we’re on the right track.  We follow that bus as far we could, then we notice a familiar courtyard off to the side.  We were able to make it back with 20minutes to spare, which is a triumph.  No more buses for me unless Antonio is driving.

A well kept wall

                Today’s town was a medieval town with the largest Renaissance wall still preserved, Lucca.  This town is rather windy, with cottonwood trees which remind me of home.  The town is also famous for being the birth place of Puccini, the opera composer.  His house was turned into a rather pricy museum (considering the space and that it was for just one composer), and right across from it was the resteraunt Puccini would take his ladies of the evening.

Piazza San Martino

                The church we were to sing in, Piazza San Martino, was an oddity.  The façade was a newer, early Rococo/Late Baroque façade that was obviously added onto the already existing church.  They were able to use the same marble at least, and in the same style as Firenze (red,green,white).  It had three rows of columns creating an arching effect, and totaling 37 columns in total.  Each column was uniquely decorated to the gills (Rococo).  The inside had in essence two front doors- the first that belonged to the addition, and the second to the original church.  The original was very Gothic.  The interior also, very Gothic.  This Gothic interior fits far better with the bell tower outside, which was also Gothic.  Unfortunately for us the interior of the church was undergoing rennovations, so a lot of its grandeur was lost by scaffolding and tarps.

                After dropping off our stuff, we had more free time to kill.  We wander around Lucca, looking for a good, inexpensive place to eat.  At one piazza we come to a place that essentially is an outdoor concert hall, and there in it, a string trio just playing some Classic tunes.  After that we found a mediocre pizza place, and do some window shopping, which was fine because I was allowed to observe the locals and see how different they were from the other places we had been. 

                After returning to Piazza San Martino, I re-examined the outside of the building.  Curiously I noticed a Celtic cross on the arch outside of the building.  This is a very random thing to find in a town that was definitely Baroque and Italian-so what exposure to Britain this town had, remains a curiosity to me.

                The concert was great.   The hall was so live, it allowed around a 5 second reverb at its shortest, and 12 seconds at its best!  If you are a performer, a long reverb can cause a person to get lost listening to themselves and force dragging in the music.   Yet again, this seems to be common with Gothic architecture. And even for being under construction, the church was still very beautiful.

                After a phenominal concert, we hopped on the bus and headed to bed.

5/22/12 Firenze

                Woke up excited for another fantastic Italian breakfast.  It was good, but considerably more disappointing than the first hotel’s.  With how fast my metabolism is and how meager that breakfast was, I was going to be hungry by 1. 

                We boarded the bus early to get to Firenze.  Firenze is a Renaissance town basically funded by the Medici family back in the day.  Italy during the Renaissance was not a unified country, and was factioned into city-states.  These city-states were controlled by rich families- the two most prominent being the Medici (which is Italian for Medicine man) and the Borgia (don’t know what that one means).  This town is also the home of Leonardo DaVinci, Bottecelli, Michaelangelo, Dante, and numerous other noteworthies from Italy. 

                Our first stop of the day was to the Acadame de Arte to see Michaelangelo’s David.  The tour guide for the length of our stay in Firenze was a stocky, spry, passionate (albeit gruff) man named Berni.  He was definitely artist and very enthusiastic about the history of the town’s art and those artists from there.   (Berni was also in a couple episodes of Jersey Shore, which he doesn’t like, but thinks it’s funny enough).

                Once inside the Acadame we made our way to the main hall that showcases David.  Before David however, there is a line of 4 of Michaelangelo’s “emergining” sculptures.  These are lesser known sculptures of his in which he intentionally left “incomplete.”  It is Michaelangelo’s artistic philosophy in regards to sculpture that the works are already inside the marble, they are just waiting to be released.  To capitalize on this he created these emerging sculptures by only partially “uncovering” the figures inside, but leaving them trapped enough to create the contrast and dynamics for the pieces.  Compared to David, these sculptures are coarse, with the lines from the chisel intentionally left visible. 

