Funny Picture

I ran across this picture on the 'net and laughed out loud.


On a side note, Bryan found out he made the snare line for the Million Dollar Band!

Trip Report Day Nine

(Okay, now most of you may think, wait this was supposed to be 10 days in Italy! But remember that the first two days really merged into one, so I sort of miscounted. Thanks for patiently waiting for me to post all this!)

Day Nine: Monday, July 3, 2006
The alarm went off at 6:15 AM. That’s waaaaay too early. I was smart and had everything ready to go, all my shower stuff ready for me in the bathroom so I didn’t have to think. I didn’t want to get up at all, but I dragged my tired self out of the bed. This was a nice hotel. The bathroom and shower was great. I think I took at least a twenty minute shower. We went down for breakfast. I’d say it ranked up there on best breakfasts of the trip. Scrambled eggs and real bacon, plus the usual meats, cheese, granola, yogurt, hard rolls, and croissants.

We had about 10 minutes to eat before they started loaded the bus to the airport. It was all over so fast. What a beautiful, fun, magical trip. {uuunnhh} Molte bellisimo.

I met lots of people and made many new friends who I hope to keep up with. My roommates, Susan, Kim and Sandra, were great, my bus buddy Theo made a fun travel companion who could keep up with me, all the musicians were great to play with, and David Spencer was a great director who made it joy to perform.

ITALY TRIP TOP QUOTES
1. “Harriet needs staff”
2. “Tir-ty minutes.”
3. “Mozzarella.”
4. {uuuunnhh}
5. “Grazie. Prego.”
6. “Keep your hand on your schtuff.”
7. And the related: “Hold on to your Euro.”
8. “Sandra stop.”
9. “Theo Romeo Vernoni” (Tay-o Ro-may-o)
10. “God Bless America” (My personal favorite quote overheard by Harriet when she got on the bus after the particularly disgusting hole of a bathroom visit outside of Venice)

Trip Report Day Eight

Day Eight: Sunday, July 2
(Okay I have zero notes on this day, and I’m writing this 12 days later, so I hope I remember everything that happened!)

Breakfast at the cheap hotel was better than breakfast at the castle. But that was probably the only thing better.  We loaded up the buses and headed to Venice. VENICE! I’m going to Venice! I’ve always dreamed of going to Venice and now I was. When we got to the parking lot, (you can’t drive into Venice… there are no cars in Venice, no streets, and definitely no buses in Venice) we were lucky to have a charter boat take us into town. When we got there, the first thing on our list of things to do was RIDE A GONDOLA!  We had a group of nine people gathered so we could split the costs (it still cost 20 euro per person). But hey, we were in Venice riding a gondola with our very own gondolier! (He even sang some!) It was so cool to float through Venice with good friends and see the sights the way Venice was meant to be seen. Next up was the tourist info place to get a map. We ended up not buying a map, but just making due with the little one I had.   We wanted to see San Marco Piazza. Whoa. Just like in all those movies! Beautiful. Theo had fun chasing the pigeons. We wandered around a bit and found a really nice place to eat a block away from the square. (READ: much cheaper than San Marco) The place we had would make fettucino Alfredo from scratch right at your table, so of course, we ordered that. No brainer. And it was divine!!! It was fun to watch, and even more fun to taste. I love Italian pasta! They know how to cook it just right!

So now we needed a few souveniers, so we shopped a little. Then we decided to go into the church. I guess not just ABC… (another big church) but the Basilica di San Marco. Wow. It was beautiful inside!

I did find some pretty Murano Glass necklaces and a bracelet. And I bought a gondola tee-shirt, and a gondola fridge magnet.

Then we decided we needed to figure out just where we were performing. We were to meet by a the Academia Bridge over the Grand Canal. A bunch of us found a bridge with that name on it, but it wasn’t over the Grand Canal. Eventually we found the right place, unloaded all the band stuff and hauled it done to the performance square a few blocks from San Marco. Really nice. I’m in Italy performing in a piazza! It was hot so we found a bit of shade, set up, and started our last performance in Italy. When we played Nessum Dorma, David had Billy perform his trombone solo in the direction of a cute girl in a window overlooking the square. Theo and Selwin gestured in her direction like, here this is for you. And then at the end, Claudio translated for the girl that the song was dedicated to her by Theo. His Julietta in the window. That’s how Theo got the nickname of Theo Romeo (pronounced Tay-o Ro-May-o).  Our performance was so much fun. I’m running out of adjectives to describe this amazing trip and performing in Italy. I really enjoyed everything.
After packing up our instruments, we said goodbye to Venice.

