Day 1

Day 1:

After our arrival in Roma, we met our Tour Managers, Monique and Eleanor, and bus drivers, Rein and Matteo. All our bags arrived, although we had a brief scare when one bag failed to appear on the carousel. (It turned out that it had started to come apart and had to be inspected and taped together before going on the carousel.) Our managers and drivers took us on our first tour of Roma. We saw the remains of several of the walls that once surrounded the city (18 miles of arched walls, only 2.5 miles remain), three of the original seven hills on which Roma was built, the remains of the Circus Maximus, the famous balcony from which Mussolini spoke, and other landmarks.

We left our buses and walked to the famous Trevi Fountain. The fountain is still undergoing a major renovation and it has been surrounded by see-through fencing and scaffolding for two years. While we couldn't see it in all its glory (with water spewing from the horses' mouths, etc) we marveled at how clean and brilliant the structure was and tried to imagine what must be truly spectacular when functioning. Mr. Hansen reminded us that Roma has more fountains than any other city in the world, so we knew we would see plenty of water in other places.

Truly spectacular were our first scoops of Italian ice cream and gelato. I took lots of pictures of this important event, but my camera is not yet talking to the travel iPad, so I will have to try to send them later. Until then, just imagine shots of glowing faces and colorful scoops of heaven.

We walked on to the historic Pantheon, built as a temple to the planetary gods and then spared from ruin centuries later because it had been converted for use as a Christian church. A large round hole at the top of the dome brings light to the amazing space and creates a perfect circular focal point. With urging from Monique and permission from the officials, we arranged our singers in a circle around the circular tile on the mosaic floor bathed in light from above. The Pantheon was very crowded and I would describe the noise level as a din, but as soon as the girls broke into "Dona Nobis Pacem" (grant us peace) in unison, a hush came over the crowd. We saw hundreds of spellbound (or perhaps awestruck faces) and the crowd erupted in applause when we finished the canon. A woman standing behind me grabbed my shoulder and said, "bravissima!", another man just kept saying, "Super, super....," and a third man said, "I have goosebumps!"  When we finished touring the space we returned to the circle and offered "Blessing" to all who cared to listen. At the end, a woman with tears in her eyes thanked us for the gift. The girls received many such compliments, and Elise and Olivia met a couple from DC. The woman had attended Holton and her sister-in-law graduated from Holton! Small world.

The spontaneous and informal musical moments are my favorite part of tours like this. The girls sang beautifully, and they brought extraordinary life and meaning to the historic space. We weren't singing for the people as much as we were singing in and for the space. But we were greatly rewarded to know that our serenade was a gift to so many. We hope this is just the first of many wonderful musical offerings on this journey.

From the Pantheon we walked to the Piazza Navona with the incredible "Four Rivers" fountain by Bernini as the centerpiece. We enjoyed a late lunch in our chaperone groups and then wandered around the square before returning to our buses. We were delighted to check into our first hotel, an ornate and antique-filled former manor house in the embassy district. After refreshing showers, we enjoyed our first three-course dinner al fresco and serenaded our Sweet Sixteen Sydney over tiramisu. Our dolce course even included apricots from the trees on the terrace. Then, to our delight, almost every girl was ready to go to bed bey 9 pm!

It was a great first day, and even in their fatigued state, the girls were polite and charming ambassadors and simply wonderful company for the equally fatigued Team Italy. Off to Vatican City at 7:30 tomorrow morning!

MJP