                David however, is very much one of the best things I have seen in my life.  The statue stands over 16ft tall, hewn from a block of marble that was rejected by several masters of its time for being “too hard, and too un-usable.”  Mikey at the time was still a relative unknown in the art world, but in his cocky pride he believed he could use the giant block and make the best David the Church had ever seen.  So, given a few years and a hunky man-slave whom he used as the model for David, Mikey had completed the piece.  Now, the Church had been expecting a David as the Bible depicts after slaying Goliath-with a lion’s skin, a sling, and holding a giant’s head, or some such nonsense.  Instead they get a young man in his early 20s ready to move on the giant, standing naked (which was how the Roman athletes performed-important to note because inducing Modern traits to ancient concepts was a Renaissance thing), about to fill the sling and fire. 

                The sculpture, is to put it in the simplest meaning, perfect.  It depicts the perfect athletic man of the western world.  It is a true homage to the artistic merit of the human body, and the emblem of the art world entering into the Renaissance.  The Renaissance moving body position (as opposed to the Medieval static positions), the perfect body proportions, the smoothness of the marble, the intricacy of detail, the Humanistic expression of the body, it all comes together so perfectly to make the model man.

                The history of David is just as interesting as its creation.  To paraphrase: it has survived two riots, had a marble bench fall on it off of 4 stories- and break the bench (with barely a crack to show for it), been graffitied on its back, survived a gun shot to the left foot, and survived a crazy sculptor in the 1980’s who attacked it with a hammer.  All in all, a sight you should see before you die.

The Duomo

                After the Acadame we were allowed to tour the other sites in Firenze.  The first stop was the Duomo.  Now, every town thinks their Duomo is “The” Duomo, but folks, when you read literature and they just simply refer to “The Duomo,” they mean this one.  Aside from St. Peter’s, this is the largest church in the world.  The church opposite it (which was built before), has a large gilded door with 12 panels depicting different stories from the Bible.  Now the door took 20 years to create, in contrast, the Duomo took 20 years to build.  So, the Medici’s decided (they of course funded both projects) to go with the Duomo since it was bigger and already done by the time just the door was done on the other church (they were renovating the first church to be more aesthetic “to God”).

DaVinci's Studio

                After the quick shot of The Duomo, we made a quick stop to see the place where DaVinci had painted the Mona Lisa, and then to the Piazza outside of Firenze’s city hall.  This is the largest outdoor sculpture museum in Italy, and it is amazing.  To being they are all nestled in the visage of the city hall, a building which was modeled after a Castle, the philosophy being that the people who choose those that rule them are also to defend the center of political life in the city.  The sculptures though are all masterworks of the Renaissance.  See them too, because it is where David was originally placed (a fake now stands in its place), but it is next to Heracles, Poseidon, the first sculpture ever to feature no definitive front or back (three figures intertwined with each other, way cool!), and half a dozen other statues just as noteworthy (only because the David there isn’t the original, or else they would all seem eclipsed). 

That is one diverse church

                After the sculpture-yard we made our way to the 2^nd largest church in Firenze.  This church is an oddity, because on top of being a large traditional Catholic church, there is a large stained glass Star of David crowning the main entrance.  The marble is also red, white, and green.  This church was renovated to include the star after Italy’s unification in the 1800’s.  The star represents that all peoples of all faiths and descent are welcome in Italy.  Each color of the marble represents different aspects as well- Red for charity, white for purity, and green for peace.  And according to Berni, it is only coincidence that the Italian flag shares these colors.  The two were not connected in any serious manner.  Inside the church the remains of such famous Florenteins as DaVinci, Boteccelli, Dante, and about a dozen other peoples of note are inside-check it out, it’s worth the time.

                We hit the shopping centers after this.  Firenze is known for 1) Leather 2) Jewelry (very fine, expensive jewelry) 3) Art 4) Tourist Crap 5) Pasta 6) Overpricing.  It pays to shop around in this town- often times you will find the exact same item you want, but for varying prices.  So if you look to spend more than 30 euro on a particular item, look around, you may be able to find it for cheaper, and if not, try to haggle- it works in Italy (though it’s not as well advertised as in Mexico). 