And began our last very long bus ride to our last hotel. This bus ride wasn’t supposed to be that long, but we ended up getting to the hotel really late. Again. Like at around 2 am. But what a hotel! A five star award winning hotel, that we really didn’t get to spend any time in. 


And we finally figured out how to turn the lights on.

Trip Report Day Seven

Day Seven: Saturday, July 1
We left our beautiful hotel, our best service award hotel on the beautiful shores of Lake Garda and moved on to Jesolo di Lido, a beach resort town. It was sort of like Gulf Shores. Not anything really old, very modern. Well, except for our hole in the wall hotel. Nobody should go from a 365 euro per night hotel down to a 50 euro per night hotel. The funniest part about it was the bathroom. There was no shower stall. The shower was just on the wall; you could take a shower and go to the bathroom at the same time! Talk about multi-tasking. I guess you could also lean over and brush your teeth in the sink at the same time. EEWww.

  The first thing we did was put on our swimsuits and head to the beach. I wish we had had better instructions about how the beaches work. These were crowded beaches. Each hotel had areas reserved with lounge chairs and umbrellas. Unfortunately, we got chewed out by some Italians (at least we thought they were chewing us out—we couldn’t understand a word they were saying—Theo just kept saying “mi dispeaci, mi dispeaci”) who acted like we shouldn’t be there. We saw the sign that said “Hotel Storione”, but we were in Hotel Storione 2. A helpful bagnino (lifeguard, we later figured out) took us 100 meters or so down the beach, and we settled in again. The Adriatic sea is nice and warm. It was a lot warmer than I thought it would be. I really enjoyed swimming in it. I didn’t really care for the crowds, though. Or the wrinkly old ladies in bikinis and old men in speedos.

Our concert was okay, definitely not one of my favorites of the trip. It’s going to be hard to beat playing in a cathedral. I don’t really like playing outside. It was hard to see the music with the lighting they had. We had two songs left when it starting raining while we were playing “Rolling Thunder”. We quickly stopped and put up our instruments and wet music and scattered to find shelter. A close by phone booth provided a great shelter.

It stopped raining, so we went to get gelato and head back to the hotel. I wanted to call home so I could tell Marc to bring a few things I needed, and we tried four different phones, and none worked. We had some hilarious moments with Sandra and Kim (sorry to wake you up, girls!). And I went to bed way too late AGAIN. I was not impressed with this town. Wish we had just gone on to Venice. But tomorrow, VENICE!

Trip Report Day Six

Day Six: Friday, June 30, 2006

I slept in until 9 am. Sweet.

Breakfast was uneventful. Then we were off for a short tour of Verona. We spent some time touring with Mimmo as tour guide. He seemed to know more about Verona than Claudio! So Claudio volunteered to drive while Mimmo talked. No thanks Claudio, we’ll keep Mimmo. (I’m assuming Mimmo is spelled that way. Claudio told us that it is pronounced Mim-mo, not Mi-mo. Mimo means mime. We even made up a cheer for Mimmo, we liked him so much. “When I say Mim- you say –Mo. Mim- Mo, Mim- Mo! Anywho, I digress.)   We stopped at the river took some cool photos and proceeded to find the Casa di Guilleta.  
Jacqui’s tour guide service is once again open for business! One of the cool things about these European towns is the surprise you can get when you turn a corner. Like a really cool church tucked into the streets of Verona. We spent a few minutes at this hidden away church and then found our way to Juliet’s (as in Romeo and…) House.  The House of Juliet is a memorial to the legend of Romeo and Juliet. There’s a statue of Juliet there and well, you can get good luck if you, well, ahem, you’ll have to ask the guys who did this what they did. This is a family show.

We found a nice gelato shop on the way back to the bus. Man, I love gelato. Gelato. It’s so important it should always be capitalized! We didn’t want to, but we got back on the bus and went on our way to Lago di Garda.   This bus trip was worth it!!! The place is absolutely breathtaking. Molte Bella!  
The town of Sirmione is located on a thin peninsula that juts out into the lake. So you can see the lake on both sides, and the town is quaint and there is a cool castle right smack dab in the middle of town.

 
Italy was playing a “football” game that evening so there was hardly any audience. I think even Claudio snuck off to see the game!

