Assisi and Perugia

I found the beginning of a blog post that was never posted, and I was inspired to finish it before my last meal here. I'm sitting outside on the terrazzo with a group of Italian card players, and with my favorite Dei Duchi hotel workers passing by. All of my favorite workers were scheduled today. I am such a lucky girl! :)

As I sat down this afternoon to write out my weekly schedule, I realized that I only have about two weeks left in Italy. I can't believe it's gone by so fast. Today was a busy day, with scales class, orchestra rehearsal, quartet rehearsal, and personal practice time. Tomorrow is even busier, since I'll be playing in a string masterclass for Dr. Yim, a violinist on faculty here in Spoleto. There's a choir concert tomorrow night, and then Dr. Yim is having all of the violists over to his apartment for dinner!

Today was a bit rough, considering that I was recovering from an awesome concert Saturday night, and an absolutely lovely day trip to Assisi and Perugia on Sunday. Concerning the concert, it went well, especially considering our limited prep time. It featured several famous scenes from different operas, with an overture at the beginning and a Smetana Polka to showcase just the orchestra. This concert was the conducting students' big night, as each of the conducting students had two opera pieces to conduct with soloists and orchestra. Working with a variety of conducting styles was certainly interesting, and with our Maestro there, critiquing each one, I learned a lot about the art of conducting. I definitely learned enough to know that I'd never want to do it! :) The concert was almost two hours long, AND we started 20 minutes _after_ nine. I didn't realize we'd be THAT true to Italian concert tradition, but apparently, if you want Italians to attend the concerts, you don't open the curtain for at least 10 or 15 minutes after the printed time. Depending on the situation and how you look at it, Italians' complete disregard for rules, times, and even road signs can either be hilarious, infuriating, or anything inbetween. Every single time I hear a vehicle coming, I jump in the nearest doorway or behind the nearest dumpster because I constantly fear for my life. The tight curves and narrow roads in this town give the locals no amount of concern, and luckily for the drivers, pedestrians always give motorists the right of way. Anyway, the concert went well, and the local bar down the street opened up its doors for an afterparty, complete with discounted drinks and food.

My trip to Assisi and Perugia was absolutely wonderful. Assisi is about a twenty minute train ride from Spoleto, and it is home to the famous St. Francis (Francesco) of Assisi. I traveled there with an assortment of my singer and instrumentalist friends and with the violin professor, Dr. Yim. Many festival participants chose the same day to travel to Assisi, so the train was full of familiar faces. When we arrived in Assisi, we headed up to the main cattedrale, where Francesco lived and studied, and we attended mass there. Distracted by the fact that: 1)I'm not Catholic,2) I don't understand Italian, and 3)there was a constant stream of tourists not so silently passing through the chapel during mass, I spent most of the time listening to the words of the priests echo through the hall and staring at the beautiful frescos. The sheer square footage of preserved frescos in the chapel is impressive enough, not to mention the paintings themselves were absolutely beautiful. The crypt housing Francesco was located right under the chapel, so as soon as mass was over, we ventured under for a look. I could tell by the size and setup of the crypt room just how important Francesco is to the people of Italy. In the crypts that I've seen, St Francis' is second only to St Peter's in Vatican City. It's also pretty high on the creepiness scale. The only other bodies in the crypt are all labeled as "the companion of St Francis." It's cool that he and his friends can hang out down there together.

Our Assisi trip was a short one, since we were all trying to hit two cities in one day, so we zoomed through a Rocca tour at the top of the hill(fantastic view!), and explored a couple beautiful churches and an even more beautiful pastry shop (yum yum!). Despite a missed train, a delayed train, and a very grumpy ticket worker, we made it to Perugia in time to enjoy one of the best meals I've ever had in my life(I think several meals have earned that title!:) To travel to the top of Perguia from the train station, we had to take a "mini metro," which was BY FAR the cutest and most exciting public transportation I have ever taken in my entire life. The track looked like a children's rollercoaster, the boxcars were red on the inside, there weren't any obligatory seatbelts, and there was a metro every 5 minutes. What more could you ask for? The minimetro deposited us at the top of Perugia, and Dr. Yim led us to his favorite restaurant. We literally spent all of our time in Perugia eating. And let me tell you, there is no better way to spend the day when you're at the seat of Umbria and at the home of some of the world's best chocolate. I ate more there than I should have in one day, but I'm still pretty sure that my cat has me beat in the vacation weight gain competition, thanks to my dad's indulgent care. :)

We passed a few good hours at the dinner table in Perguia, realized the late hour, and scurried around the city to take some quick snapshots and find the local chocolatier. Unfortunately, the main chocolate shop was closed that day, but we found a pretty satisfying substitute, and we ate it as we ran to the minimetro. At this point, we had ten minutes to buy tickets for the mini, ride it, buy tickets for the train, validate them, find the right binario, and board. On our way down the "rollercoaster," we contemplated the most efficient way to get on the train, and as soon as the doors opened, we ran. We sprinted towards the train station like the very stuffed and clueless American tourists that we were, fumbled through our wallets to buy the tickets, and raced to the train. The train pulled up as we validated our tickets and ran to the track, and after finding the second class boxcar, we all hopped in. I think those few moments may have taken a year or two off of my life, but I don't think I could've picked a better place to tarry than a Perugian dinner table.