                We find all the jewelry shops on the Old Town Bridge.  The view here in wonderful, and only about and 8 minute walk from either of the large churches, just follow the big roads and you’ll inevitably find it.

I thought this was awesome

                Once shopping was finished we took a proper tour of The Duomo.  The inside is surprisingly naked.  Well, here’s why:  The story of The Duomo coincides with that of the duomo in Siena.  During all the wars Siena and Firenze would have with each other, the loser had to pay excess taxes for reprimands and expansions.  Well, everytime Siena would expand their church, Firenze would expand theirs.  Then, for shits and giggles, Firenze would go to war with Siena.  Eventually, both towns ran out of money for expanding their churches.  And the Medici’s also ran out of money to complete the inside of The Duomo.  So you walk inside, and many of the windows are plain, the walls, naked.  There is a nifty crypt you can go into, and you can even go up to the bell tower next to The Duomo (the tower only appears taller than the dome’s cross, it’s an intentional optical illusion to prove that the Medici’s just like to muddle around).

                However, the fresco ontop of the inside of the dome it spectacular.  It isn’t to the same grandeur as St. Peter’s, but it is gorgeous and memorable- it is easy to know why Michaelangelo found the dome his main source of inspiration (according to Berni, when Mikey was called up to go to the Vatican, he looked out his window to The Duomo and said “My beloved, I am sorry, for today, I must go and make your sister, and she will be more beautiful than you.”).  There is also a very famous painting of Dante’s Divine Comedy in there, as well as paintings the depict the typical Medici and a painting of the typical Borgia citizen. 

                After  our tour of the Duomo came our concert.  The church we performed at was less than a block from The Duomo, and was called Chiesa di Santa Maria de’ Ricci.  Befitting the rest of Firenze, the church was a victory of the Renaissance and exhibited a fantastic acoustic.  The priest was an unusual old man, but a well-meaning person too.  He ran around with his cute dog, helping us get ready for the concert and get about.  He apparently had a thing for smut novels, and was hoping to write his own.  He also loved to snub the local cardinal, having broken the rules to let us perform that night. He also faked his own death to get this same cardinal off his back at one time- my kind of priest!  The only issue with having a hall that live, is that Firenze could just as easily be called the bell tone city, because within that one block of The Duomo, you can hear dozens of churches donging their bells at the same time.  Our concert was an hour and half, so we were able to hear them ring a few times.  The hall also picked up a lot of the traffic noise from outside, but the plus side is that the hall required little effort to project.  The audience was fantastic, having a full house with a full back area full of walk-ins.  Even in our rehearsal we gained quite the audience.  It’s nice to go to a country where they relish sacred music, it reminds me why I’m a musician to begin with.

                After the concert, we headed to dinner.  Beef cubes with instamash style potatoes, but hey, it was free, and better than basically anything I could make.  Then back on the bus, to the hotel, and bed.

5/21/12 Gusto

(According to our tour guide) Gusto- Italian word meaning made up of natural flavor.  Such as just using whole vegetables and natural ingredients to make food instead of combining a bunch of spices.  Can also be used to describe how Italians view their personal philosophy-keep it nature based.

        This was to be our last morning in Rome.  I take time to enjoy one last grand breakfast before heading to the bus and checking out of the hotel.  There was a 3 hour bus ride today to get us to our new hotel destination.  Though, there would be two towns to split the drive up- Siena and San Giminiono (sp?).
        The countryside is fantastic-though if you were to ask nearly anyone else from the trip they wouldn't be able to really tell you, as they were all asleep.  But the grassy countryside gave way to rolling hills and vineyards, and giving the air an almost ember tinge to everything.  Tuscany is the province, and pictures do not do it justice.  There was a lot of rain today as well, but not with dark brooding clouds, but lighter grey clouds that seemed nearly cheerful with the idea of rain.  Seeing the clouds roll along the countryside and enshroud the farmlands into mist was a nice touch, and in a way, very Gusto.