After the concert we stopped at an outdoor café and I got some Lemon Granita.Yummm. Lemon Shaved Ice. We had great seats by a small jazz group. Very nice. Then we tried to find a bancomat with no luck. So we headed back to the hotel. Theo and I went out behind hotel to look at pretty view of lake. It was kind of funny, because while we where back there we saw Danny and Eathan get in trouble for sitting out on the dock making noise. (Somebody complained.) Funny thing was, we think it was Eathan’s parents who where making the noise!) So the hotel guard or clerk or whoever he was escorted Danny and Ethan into the hotel. Then he locked the doors. Theo and I were locked out! We had to figure out an escape route. We finally ended up climbing over the fence in front of the pool.  
What an adventure! We probably could have just knocked on the door and have the desk clerk come open it for us, but what’s the fun in that?

Trip Report Day Five

Day Five: Thursday, June 29, 2006

 Our breakfast at the castle probably has to be the worst breakfast of the trip. I had Melba toast and juice. But the atmosphere more than made up for the lack of food. I’m not a big breakfast eater anyway.
We left the castle 9:30 am and stayed on the bus for way too many hours. We of course took our autogrill stop. This was becoming old hat for us. Find the bathroom, pay your .50 euro, find some food to eat, shop in the forced shopping exit, load the bus again. We arrived in Verona just in time to get ready for the opera. I was so tired. I tried to sleep on the bus, but I drifted in and out of conciousness. So I was not prepared to be alert at the opera. So I guess you could say this was the second longest day evah. The arena was practically a straight shot from the hotel, so we decided to forgo the shuttle bus the with 50 other people waiting for it and walk there.   We ended up at the castle, but found the arena a block or so away. It was an amazing site.

I wish I could tell you how amazing the opera was. I wish I could tell you it was one of the best musical events of my life.   But I can’t. I was just too tired to appreciate it. It was long opera, it was in Italian, and I kept nodding off. Theo wouldn’t let me go to sleep, so somehow I made it through the whole of Aida. The set was amazing, the music beautiful, the singers wonderful. Yes. All that. But it was sort of like a dream. So next time I go to Verona, I want to see an opera fully alert. Maybe Carmen?

When we got the hotel (Hotel Piccolo- how appropriate) it was after 1 am. I had no trouble falling asleep! It was a very long day.

Trip Report Day Four

(Slowly by slowly, it's going up... and now maybe I can add photos!)

Day Four: Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Our first and main item on the agenda today is the Vatican. Claudio had suggested that we get in line first thing in the morning as the lines could take two to three hours to get in.

(**Side note on how Claudio spells his name. I’ve gotten a couple of corrections on this. I assumed it was Claudio, until I saw it on the rooming list Roger had listed as Cladio. So I spelled it that way. Then I found out from his email address that it is Claudio, so now the confusion is over!)

So we ate breakfast and headed down to the bus. We took the metro and easily found the Vatican.  The line looped around the north end of the Vatican, but moved quickly. We were pleasantly surprised that it only took an hour to get in. The heat wasn’t too bad, and we had some, shall we say, amateur accordion players to entertain us. One even sang as he played.

 The main thing I was interested in was the Sistine Chapel. But there was something interesting artwork along the way. Then the Sistine Chapel… something I have looked forward to for a very long time. Before we went in there were signs that said “no photo” and “silencio!”. I was thinking that this would be a reverent inspiring room, but when we walked in there were tons of people, a crowded standing room only setting, and there were people talking. Oh, the talking. Way too much talking. And the photo taking. Theo and I were both disappointed with the disrespect shown. Yes, the ceiling was amazing! And to realize that Michelangelo had to paint this way up on scaffolding, lying on his back, only able to work 30 minutes at a time because it was fresco painting and the plaster would dry. In that sense, the Sistine Chapel was amazing, but as far as being an awe inspiring life event, it came up a little short. I guess the setting has a lot to do with the experience!

 After that we headed to St. Peter’s Basilica, only to see another long line. We opted to just be happy with the outside, on this trip. We took some photos, and then went souvenir hunting. Picked up some trinkets and then headed back to the Metro. Theo and I thought we’d take another shot at the Hard Rock Café. It was fairly easy to find, right across the street from the American Embassy.   I have to say, it was cool to see the American flag! We picked up a pizza by the hotel and split it (divisi) and got back just in time to load the bus. And then we were off to Poggio Mirteto.

