Here are some pictures from the USU Singers' visit to Italy. Also, here are some of our fun stories:
This is a very jet-lagged Claire in front of the fountain at the bottom of the Spanish steps. This was our first day in Rome, right off the plane.
And here I am, licking the Colosseum. Yes, that is a thing. I was one of about five people in our group who did. It tasted like aged brick with just a hint of ancient death and violence.
These are the ruins of ancient Rome. Apparently, the ancient stuff is at a much lower ground level than the rest of the city, so most of the ruins are under ground, buried under buildings. It is, therefore, almost impossible to start a building project in Rome because the entire city is pretty much an archaeological dig site.
Mom and the ancient Amphitheatre. It's like a mini Colosseum for the arts. the whole building is surrounded by ruins and piles of marble that used to be part of ancient buildings.
The USU Singers at St Peter's Basilica. Above is in the square in front of the Basilica, below is right in front of the main altar right after having sung Mass for the Archbishop of the Basilica.
In the Vatican museums with an awesome dog. I name him...Salvatore, after our awesome bus driver. There was a lot of beautiful artwork, we only got to see about a third of it.
My friend Chris and I at the fountain in front of St. Agnese Church where we performed our concert in Rome.
Chris came with Mom and I to the Pantheon, wherein is buried Rafael as well as Vittorio Emanuele II.
Mom and I at a different fountain in the square in front of St. Agnese. This fountain was a bit less crowded.
The choir performing in St. Agnese. It was a very beautiful baroque style church, but it was soo cold. When we were done, I was trembling because my legs and feet were so tired, and because I was shivering from being cold.
The Bocca Della Verita (ignore lack of correct accents) the mouth of truth. Legend has it, you put your hand in the mouth and the truthful will escape unscathed. The liar will lose their hand. I'll let you decipher whether I am an honest person or not the next time you see me.
We've finally left Rome and are now in Florence. You aren't allowed to take pictures with the original of Michelangelo's David because he's owned by Kodak or something, but the replica in the square where the original used to stand is not under any kind of restrictions. I wanted a picture with David. I also wanted Gelato. Here I am, fulfilling both wishes.
I believe this was the Piazza Della Republica, AKA a really cool old government building.
Me and some of the girls in front of the "Gates of paradise" or, more simply, the entrance to the baptistry of the Duomo in Florence. We ran into a set of elders not 100 yards from here and invited them to our concert. They got permission from the mission president and attended with much enthusiasm. We sang in the oldest church in Florence, build in the 12th century. It was warmer than St. Agnese because they put heat lamps in there.
Chris and I in front of Pisa's famous leaning tower. It doesn't look like it's leaning very much because we rather over did our lean.
Mom and I got to climb to the top of the tower (the foundation has been reinforced so it's safe to climb again. For now...) and this was the view. I counted 216 steps, but I know I missed at least 2 dozen, because I didn't count till I was down from the tippy top, above the bells.
This is in Lucca, a cute little town where the original walls around the city are still intact. The top of the wall is wide enough to drive on, but there are no cars. Just joggers, strollers, playgrounds, and gardens. The first sign of children we saw on our trip was in Lucca.
Me in Lucca, on the wall, with a view of a church bell tower or look out tower...
This is us at an Aggraturismo (I think that's how it's spelled). That is a kind of restaurant that only serves food grown and developed on the land they own. this one is called Fattoria il Poggio. We are in the cellar of a Tuscan farmhouse in Monte Carlo eating seriously amazing food. My facial expression has nothing to do with what I ate. It was all amazing. They makes some of the worlds best olive oil and wine here. I can't vouch for the wine, but the olive oil will blow your mind.
This looks photo-shopped, but I swear it isn't. This is me standing on the Rialto bridge in Venice. Yeah, Venice looks exactly like you'd think it would from watch movies.
And this is a photo of our gondola ride. Expensive, but so very worthwhile. It gave us a chance to see Venice away from all the noisy tourist streets and explore the quiet side canals. Our Gondolier guy said there are something like 117 separate islands, 300+ bridges, and 160 canals that make up Venice.
Me, still in Venice. Across the grand canal you can see the church we performed our last concert in. Once again, very cold. And we were standing even longer than in our other concerts because we performed Mass and immediately following performed our concert. Mass was actually very good because the Monk spoke some in english because he didn't want us to feel uncomfortable.
we were also asked to do an encore and we sang one of our Requiems that had been dedicated to the victims of the 2004 Tsunamis, so it seemed fitting to perform it again.
Mom and the Grand Canal. So beautiful.
Inside the church of our final concert. It has a looong name, so I can't remember it off the top of my head. After this concert we had a little sea food adventure at dinner. I learned a couple of things about myself that night...
1) I don't know how to take apart and eat a crawdad, and even if I did it looks like the aliens on Independence Day, so I am not sure I could without saying "release me," in a creepy whisper.
2) I didn't realize that shrimp had eyes before their shells are removed. Gross.
3) I can't chew/eat calamari.
4) I can't eat delicious chocolaty dessert after attempting to eat/having to smell calamari.
yeah, yeah I know. I am a land lubber who can't handle good sea food. Whatever.
There is my awesomely long travelog blog. Hope you enjoyed it! Or, at the very least, skimmed the pictures in mild curiosity.