Big Nutella on top of a GIANT Nutella

        We made our first pitstop at a truck-stop.  Only here in Italy they are referred to Bus-stops, which makes sense because there are by and far more buses than trucks on the roads.  The insides of the stop are, from my experiences here in the States, quite clean and friendly-not the grungy oil stained slop house I was expecting.  They have a full espresso bar inside the store as well as a resteraunt, as well as a grocery store.  Perhaps one of the most quirky things about Italy that I've seen is that they love Nutella brand nut-butter.  It was present at all my breakfasts and most places that sold food.  So here in this first gas station, there lies a giant (appx.3 gal.) tub of Nutella, 40 euro for the interested consumer...  Other than that, the pit stop is the same in every country-find the bathrooms, be delightfully disgusted by certain parts that are just gross, wash your hands, and avoid touching anything else from there on.

15/17 Districts (I'm not a great photographer, hence the two corners cut)

        Our ride takes us to our first town after that- a lovely town that grew out of Medieval tradition named Siena.  This town stakes its fame from one particular event that is held twice a year; a no-bars horse race called the Palio di Siena.  It is a competition to see who is the best horse racer in the town, and the only competitors are from the 17 districts inside of Siena's Medieval town itself.  The thing about Siena, is that they don't focus so much on the outside world-people are born, baptized, married, and buried within their district.  And getting into a district if you aren't born to it is a serious difficulty.  The horse race itself is held in the center of the town in the half circle Piazza del Campo.  They fill the Piazza (which is the usual place for commerce in town) up with a few layers of dirt, set up some rails, and enjoy watching jockeys beat each other to win a race.
        Before we enter into the medieval district of town we meet up with our local tour guide, Paolo.  He is an older Italian dressed like a British gent, almost like a spy you would expect to hand you a mission.  He is humorous, but in that very dry, professor-like way.  He and our main guide get along really well however, so I can tell that we should pay attention to what this main was saying.  He guides us through a few districts as we make our way up to the Duomo of Siena.

Duomo di Siena

       The main reason we come to Siena though is to see the Duomo of Siena.  It is a large church constructed out of black and white marble, with a long unfinished portion off to one side.  Why is it unfinished? The city ran out of money to fund the project (more to come of that later), and the main portion had already been finished, so ya.  The tower is also a little topsy-turvy in that it has an ascending number of columns the higher you go, creating an inverted triangle-really cool to me.  Once inside the church however, it is treated as much as a museum as a place of worship.  There are exhibits celebrating Siena, Tuscany, the Church and Christ.  I also noticed that the outside of the building looked much more Rococo,and the inside was much more in a Gothic style.  No flash photography is allowed in this church (same with most museums that house items that can be damaged by excess light), and every time someone has a flash go off, Paolo turns and yells at them "No flash photography please!" in the way you know your parents yell at you to be stern, and still get the message across that they aren't afraid to punish you further.  After he does this a few times he turns to the group and says "Me and the guy upstairs *gestures up* came to a special agreement that only I get to have, that everytime I say that in this church, I get two weeks out of Purgatorio, of course I don't know how much good that will do me, but I'm sure it helps."  So one of the better quotes from this day (and trip) was "ah, another two weeks off."

        After we see the main altar and one of Michaelangelo's sculptures, we get to go to a special room that houses five hundred year old, original mint-condition chant manuscript.  For those of you who don't know, this is a Choir Tour, and I just graduated with my undergraduate in music.  These were quatragram chant music lexicons.  I cannot tell you how long i just stared at these in awe-my heritage, right there in the leaflet.
        We break for lunch before our impromptu performance at the Duomo.  My group finds a pizza place right off of the Piazza di Campo where for 2 euro 50 cents, you could get a slice of pizza that was bigger than my head.  We meander around the town, looking at the local goods (leather was still at a good price here), and the junk shops are what won out for me in this town because they sold a lot of local Siena based stuff dealing with the races and the districts themselves.
        Well, between Paolo and our main guide, we are allowed to sing a few pieces inside these high vaulted walls.  The accoustics were amazing.  The Gothic interior allowed for a sound that, in my opinion, was far more catering to our Russian piece, Bogoro Ditse devo.  The bass in there carried so sweetly, and clearly, I personally think this was the best vocal performance I had ever given.  And in true fashion of ISU's choirs, we went a few songs over our allotted time.  The clergy were none-to-pleased, but at least they weren't rude about it (and to be fair it was because it was closing time at the church and they wanted to go home, presumably to watch horse races).