(On a bad note, one of our band members was pickpocketed in Rome getting on the bus. Luckily he had his passport in another location. Thus the popular phrase came up “keep your hand on your stuff!” Or, “hold on to your Euro!”)

Off on another bus ride to the hills north of Rome. This stay was going to be really cool… we are staying in a castle on a hill. A Real Castle. We are staying in a real castle with secret passageways and Rapunzel like turrets. And a swimming pool, which we all greatly appreciated after the heat of Rome. I came down to the pool in my suit and here were all these band members lining the sides of the oval shaped pool like a giant Jacuzzi. The cool water felt great, and my feet much better. All the walking and sitting on the bus have caused them to swell up. But who cares. I’m in Italy!

Speaking of walking, there were several flights of stairs to climb to get to our room on the third floor. And speaking of steps….

I became the band klutz. On my way down to dinner I was a little distracted and missed a step and took a fall that I broke with my wrist, knee and cheekbone. My wrist swelled up, my knee was badly bruised, but I was spared the black eye that I thought would appear above my cheek.

So many band members were worried about me. It felt nice to be taken care of even though it was sort of embarrassing. Somebody went to find ice, and I have to say what ran through my head was *Ice*? Here in Europe? I wanted just to hold some ice, chew on some ice, put some ice in my drink! So when they brought out a blue ice pack, I was a little disappointed. But I kept it on my wrist. I was worried about playing at our concert that night, but my fingers worked fine, even though my wrist really hurt.

The meal was another amazing five course feast. Too bad I didn’t feel well. I guess my stomach was a little upset because of the fall and being nervous about playing with a hurt hand. The most expensive meal of the trip and and I only took one or two bites of each course. Geez.

Down the hills we went to our concert in a cathedral. The bus rides on these skinny roads with curves around the sides of the hills. Don’t look down! We are right on the edge!  Mimmo honks his horn everytime we come to a curve to warn the drivers coming from the other direction. But we make it down alive. Mimmo is awesome.

Now this concert… Oh. My. Gosh. Nessum Dorma in an acoustically bouncy cathedral. This was surely the highlight of my trip so far. It gave me goose bumps. And once again, such a gracious audience. My favorite concert so far. Playing the piccolo solo with the snare drum on Concord was fun the way it filled up the room.

A surprise to all of us was that in this little town of Poggio Mertito is the longest running band program. They have a running record of the directors on the wall. We saw the rehearsal room of the oldest hometown band in Europe, founded in 1592. Wow.

We got drinks on the house, courtesy of the town. I had a orangy soda thing. And I had almost forgotten to get my daily allotted allowance of Gelato. Chocolate and Chocolate chip. Mmmmm. Unfortunately, it was still my designated klutz day, and I spilled chocolate gelato on my khaki band pants.
 

And speaking of klutzy, we had a low log beam just over our bathroom door that I kept hitting my head on. Our room was cool, with a beautiful view once again. Sandra and Kim were my roomies this time, and I have to tell you, they are really fun to hand around with! Life is not dull with Sandra and Kim around!

So after the concert, etc., we went back to the castle. Same type of exciting bus ride only we couldn’t see where we were so it was a little easier. Theo, Steve and I decided to do a little Scooby-doo and gang exploring of the castle. 
We found, very easily if you followed the noise, a party on the third floor behind the clock. We found hidden rooms and secret passageways. Maybe it was just being in a castle in Italy at night, but we were silly and had fun. Theo even decided to camp out on a couch (or was it two couches pushed together?) in one of the rooms, because his assigned room was right across from aforementioned loud party room, and he wanted some peace and quiet.

Late to bed and early to rise equals one sleeply camper. Having a 6 to 7 hours bus ride ahead of us tomorrow will maybe give me a chance to catch up on some sleep. Riiiight. Tomorrow, Verona.

Trip Report Day Three

(Notes: I didn't write all of this right away, so I'm having a little trouble remembering all the details. If you see something incorrect or something I forgot, fill me in!)

Day Three: Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Breakfast at the Casa Frassi was just as the day before. I got my fill of blood (that sounds disgusting!) orange juice while I could as I didn’t know if we’d have it again on this trip. I was able to get a few minutes, I guess about 20, on the internet. I sent off a few emails, and that was that.

We were off to Roma. Can you believe I’m actually going to Rome??? I’ve dreamed of going there since I was a little girl. Of course the bus trip wouldn’t be a bus trip in Italy if we didn’t stop at the Autogrill again.

