Our First Concert!

Spanish Steps

 Sunday was our second full day in Rome. We had the option of going to early mass or  being driven into town for sightseeing or shopping later in the morning. Some hardy souls did these activities plus running at a very early hour. Laurie and I were too bushed to do any of these. In the afternoon a group of us took the Metro into town because the bus is only available at certain times due to hours worked etc. We walked from the Spanish Steps to the Pantheon, the venue of our concert.




Pantheon

Pantheon is impressive and a little daunting - build in A.D.120 with 40 foot marble pillars at the front, a cavernous circular space inside with a domed ceiling.

 The "Silencio" command given in religious buildings  rang out during our warm up. By the time of concert it had stopped. We were strung out along the altar and Ingrid and the electric piano were over by the sopranos.  We had a good sized, receptive audience of various ages and nationalities. We sang for an hour; during that time a few people moved on but their seats were soon filled with others.

 Laurie was standing at the back of the seats in his matching choir shirt. An Italian guy standing nearby yelled "Bravo" and shook Laurie's hand and said " Bella". Another Italian fellow was asking Cristina, our tour leader about us. I think we felt the concert was a success, in spite of not being able to hear each other well. We received a good review from someone with music credibility (see our facebook page or website).

.A large group of us went out to dinner to our restaurant 'find' of the previous evening to celebrate our first success - delicious food, excellent service and reasonable price. Thank you Ed and Trip advisor.