Wishing well top in foreground, city in background.

        After all was said and sung, we boarded back up onto the bus, and drove another 45 minutes to get to San Giminiono.  This town was a true medieval city.  It is peppered with tall standing towers throughout the town.  And where Siena had modernized quite a bit of their buildings, S.G. seemed to have left most facades looking the same (though I can probably safely assume the insides were very modern).  The towers were of course, the way families in the town could show off their wealth.  It's basically the same idea as owning giant cars in America-the bigger your vehicle, the more self conscious you are.  Still, the towers make the town unique and charming.  There is also some fantastic vantage points to see the Tuscan country side all around the town.  We stop here to sing at the local church, a place Dr. A had been working to get to sing in on 3 different trips- he was pretty giddy that we finally succeeded (and I think then and there Dr. A knew our guide was the best he had ever had).
        The acoustics inside are fantastic for Italian Baroque.  The hall carried the sound with little effort, gave plenty of feedback, but didn't overwhelm the hall with clustering noise.  This hall could easily be my favorite to sing in in Italy.  After our set of music, the Priest  asks us he could show us something he thought was very special.  It was a private tour of the shrine to the patron saint of the church.  The saints name escapes me (and by extension the name of the church), but her story goes like this:  At the age of 12 she had a brain annurism that caused her to be immobilized.  As the story goes, she decided to lay on a wooden table, to emulate Jesus' suffering on the cross.  After four years, she was visited by a Papal Spirit telling her that for her faithfuless her suffering would soon come to pass.  All this time she is assisted by an arthritic old maid, who began seeing this girl as something very special, because this girl provided this old woman a reason to live and be useful.  Six months later, the girl passed to Heaven just as the spirit had said, and something strange happened in the surrounding country side.  The local flowers which always bloom white, that day bloomed yellow.  A blind boy touched her feet and was able to see again, and the old maid who was so deep in grieving the loss of not only her friend-but of her usefulness too, had her wrists suddenly grasped by the deceased girl, and afterwards had no arthritis.  They still kept her brains in a jar, right there in the church.  I felt very honored that the priest would choose to share this story with us, a group of foreigners who offered him nothing more than our voices.  Very humbling.
        Well, we have a short enough stop there to get some terracotta goods, eat some gillatto (always time for that), and hop back up on the bus.  We headed to the town we were going to stay in, Montecatini, a beautiful little town nestled in the midst of some mountains, and about 20 minutes outside of Firenze (Florence in English).

Our room, fancy!