Once in Roma I caught my first view of the Roman Coliseum.   Wow. Double wow. It was very impressive. We were able to get out of the bus and go down to it to take some photos. I was there!!!  There were some other Roman ruins we were able to see from the bus, like the Roman Circus (think Ben Hur). From our vantage point seated in a high bus we were able to see lots of sights.   We were fascinated by the OLD buildings. There were so many of the old roman ruins.

After our hour bus tour of the city,   We checked into the classy Hotel Alpi, a very nice hotel. So far, we’ve been treated to some very nice hotels. After getting settled, my roomie (Susan) and I decided to explore the hotel. We found a cool terrace on the top floor, and took some photos of us attempting to look like we belonged there. Back downstairs we ran into our tour guide Claudio and got the lowdown on what we’d be doing that night. Basically we were on our own. So he gave us some bus and metro tips (assured me that we’d be fine since I’m NY subway, and London Tube experienced!) and recommended a great place to eat. He couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant, but showed me right on the map of Rome where it was.

Claudio then disappeared to his room because he wasn’t feeling very well. This is where the band parent president in me took over. People were starting to gather in the lobby, so I told them info Claudio had given me, and they were all like, well what are you going to do. I told them I wanted to see the Trevi Fountain and throw my coins in, then find Cladio’s recommend restaurant and maybe hit the Pantheon. (Funny story… I kept calling it the Parthenon even though I knew better, and when we were looking for it someone asked for directions to the Parthenon, the person answered “first you get on a boat to Greece…) So we find bus tickets and line up to get on the bus and I turn around to see approximately 25 Twickenham Winds members following me. Now starting Jacqui’s tour to the Fontana Trevi. On your right…

Luckily I knew where I was going (don’t you just love maps, that is, correct maps?) and we found ourselves at the fountain.  I threw my coin in so, according to tradition, I could return to Rome some day. I asked members of our group if they had thrown in their coins and two said they didn’t. When I asked why not? They answered that 20-30 years ago (I don’t recall exactly what each said) they had thrown their coins in, and here they were back in Rome again! So it works!

I was amazed at how crowded the area was. I guess it’s a popular tourist trap, I mean tourist attraction. Next we were off to find the good place to eat. Some man handing out flyers for another restaurant was pointed in my direction ( I guess they thought I was the one in charge of our “group tour”). He flattered me by saying he loved American women, and boy did I have beautiful blue eyes. My response was “are you getting paid to say that so that I’ll go to your restaurant?” I’ve been around the block a few times, so it didn’t faze me. Okay, maybe the remark about the beautiful blue eyes affected me, but I digress. On to eat. Jacqui’s tour of the Trevi Fountain is now over. We almost got sidetracked by the Hard Rock Café sign, but realized it was way far away. (We didn’t want to eat there, Theo and I just wanted to pick up a couple of souvenirs from there.) I noticed my group was getting smaller and smaller. We were able to find the street and a restaurant called Gino’s, but it was closed. So we went back to another one. I think it was called Tito’s. It was around a block or so away from the Spanish steps on the corner of Via Belsiano and Via d. Carrozze. I ordered something that was recommended to me by my son-in-law’s father who used to live in Italy. It was a pasta dish with bacon in it. It was fine, but I wish I had ordered what Theo ordered. Theo and Billy ordered a beef dish that was to die for. Melt in your mouth steak tips on a plate of salad greens. After dinner, Mark ordered a round of Limoncello for everybody, and then he felt bad when I declined because I don’t drink alcohol. It was fine, it didn’t offend me. I felt bad because he had wasted his money… but he assured me it wouldn’t go to waste!

Next, our quest for the Spanish Steps.  The Spanish steps weren’t built by the Spanish. They are called that because the steps led to the Spanish Embassy. It, like the Trevi Fountain, was loaded with people just standing around. There were guys trying to sell us roses, and guys trying to sell those flying saucer things that shoot up in the air. (Seemed a little out of place!) We took some photos, and waited for the rest of the group. They never showed up (we found out later that the restaurant had given two more round of Limoncello on the house) so we went on our next quest… the Pantheon.

