I really do want to return to Italy for a more leisurely personal visit. Ideally I'd rent a motorcycle based out of northern Umbria or southern Tuscany (maybe around Assisi or Montecatini Terme). I don't relish the idea of navigating Roma or Firenze on 2 wheels without a driving attitude transplant (I'd need to drive Italian style), but those back roads looked terribly inviting. I don't see how I can do it for a few more years but it's on the list...especially when the road gives you views like this!Our visit to the Vatican was personally interesting for me -- it is, after all, the Catholic mothership and all that. I haven't been to a mass in quite some time, and even then only for special occasions. Attending a mass at St. Peter's with our high school kids singing the liturgy was a little bit surreal (not even to mention that only a small minority of the kids are Catholic; probably more than half are Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or 'other') . I unconsciously kept expecting to be accosted by a nun for not genuflecting and for not kneeling at the appropriate points in the service (which I knew by rote, even though it was all in Italian). The smell of incense took me back to childhood church services; I guess it's true that smell is the most evocative sense when it comes to memories. Here's a picture of the choir at St. Peter's (actually the half that I could fit into my camera viewfinder):
The opulence of the Vatican (the galleries, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, &c, &c) didn't make it any harder to be an ex-Catholic...it's hard to reconcile the dimes that I put into the tithe envelopes as a child with the gold-plated statues & other riches on display...I know they do some good things with the money they collect but still they're pretty flashy.
As I mentioned before (I think), we had 99 kids on this trip and about 25 adults, not all chaperones. The ratio is about 6 kids per chaperone, an easily manageable number -- as long as the number are willing to be managed! Fortunately (for me) Bill gave me co-chaperone responsibilities over about 15 girls; Yen Thao (one of the moms) took care of in-room checks, and we split head count and management when we were out and about. The girls were almost all terrific and easy to watch over. However, a couple of them reminded me of Annie at their age...you can probably guess they don't fall into that 'easy to watch over' category...that's me & Yen Thao in Assisi. I'm trying to smile, Pam, honestly, but you know how much it hurts...The concert at ss Bonifacio & Alessio Basilica was quite amazing. The church is 200 years old ('new' for Rome) although it's on a site that has had a church for almost a thousand years. The program was primarily sacred & traditional, with a spiritual (A City Called Heaven) that has a terrific solo part. Caitlin, the singer, knocks 'em dead with the tune. The concert was attended by about 100 local residents & they cheered her very enthusiastically. After the concert (about 10:00PM) we had a dinner provided by the church's hospitality committee, out in the courtyard behind the church. The view from there was simply stunning; all of Rome from above, with St. Peter's Basilica front and center. Every trip with the choir gives me a singular and wonderful memory, and I guess this evening was this trip's highlight.
Here's the choir singing 'A City Called Heaven':
Here's the view from the courtyard behind the church, pre & post sundown:
Our tour was organized by a company called Kingsway International, who arrange tours all over the world (they also did our Australia trip in '03). We had 3 buses, and therefore 3 guides. One of them, Patricia, was switched out halfway due to another commitment and Vincenzo (from Sicily) was switched in to replace her. Chloë was our group's guide, at least at first -- everything was shaken up when Patricia left & Vincenzo came in; our bus lost Chloë & gained Vincenzo. Chloë is British, but quite fluent in Italian (and, of course, very familiar with Italy). I'm afraid I developed quite a crush on her, and I hope I wasn't as embarrassing as I'm afraid I actually was...here's Chloë (on the right) with Katya, one of the kids:
I guess it's good to know that I can still get a crush, although it might be more practical if the object of my affection were in the same hemisphere and less than 2 generations removed in age. But then I might have to do something about it. I suppose there's an insight somewhere in there but I'm still too jet-lagged to examine it any further...Now, about having 77 American teen-age girls in a hotel in a tiny Umbrian town...that was an interesting experience. Of course, almost all of the girls were terrific and well behaved, but there were some who didn't really understand that telling an Italian (or Spanish, in some cases) man what hotel you're staying in (much less the room number) isn't just idle chit-chat. Naturally he feels that he's gotten an invitation to visit, and seeing as how local society doesn't start to swing until near midnight, well, why not show up then? Fortunately for us, as we had booked the entire hotel (and more, I was actually up the street at a different place) it was pretty easy to spot intruders. But one of our more interesting evenings as chaperones was the second night in Montecatini Terme where we basically sat at the entry and turned away disappointed boy after boy. Some got quite angry...after all, it was a public hotel, was it not? As the evening settled down, our captive Juliets sat sadly in their rooms, gazing forlornly out their windows, as their erstwhile Romeos sat in a rough semi-circle around the hotel entry glaring at the barrier (we chaperones) to their goal. Somehow I don't feel terribly guilty for interfering with their fun. Here's some of our gals being friendly upon our arrival:
Unfortunately (for our girls), this was the scene once we locked 'em in:
Safer? We hoped so...Speaking of the Hotel Goya, it's named for the famed Spanish artist Francisco Goya. I'm not sure what his connection to Montecatini Terme is, but at least copies of his art are on prominent display in the lobby:
That's 'La Maya Vestita' on top and 'La Maya Desnuda' below (copies, of course). Not pornography by any stretch but an interesting choice in lobby art. Especially with 99 high school kids in the hotel. Goya is a 3-star, which basically means no A/C and hit or miss shower pressure (not to mention small bathrooms). Now, those are things that Americans like to have when they're travelling, generally, but I didn't particularly mind because I wasn't spending a lot of time in the hotel anyway (and more to the point, I was staying up the street in the President hotel with two of the tour guides -- not Chloë, darnit) and the hotel had everything else we needed (especially, as mentioned earlier, the security of no non-Gunn HS guests). The staff were as friendly as they could be under the circumstances, especially Michaele (the night security). His poor English & my poor Italian enabled us to have conversations ranging from Bush to Indians to soccer to kids, and he also made a great espresso...I'll wind this up now, and maybe I'll add something else later depending on time. Later...