        We stayed at the Grand Hotel.  The best way to describe this four star establishment is the sort of resort movie stars in the 40s and 50s would have gone to go skiing or hiking up in Italy.  The electric sockets didn't quite work in our room, our bathroom had no shower curtain (though a mobile shower head did drape down into the tub), and a great view.  To contrast, our friend had a room that had a random stool, slanted ceiling, and a shower that started at about 5ft.10in. and slanted down to about 5ft.4in., funny rooms.  This hotel wasn't bad by any means, it just had a very unique personality to it that I appreciated.  I felt completely underdressed for dinner that night which was at the hotels own resteraunt, a waiter-in-tuxedo type place.  I was in a white t and jeans... but the food was still really good!  We had another tasty pasta for the first course, veal for the second (which...ya...I'm not about the veal...), and tiramisu again for dessert.  Oh, and we all enjoyed some Italian wine that night.
        Important to note about the Chianti in this region- there is an official stamp that must be put on the bottle of Chianti in order for it to be an authentic Chianti from the Chianto vineyard region of Tuscany.  Our wine was not authentic, though we were told that the stamp was usually under the label, so you'd have to drink the bottle to find out if the brand was legit or not anyways.  As it turns out, the stamp is under the foiling they use to seal the cork.  And the stamp is a black rooster.  Why a black rooster?  Well as the story goes, the city states of Tuscany would always fight with each other.  At the end of one particular encounter, the warring states of Firenze and Siena (always bitter enemies), decided to have a horse race to determine land boundaries.  Well, of course, one side decides to cheat.  The black roosters in the area were their alarm clocks-meaning that when you heard them you woke up, and in the jockey's case, got your ass on a horse and rode like hell.  So Firenze decides to keep those roosters up all night so they keeka-deekee-dee late (oh, our tour guide was great with his animal noises).  Naturally, the rider from Siena woke up late, and wasn't able to get as much land as Firenze.  Fun!  And also, a true Chianti Classico is perhaps the best red wine I have ever tasted, more on that later.

5/20/12 Singing at St. Peter's

        An early morning.  I awoke at 6 am for a shower with no alarm to wake me up.  Another fabulous buffet breakfast, though there were an obvious lack of napkins in case someone wanted to sneak some of the food out...
        We set out early to return to the Vatican, only this time to sing in mass, not to do the usual touristy stuff.  There was a long line out in the Piazza leading into the Bascilica proper-took about an hour to get through.  Once we made it back inside St. Peter's, there is a significantly smaller population inside than the day before, though it was still far from empty.  We were directed to the main altar's choir section, and the view from there is so much better than anyplace else inside.  You can see the organs, the statue of St. Peter, a very close Main Altar, and the center piece clearly and distinctly.

We're sweating in our pews

        Onto the performance of mass.  I've never attended a Catholic mass in another language before, and let me say, it's about as exciting as it is in English (sorry to religious folks, I mean no offense).  But to sing in the very place Palestrina and MonteVerdi composed for, well, that's 500 years worth of history right there, being relived.  The sound in that space is remarkable, considering its size and how much crap is in it, doubled with the fact our choir is about 23 people strong, we were still able to easily fill up the space without a long obnoxious reverb or distortion.  By and far, this was one of the best moments of my life. The music really felt as if it had been divinely inspired and executed.  To put it simply, there is no other place like it in the world, visually, or aurally.  We sung Sitivit Anime Mea, O Sacrum con Viveum, Cantante Domino, Ubi Caritas, and Surge Cantante.  A fantastic set of music.
        To further reward our performance experience and how well we sounded, our Maestro decided to buy lunch for all of us- can't pass up free pizza!  Then back to the bus and off to our historical tour of Italy with our favorite guide Daniella and her assistant Popino.
        --On a side note, when you see SPQR labelled on something, it's what the Romans would stamp to say (roughly translated from Latin) "from the Senate to the people of Rome."

Generic Colosseum picture

        Well, the one building most people think when they consider ancient Rome is the Colosseum.  Such was our first stop on the tour.  The origins of the building are amusing, considering it was built smack dab ontop of a very early emperor's palace, Emperor Nero to be exact (the whole hillside of the area was), so that the people of Rome could forget what a jerk he was.  So another emperor to curry favor with his people built the Colosseum in 5 years.  Five years for a building that is larger than anything in Pocatello-and probably Idaho too, and over 2000 years ago!  I will say that the building, to me, is only interesting with people who have a vested interest in ancient history or those who have very good imaginations.  As our tour guide had told us before, Rome loves to recycle its marble.  And the Colosseum at one point was entirely covered in the stuff.  After thousands of years, it had been harvested completely through, leaving only the remains as you see them today.  Outside of the building there used to be a giant bronze statue of the emperor who built the place, one that was almost as tall as the building itself, and was named "colosei" hence the building's name.  The other fun fact is that the Colosseum is centered around the 7 sacred hills of Rome, making it ideal for tours.