Thanks to Harriet we found it.  She’s the one who asked for directions this time. The Pantheon was OLD. It was build in 27 BC. We bought some Gelato and sat under the huge columns. It was awe inspiring. Both the Pantheon and the gelato! This time I order Bachio, which in Italian means “Kiss”. Peter’s dad had told me to get that flavor, a chocolate mixed with hazelnuts. He just warned me to ask for the flavor Bachio… not just ask for a Bachio! It was delicious. But now it was after midnight and only the night buses ran. So we split up to take taxi’s back to the hotel. Theo, Sandra, Kim and I were going to stop by Hard Rock Café. We decided they were probably closed so we headed straight for the hotel. We made it back to the hotel and settled in for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow: The Vatican

Adventures in Europe Trip Report Day one and two

Jacqui’s Adventures in Europe: Part Un, Italy

(note- I'll be posting these a few days at a time, and right now I can't download my photos off my camera. My card reader makes my laptop crash... I guess I should have checked that out before I left. Anyhoo- no photos right now. I'll try to add some later. Just wanted to let everyone know what a good time I'm having in Europe!)

Day One
Saturday-Sunday: June 24/25, 2006
The longest day ev-vah.

I left the house at 11:00 am this morning, or was that yesterday…. I guess technically it was yesterday. I’ve not had much sleep as I start out this dream trip to Europe.

I checked in for my flight to Italy two hours early, as recommended for international flights. Fortunately, or unfortunately (however you look at it) Huntsville is not known for its long check in lines, or long security checks. I was next in line to check in, handed them my drivers’ license for id, and then was told they needed to see my passport. Yippee! It hit me then, this is not a normal trip. It’s an INTERNATIONAL TRIP!!! No problems checking in, my one checked bag was well under the 50 pound limit. It’s the other bag that I was worried about.

I bought a cool new backpack, so I could take my heavy laptop, and not shout out “hey I’m carrying a laptop” with my bag. I really like it, but its benefits are its downfall. There is way too much storage room, which means lots of space to put lots of things, thus making it cumbersome and heavy. I had to carry my flute and piccolo, etc. in it, too. But it worked. I had to take the flute gig bag out to make it fit in the overhead compartment or under the seat.

The flight from Huntsville to Atlanta was uneventful. Still, the excitement was building! I was really going to Italy! In Atlanta I met up with the rest of the Twickenham Winds. It was interesting traveling by plane with a group, a new experience for me. We had a block of seats mid plane. It was funny to see other passengers watch us being friendly with each other. They probably wondered how we knew so many people… or were we just a gregarious bunch of people, carrying strangely shaped carry-on bags. (bass clarinet, clarinets, saxes, flutes, oboes—the rest were checked.)

The person seated next to me wanted to sit by her husband, so we did a little moving around. We were able to have our little group of four sit two and two, behind the other. Theo sat next to me, and Kim and Sandra in front of us. It was nice to sit next to someone I knew well.

Our flight was a normal long overseas flight. I tried to sleep and drifted in and out. The food was okay, I think I had some sort of chicken with sauce. I listened to some of Theo’s jazz music on his mp3/phone/pda/translator. (That thing really came in handy!) We arrived on time in Milan, 
but had to wait awhile for our oversized and odd shaped luggage (instruments) to make it to the terminal.

And then we got on the bus, our home away from home for the next nine days. The seats were comfortable, but did not have very much legroom. Theo became my travel buddy/bus buddy. I’m sure glad I get along with Theo, because we spent a lot of time together on that bus!

We departed for Florence and to the Uffizi Museum. Along the way we stopped at a roadside stop called the Autogrill.  
It’s kind of like a cross between a food court and a 7eleven. I had my first Italian pasta with white sauce and it was very good! At that point I didn’t have any Euros so I checked to see if they took Visa. They did. I picked up some prepackage gelato too. Everything was great, especially for roadside food. Or maybe I was just hungry.

I was excited about going to the Uffizi, but I have to say, it wasn’t what I expected. Maybe it was the jetlag or the fact that we had to walk a couple of kilometers from the bus to the museum, or maybe it was the 6 sets of stairs we had to climb at the museum entrance, but I sure dragged through the Uffizi. I wanted to see Michelangelo’s David statue, but we found out it was at another location. We did see Botticelli’s Venus, and Primavera paintings. They were huge! And darker than I recalled from those reports I did about Botticelli in elementary school. At the end of the museum tour they had a cool exhibit on Da Vinci, but like I said before, I just wasn’t into it and wanted to sit down.

  

The architecture in Florence was something else. Theo and I had to find a farmacia to buy bandaids because we were both developing blisters. Yes, already. On the first day. I think it was a combination of the heat and the swelling feet, because I had worn my shoes a lot and never gotten blisters. I also needed a bancomat (atm) to get some cash. So we wandered around the museum area a bit, found both the atm and the farmacia, and the lifesize copy of “David”. Cool. I could spend some time in that town.  
But alas, we had no more time in Florence.