The Grand Finale!

I can't believe I haven't updated in two weeks! I can't believe our last concert was tonight! I can't believe that the festival is over! I can't believe we're leaving on Tuesday! I have so much to blog about from the past two weeks--For anyone who is interested, I will continue blogging until all of the last two weeks are documented!! :) But tonight, I just want to write what is on my mind from today. As I type this post, I'm listening to Nat King Cole's "I Love You for Sentimental Reasons," and, considering my emotional attachment to Spoleto, it's definitely appropriate! :)

Tonight was our last concert here in Spoleto. It started twenty minutes late(in the usual Italian way) and went for about two hours. We played an assortment of opera scenes, accompanied by the solisti, studio, and opera program singers. The big hits were from Bizet's Carmen, Donizietti's Don Pasquale, and several Mozart selections (Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, and The Marriage of Figaro). For our "encore" piece, and for a little thank you gift for Spoleto, we closed the curtain with a rendition of Verdi's "Va Pensiero," a truly moving tune that has become a kind of national anthem for the Italians. Considering the history of the piece(it's also known as the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves), and the fact that it was our last night in Spoleto, there were a few tears shed in the music-making process tonight!!

Tears were also shed at Lo Sfizioso, the sandwich shop in Piazza del Mercato that I visit everyday. Sabrina doesn't normally work on Sundays, but she came into work today just to say goodbye. I gave her and Clara some tasty dark chocolate as a thank you for being such sweet friends to me during my stay, and they pulled out a gift of delicious cookies in return! It was a special moment we had today, appreciating the friendship we've had, and the fragments of broken English and Italian that we both used to bridge the language barrier halfway. I wrote a card for Sabrina and Clara, completely in Italian (with horrendous spelling and grammar, I'm sure!!), and Sabrina teared up because I'd learned so much!! :)

Finding the right time to say goodbyes has been difficult, since most businesses are closed on Sundays and tomorrow for some special Italian holiday. (I'm still not quite sure what's going on!) Tomorrow, I'll be saying goodbye to Filipo, Alessandra, and "Filipo due" from the gelato shop. I tried to say goodbye today, but my camera died, so we're going to have a rerun tomorrow afternoon! I hope that there will be some restaurants open tomorrow, but I had the most delicious meal of my Italian experience tonight, just in case I won't have the opportunity tomorrow. I had a three course (basically four) meal tonight at a restaurant called barcaccia. We had the house bread, a vegetable platter of green beans, peas and tomatoes(YUM), handmade ravioli stuffed with ricotta and some delicious greens and drizzled with an olive oil sauce, a warm chocolate fudge cake, and complimentary watermelon. It was literally some of the best food I've had in my entire life. I'm certainly not looking forward to returning to my limited cooking skills, but I do have some new ideas to try out.

As much as I'm looking forward to coming home, I'm truly torn! Five weeks is a long stay, and I feel like Spoleto has become my little Italian home. Tomorrow, I'm planning on simply walking around the city, speaking in my broken Italian, and eating as much as I can. ^^

Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony

...is a beast. Or rather, I feel like a beast playing it. All of our hard work is done, and now we have to hurry up and wait to play it tonight. I just got back in from scales class and a 3 hour dress rehearsal, and I'm totally whipped, even despite my coffee. I'm not sure who thought that a complete runthru the morning of the concert was a good idea, but we did it. Last night, the violists had a 2 hour sectional to work out some tricky spots. Overall, the piece has made phenomenal progress over the past 6 days, but I wish we had maybe 2 more days to rehearse. Every movement is so physically and emotionally taxing. There are SO many notes! The piece is nothing but angst and passion, tension and release. I'm greatly looking forward to the concert tonight, but I'm also looking forward to the break that will follow.

I think working on this piece has been good for me, challenging me to rise to a new level of discipline in lots of different areas. The viola section has been great to work with so far, and I've enjoyed learning new things from my colleagues. The 2 hour sectional last night was completely student-led and student-scheduled. Wish us luck tonight...we're performing at 9pm, Italy time.

I used to think that if I was in the music field long enough and played enough music, I'd eventually just become some kind of awesome music-making machine that could produce any sound, any passage, at any given time. But the longer I'm in music, and the more exposure I have to different musicians, the more I realize that music-making is a life long journey, and events and experiences in your life change your sound over time. I've also learned that the same piece played again is never _just_ the same piece. The notes may not have changed since the last time you picked it up, but your journey through the passages will always be unique. It's the endlessness of things to learn and sounds to make that sometimes gets me overwhelmed in the practice room, but at least for today, I'm finding the concept of the endless journey to be irresistibly exciting.