That used to be a building for Mast Heads of defeated ships

        The last stop for our tour was the oldest section of Rome- the Forum.  A good city block of ruins was discovered sometime in the last decade that they are slowly excavating.  Yes, even in this day and age, we are still unearthing artifacts and rewriting our textbooks about all of this.  It had started to rain, couple that with an exahsted group who just sang at the Vatican, and most of us seemed to be worn out for this portion of the tour.  I remember Daniella describing that this was the most important place in Rome for the longest time, and that the tomb of Caesar Augustus was there, the first and only Caesar to be deified.  There is also the third and final Arch here ( there are three Archs, 2 outside the Colosseum, and 1 in the Forum.  There used to be over 30 of them in Rome, but time has removed all but 3).  This arch though I find the most interesting because it is so early in the Roman days that they still found the concepts of "pants" (from the Barbarians) to be humorous.  We head up and out of the hills to a small piazza where a bronze statue of Caesar Augustus stood (overlooked by Christians who thought it was the first Christian emperor of Rome, hence why it wasn't harvested).  As well as a statue of Minerva, sided by two statues of the gods of the Tiber (local branch of the Tiber in Rome is called the Blonde Tiber) and the Nile.  These were the two most important rivers of the ancient world to the Romans, so ya.  Then down the other side of the steps was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier again, small city!
        We head back on the bus, give a sad farewell to our friend Daniella, and head back to the hotel.  Everyone in our group (I swear) all took a nap that evening.  I awoke around 9pm to grab dinner.  The problem was, after 9 on a Sunday in the Catholic homeland, most places are closed.  Well the group I was with and I were able to find a place to sit down and eat.  It was at a trendy Euro resteraunt that fit the stereotype-electric blue lighting, modern art hanging on the walls, trendy discotech music playing, fasionable staff, and delicious food on fantastic dishes.  Ya, was a good way to end the night.

5/19/12 Rome sweet Rome.

        Started the day in our cramped shower-closet.  It wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't as tall, or didn't have such long arms. Oh well. (bidays by the way are strange, and the hotel gave us two packs of complimentary bum soap, wierd).  After the shower however was perhaps the best breakfast a traveler could have hoped for.  It was a huge buffet style continental breakfast-but it had the best pastries and meats and Nutella (total european thing to have Nutella everywhere), great espresso, juice, and no end in sight.

Sigil of Pope Leo XIII

        Our Vatican tour was today, and to say the least it's an exciting thing to look forward to.  If i were to describe the Vatican as a museum, I would simply describe it as a complete sensory overload (my suggestion to people is the same as with any large amazing museum- you'll need a lifetime to see all the exhibits, so go more than once).  There was so much amazing art with so much history that it was impossible to really digest it all.
       To say the very least, the crown jewel of the Vatican is the Sistine Chapel, named after Pope Sixtus IV.  Originally it was just a hall with tapestries and wall paintings with a ceiling painted like the night sky.  The tapestries exist in the hall before the Chapel, and the paintings were painted by a couple of Raphael's mentors (I however cannot remember their names to save my life).  The ceiling now holds the famous frescos by Raphael.  The wall sides depict on one side the Old Testament depicting Moses, and the other wall the New Testament depicting the life of Jesus.  The walls themselves are impressive to begin with, but still compare to the frescos depicting Genesis and the backwall depicting the Apocolypse.  Sadly, you are not permitted to take photos from inside the Chapel because of copyright issues (I honestly don't think Eastern tourists understand what that means).  Words however, can do no justice in describing the awesome power that that room holds.  Raphael was no slacker or dummy, everything he did he did with full intention and knowledge of what he was saying and doing.  From God bestowing unto man intelligence, to clockface description of how Judgement will work at the end of days-it was all done with such exacting detail and amazing precision that even if you're not religious, it is without equal.  At the turn of this millineum the Vatican decided to embark on a restoration project to remove all the centuries of smoke and grime that had built up on the frescos- they left a few spots to show the "before and after" effects.  I understand why all the textbooks had to be re-written on the subject, because parts were pitch black-completely throwing off many of the ideas that historians had on Renaissance art. [my advice to you followers-just go see this before you die.]