We made the long trek back to the bus and to the much appreciated air conditioning! It’s hot outside! We saw some beautiful scenic views of Florence (quick look outside the right window and see Florence!). It was much more mountainous than I thought it would be. Absolutely beautiful scenery, olive trees, and vineyards. I like Tuscany. I need to go back there!

We got to the Casa Frassi villa that evening. What service, and a great room. We barely had time to freshen up (remember, we’ve been wearing the same thing for 30 hours) before we had to report to dinner. This ain’t no autogrill!

Dinner was in a beautiful setting overlooking the hills of Tuscany out on a patio surrounded by lots of flowers and a very loud cicada.

We were served a four or five course meal (I don’t know if you count the bread at the beginning a course). 1st-Bread, 2nd-plate of fat, (well that’s what we called it. It had five different thinly sliced meats and one of them looked like pure fat from a slab of bacon. I passed on that one, tried all the rest.) 3rd- pasta (which is way different than the Prego sauce I serve at home. Mainly meat, not much sauce, noodles cooked perfectly al dente.) 4th- The real meat (I was told these were different parts of wild boar) with a rucula (I think?) salad, and finally 5th- dessert. The dessert was divine. I wish I remember what it was called. Was it called Tiramisu? Dinner was definitely heavy on meats, but that is typical for this part of the country.

I was so tired so we went straight to bed. Susan (horn player) was my roommate, and I really enjoy her company. And she let me borrow her electricity converter thing-a-ma-jig since I couldn’t get mine to work.

Tomorrow: Siena

Day Two: Monday, June 25, 2006

I woke off at 6:30 am and went over to our window at Hotel Casa Frassi, and I think I actually screamed out loud: “We have a terrace overlooking the Tuscan hills!!!!” I was awestruck. I know I looked out the windows the night before, but somehow I overlooked the minor detail that our window was actually doors out to this beautiful terrace.   I have died and gone to heaven. This is one of the most beautiful areas of the world I have ever been too. I know there is that “under the Tuscan Sun” tourist idea-attitude, but this place really is magical. And it’s not the touristy cool building, place or attraction magic, but a quiet, calm, peaceful magic. It’s the attitude of the locals, the company of good friends, mixed in with some gorgeous views of rolling hills covered with vineyards and tall lonely cedar trees. I hated to leave there. But luckily, we had another night there. Today, Siena.

First, though, breakfast. Breakfast at the Casa Frassi consists of a charming room set up with fully set tables with tablecloths and several tables full of various food and drink items. They call it an “American Breakfast” on the sign, but there was stuff there you only find in Europe.  Croissants, cake (yes, I had a piece of chocolate cake for breakfast, but it was different, it was thin, made with bittersweet chocolate, and hey, this is Italy!), soft boiled eggs, fruit, yogurt, hard crusted bread, cheese (a very mild white cheese, similar to swiss cheese made from sheep’s milk), some other various food items, and fresh squeezed juices. I have to say the highlight is the fresh squeezed blood orange juice. Yes, it sounds gross, but it is delicious! It’s just red orange juice, sweet nectar orange juice!!! I grabbed an orange to eat, but was full so I kept it in case I got hungry later on. Off to Siena.

It’s become a joke that everywhere we go, we ask Claudio how long it will take, and he replies: about 30 minutes, only in a lovely Italian accent: “Tir-ty minutes”. (make sure you roll your R’s and put the emphasis on the first syllable.) So, supposedly Siena was about a thirty minute ride, but it turned out to be much longer. We finally drove into this very old medieval town. Actually, we couldn’t drive into the old town, we had to park outside of the enormous city wall. It had to be 50 or 60 feet high and about 10 feet thick at the top, more at the bottom. We strolled around to one of the entrances and found a breathtaking view of this town. A huge duomo (main cathedral) highlighted the landscape. We stopped first at the church of San Dominico. It’s the home of Siena’s patron saint, St. Catherine. In fact, there is a decapitated head in a glass covered box that is said to be St. Catherine’s. The inside of the chapel was beautiful: stained glass, candles burning and paintings. I was a little grossed out by the head, though.

