Invictus Fourth Concert

We are bloodied but unbowed. A couple of our group have taken falls, several (including this author) have colds but we carry on as best we can. Today is Wednesday. We are staying in the stately old Tamerici Hotel in Montecatini Terme, a spa town outside Florence. After our buffet breakfast about three quarters of our group went via coach into Florence for a guided walking tour.

The drive into Florence was 45 minutes - just enough time for a top deck collaborative project to fix the broken air conditioner. Ed covered the security camera with a hat while Mike whipped out his tools and unscrewed the panel for the a.c. Kerrin and Laurie supported the panel while Mike looked for something obvious like a fuse that needed replacing or a loose wire. Nothing was found but it was a nice diversion from stop and go traffic.

                    We had a very informative and entertaining guide for our tour. He spoke eloquently of the importance that is placed on the three highest virtues, which is evident all around us. The colours of the virtues are white for faith, green for hope and red for charity or love. The marble from which the prominent churches such as the Duomo where Michaelangelo, Galileo and Rossini are buried has been fashioned in green, white, and pink (think red). The colours on the Italian flag are red, green and white. Paintings often have a woman who symbolizes each virtues, even the colours of pizza  originally was a reflection of this world view.


















The number of languages that you hear in the piazzas is amazing. Everyone is staggering around trying to stay in the shade and out of one another's shots of the stunning architecture. As we walked across the piazza, the guide pointed out the sand between the cobblestones and a tile marker high on the centre building (with elaborate mosaics) marking the centre line for a particularly rough and historical local football game that is played in this square once a year.





Florence has a central medieval core, surrounded by "newer" buildings. We walked by a large oval building - the shape had been determined by the fact that it was built on top of an old Roman amphitheatre.






This has always been a merchant city.  Many of the property owners had wineries also. If you look carefully a lot of the buildings have tiny "fairy" doors in the wall where people used to be able to buy wine from the owner.



Ponte Vecchia

The Ponte Vecchia is the last remaining ancient bridge in Florence because the retreating Nazis blew up all the other bridges so the advancing Allies couldn't use them. Fortunately, that was the worst damage that Florence suffered during WWII.




We returned to the hotel to prepare for our late concert in the Terme Tettuccio.  This is a historic spa with salty tasting water located in a local park. We walked over in our long skirts and wavy tops. The setting was spectacular but the lighting that frequently changed from one colour to another in the first half of the program was disconcerting to the singers and pianist. The audience was plentiful and appreciative.

Winery Visit and Third Concert

Tuesday started with tippling at the Poggio Rubino Winery. They are famous for Brunello wine. This is a type of wine which is not opened for 4-5 years after it is bottled. The youngest vintage we could buy was 2010. It will get better - less tannic and more complex with age. Since this our 40th Wedding anniversary this month we thought it was a perfect purchase for our 50th anniversary.  We will be sure to label it with instructions so if we get demented our kids can know to bring it to the 'home'.

View from restaurant

Waste not, want not.
Collecting leftover wine

From the winery we went directly to a hilltop restaurant outside of Montalcino for a four course lunch then onto the abbey, venue for the third concert.
 

The Abbazia di Sant' Antimo is a simple Romanesque abbey, surrounded by olive groves and vineyards is the venue for our third concert. It was a lovely serene setting.




 

After a good concert we boarded the bus for a three hour drive to Montecatini Terme. The swaying double decker can be a challenge for some travelers on these curvy mountain roads.
 

Second Concert in Siena

It was inevitable with such a large group (I think there is 75 in total) and with all this religious influence  that we were going to have a lost lamb. Due to a change of plans and some communication glitches, we left Tim behind at the hotel as we set off for Siena this morning. This carelessness could have been costly - he is one of our few Tenors, he also creates our practice files and he is a nice chap to boot. When his absence was discovered we returned to pick him up. Everyone resolved to be more careful with the buddy system and changes to the itinerary will be posted.

It was a three hour drive from Rome to Siena. We were taken to the town but the bus is not allowed into the centre - it is all pedestrian-only. The central square is called Il Campo.  It is the site of historic Palio horse races twice a year. It is a large, empty area that was blistering hot in the afternoon sun.







 
 









Laurie and I walked the steep side streets to see the famous Duomo cathedral after lunch.

The floors are as elaborate
as the walls or ceilings

We held our second concert at a smaller church called Santa Maria in Portico Fontegiusta. The acoustics and the electric piano were better than the first concert.  The audience was not huge. Marco got out on the busy street with leaflets to try to interest people to attend. Some people just heard the music and dropped in. Because it was hot in the church some of the audience gathered outside at the door.

The Amabli Family pew in the church



Gathering in the street outside the church

A four-legged audience member

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.

Rome - humid, hot, history

It takes a while to load up our
double-decker bus

 I must confess yesterday I was feeling some sympathy for our old discarded stove.  It was a pretty good appliance most of the time.  Special occasions were the only problem. Under stress for the oven to keep up with cooking large holiday dinners it would overheat and proclaim F1 on the electronic read-out. There was nothing to be done except to let it cool down or think of another way to cook the food.



St Paul's - beautiful setting for a bathroom break
 

 
 
 
 





After a whole day of listening to the drone of the tour leader explaining the general overview of a drive through the centre of Rome, the gruesome history of the Coliseum and the extravagant wonders of the Vatican, I had definitely met information saturation. A sound system that kept crackling on and off didn't help.





Our feet were feeling the pain - we did over 20,000 steps according to Ed. I did enjoy the history and how can you not marvel at the art and architecture? But being herded as one of the thousands of people does degrade the experience for me. Oh no - I see fingers being lifted all over the bus. (This is our sign for no grumbling.)




Coliseum



Balcony from which the Pope addresses
 the masses in St. Peter's Square

The last time I was in Rome was in summer 1970 with three girlfriends in a pan-Europe trip in a Volkswagen camper. We parked the van and took public transit around Rome.  We found getting from one sight to another was exhausting and required excessive amounts of gelato so our bus this time is a blessing.





St. Peter's

Today's interesting fact: no church can be built that is bigger than St Peter's Cathedral - there were patterns on the floor that demonstrate how other famous cathedrals that are smaller and would fit inside St. Peter's.

Baccus - Laurie's favourite of all the statues
 I like him because his eyes are intact.



The Pieta - Isobel's favourite







We can still sing even after eight hours of sight-seeing!