St. Peter's as seen from the Piazza

        After the Sistine Chapel came St. Peter's Basilica.  You want to see a large percentage of the world's total monetary wealth in one place? Go to St. Peter's Basilica.  It is a visually noisy room, cramped with thousands of sightseers it is also just plain noisy.  Still, for as much as there is, it is an awesome spectacle to behold.  The main altar is what struck the most-deceptively small looking, it is actually a behemoth at the back of a football field of museum and church.  I guess it's just amazing what goodies you can cram into one church when you 1) have thousands of years worth of history and 2) control most of the Western world for that time...
       I should at this point mention the fantastic tour guide that stuck with us for all of Rome, her name was Daniella and her "assistant" was a plush snake named Popino.  She was energetic, smart, and funny, and best friends with our main tour guide.
       Afterwards we moved on to the typical walk around the downtown are and meet up at 5:45pm thing.  So I head with a group of friends, and headed around for shopping. We started with lunch at a sitdown pizzeria in an alley right next to the Pantheon called Pantherei, a place I highly recommend. We spent our time heading from shopping malls and districts (most of which just felt like malls in the States), but also heading in the direction we think that "big glass elevator that gives you the best 360deg. view of Rome from" was at (Daniella had told us about it, so we sought it out).

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

        We find the place eventually.  It is actually a monument for the tomb of the unknown soldier (it also houses a military history museum).  It's a great building, but to get to the top floor you have to pay 7 euro to get on it.  So we stayed on the second floor and got by with only 180degrees of magnificent view of Rome.  We take a sit here because at this point we had been walking for hours on end, but one of use kept wandering to take some pictures.  We eventually notice about 30 minutes have passed and we might have accidently lost our companion, and as a double whammy, a scarf one of us had bought (the bag anyways) was lost.  Well, we head back to where we last saw our lost groupy and bag, and first we find the bag (being defended by an Italian grandma who didn't believe it was mine) then our groupy.  All was good!  As for what you can see from this place on just the 2nd floor- you can make out the Trevi Piazza, the Pantheon Piazza, clearly see St. Peter's, the Colluseum, the Piazza de Opera, as well as most of Rome's city scape.  Definetly worth the walk!

Such good water

       Well, of course it's getting close to meeting time.  So we cross the street to find a running water-fountain (specifically made for drinking) and fill up our water bottles.  Then we meander back to the Pantheon Piazza.  As we cluster there our tour guide finds us, and we all get to talking about music.  Apparently, he is really into American pop and jazz, so he's alright by me.  He also teaches us the Italian equivelant of "shit happens" which is "porque miseria" (sp?).  Our group finally assembles and we head back to the bus to grab our performance attire, and then right back to the Pantheon area.  Only after being gone for 20minutes a protest had assembled and was out picketing.  It took us all night to get our tour guide to describe what the in hell was going on.  As it turns out the mafia had killed a couple judges for doing their jobs, and then blew up an elementary school for good measure.  So I understand why our tour guide was careful about having us avoid that rally as much as possible.  The dinner though was another pizza margherita, complete with tiramisu for dessert, mmm.
        Our first concert was at a church right next to the Pantheon called Chiesa di Sant' Eustachio.  The church itself still had a bastion of historical stuff to it, but not nearly as much as its surroundings did.  The nuns and priest were not exactly warm, or friendly, or helpful.  But our maestro did get to use a 200 year old music stand since the one brought by the tour company failed.  The concert itself went about as well as can be expected from a group that was still suffering pretty badly from jetlag at 9pm.  The audience was very positive and responsive, as well as more casual than I am used to.  As soon as the concert was done though, the nuns were shooing us out as fast as possible.  In the rushed state a few men had music mix-ups which tossed a lot of tension into the group and ended the night with pointless bickering.  Not the best way to end the day.