We were lead by a cute Italian tour guide named Maria Elena. She was very knowledgeable about all things Siena, but had a hard time keeping our group together and close enough together to hear her, despite her mini mike and amp system hanging around her neck. As we strolled up and down centuries old cobblestone road we learned of the history of the various Cantor Districts. I took some great photos of cool old things, like the iron circles you tied your horse up to.   After the walking tour which ended at the Duomo, we passed on going inside because of the extremely long line.

We decided to stroll through the town, pick up a light lunch and some souvenirs. Lunch consisted solely of my first real gelato in Italy. Ahh, the not-too-sweet, creamery gelato. I had three flavors: ciacolatto, strattiatella, like a chocolate chip, and caramel. Believe it or not, I got hooked on the caramel. One of the best “lunches” to be had in Italy! Postcards were purchased, and trinkets overlooked… except I did buy a Siena magnet.   There was some beautiful painted ceramics, but I didn’t even consider them, considering how they would probably not make it home in one piece. I did buy a small watercolor print of a typical Tuscan view. I’d like to have it framed and put it up in my house.

So far, Siena is my favorite town of the trip. That night we went to another little unknown, at least to me, Italian town called Colle val d’Elsa. We had trouble pronouncing that one. We just called it the “Elsa” town. We had a few hours to kill there before our concert, so we brought our instruments and uniforms to change into later. You see, we needed to get there by 5 pm so Claudio, our guide, could catch the Italy-Australia soccer game on tv in some bar. He said most Italians would be watching it so this quaint little town with some great *views* would be all ours. He wasn’t kidding. We saw maybe 10 or 15 people on the streets. We headed to where we were performing (in the town square in front of the duomo) so we could know where to head to later. Then we searched for food. This town was dead, I tell ya. Where were all the people? Even finding an open restaurant proved tricky. We finally found a good prospect with tables out front. I ordered a panini ham and cheese sandwich and bruschetta. I’m sorry, Italy, but I still like the bruschetta from Olive Garden better. They used canned tomatoes here and no shaved parmesan cheese topping it. The panini was good, but I can’t get used to the hard crust on the bread. I mean, after eating this sandwich I had cuts on the inside of my mouth. Not kidding. But it was delicious! Oh, and at the restaurant, we ordered bottled water and they actually gave us ICE!!  That is an extremely rare sight. Of course, I took a photo of it! Dinner was topped off with, what else, Gelato!

After a long, leisurely, probably two hour dinner, we took a short stroll of the city. From the old center section up on a hill where we were, you could see views of the new part of the city. It was fun because cars were driving around honking and people were on the streets yelling. We figured out that Italy had won the soccer, oops, I mean football, match. Yay Italy!

Time to change into our lovely “uniforms” consisting of, depending on the day, either khaki pants or black pants and our wine-colored Twickenham Winds polo shirt. The concert was to be perfomed up on a set up stage in the square. I had to sit right on the edge of the dropoff. Kinda scary. But scarier was just performing in Italy for the first time. I was nervous and it showed. Especially right before the last piece, David Spencer, our director, says, “pull out Stars and Stripes for the encore.” Aahhh!

The concert was a great hit. I cannot believe how much the Italians, and I’m sure most Europeans are so supportive of the arts. I’ve never had an audience quite like that in the states. They were photographing us, videotaping us, singing and clapping along, and generally really enjoying our performance. Total strangers! In the states, most of the people that come to our concerts are friends and relatives, not just strangers from the city come to listen to some music. Maybe it’s the attitude towards time that the Italians have. Life is just a little simpler and slower than ours. People in America are too busy to take time for an amateur music concert. We received a standing ovation and lots of authentic Italian “BRAVO’s” from the audience. Stars and Stripes went fine, even though I completely forget what I thought I had memorized and had to rely on the music. This trip is giving me such a broader view of music appreciation. The locals had a reception for us with homemade Italian desserts and sangria, a local sweet wine. (Side note: it hasn’t been hard to be one of the only non-drinkers on the trip… everyone is supportive and goes out of their way to make sure I have something. I am drinking an awful lot of bottled water!) After the concert we loaded our “schtuff” and ourselves for our trip back to the Casa Frassi in Castellina.

When we arrived to the hotel I wanted to show off our room and terrace to a couple of people, and when we were out on the terrace we looked up to the most amazing site. Out here in the middle of Tuscany, the stars were so bright, and so many of them. You could see the milky way. What a sight! I wanted to stay out there and stargaze, but I was tired and headed to bed. Another busy day tomorrow… off to see Roma!