Firenze(Florence) and Oggi(Today)

Tighten your seatbelts....it's a long entry. Feel free to skip around to the good parts :)

My adventure to Firenze (Florence) was truly an unforgettable experience in many ways. I left Spoleto in a group of four new friends: Zach(viola), Jen(mezzo), and Junghye(piano), and we ended up meeting another friend at the train station-Kathryn(violin). When we arrived at the train station, our train was slated to be 30 minutes late. We still had plenty of time to make our connection in Foligno, so we had a nice coffee and pastry at a nearby caffe. During our coffee break, the wait was changed to 90 minutes, then 110, and then 150-Ha! I'm still convinced that train never came. Since we went on a Sunday, there were fewer trains running, so we knew that if we waited for the train to come, we'd miss our connection in Foligno, and we'd have to forgo the trip altogether. We went and stumbled through Italian to ask the ladies at the bar if there were any available buses going to Foligno. After all of our effort in trying to communicate with them, they simply said, “no bus, just take the train.” Harrumph. It was crucial that we went to Florence on Sunday due to certain reservations, etc, so our next options was a taxi. Foligno was only twenty minutes away, and we figure that dividing that cost by 5 people shouldn't be too bad. HA! After the third phone call to a taxi, we finally got someone to pick us up. He was very fast in coming to get us, but when he arrived he said, “you have 5. I can take 4.” Wrong answer, buddy. We pleaded with sweet little per favore's and grazie's, and finally he let us squish in the taxi. He said (in Italian of course), you may be good enough friends to squeeze back there, but the police don't care how friendly you are.” And boy, we were friendly. Needless to say, whenever we passed a cop, I got to dive down into the floor, which greatly amused our driver. He was tailgating unlike anything I have ever seen and he was driving pretty fast, I figured he'd have more than just one problem if the cops saw him. Even despite his fast driving, we still ended up owing him 66 euro. It was a high price to pay, but we had memories to make in Florence that day.

Our train was delayed in Foligno, but only by a bit, so we walked around the small town and found a Blockbuster (I was amazed to find one in Italy, since we don't even have any in the states!), and a beautiful old church that apparently had been bombed during World War I and had been restored in 2004. The parishioners were decorating the church for a wedding, but they let us take a peek inside. For such a small town, they certainly have a magnificent church.

When we arrived in Firenze, it was raining, but we certainly didn't let that stop us. Our first stop was a church and a piazza that gave us our first little idea of Florence. All of the piazzas seemed open and spacious, much calmer and chic than Roma. Our whole time there seemed very relaxed and reflective. Maybe that was because of Florence, or simply because we ventured there on a Sunday. When we turned the corner and I caught my first glimpse of the duomo, it was truly an unforgettable moment. I was more awestruck by this moment than my first glimpse of the Colosseum. Again, I wish that I had taken a picture of all of our faces as we beheld the beauty of the duomo for the first time. Since I'm horribly ignorant of European landmarks, I'd never even seen a picture of it before. But you didn't need to tell me what I was looking at. I knew as soon as I saw the building that this was Florence's pride and joy. We all stopped to take pictures in the road on the way to the duomo piazza. We all stopped to take pictures from the sidewalk. We proceeded to take a few steps and then stop again to take more photos. We maybe made ten steps before we took even more. Eventually, Jen asked if we were ready to enter the piazza. We made it that far and actually saw the entire front facade. We definitely stopped yet again. I just hope I have enough photos to remember it! :)

We planned on entering the duomo later, so we enjoyed spending the rest of the day eating the best meal of my Italian experience at a place called Za-Za's, having the best gelato of my LIFE right by the river(Dad, I got peach flavored just for you), walking by all of the museums (you could spend days wandering through Florentine museums), seeing a few piazzas, shooting the golden doors of the baptistry, and walking on the bridge, over the river. We didn't have time to see David, but we bought a miniature statue that is currently showing up in certain random Spoleto photos. Our miniature statue is also currently wearing a napkin toga.

Fast forward to the end of the day where we entered the duomo. We entered as tourists first and got several blurry shots ( I still haven't mastered the flash-less photo), and then we waited in the rain to attend a 5:15 Vespers service. The guard seemed surprised that a group of young whippersnappers wanted to attend the Vespri service. He said as much to his friend, and little did he know we could understand his Italian...we just smiled sweetly at him and said, “Si!” This Vespers service was particularly unique, because the entire service was in Gregorian chant. Hearing the sounds of mass echo in the duomo was truly a beautiful experience, even though I'm not Catholic, and I can't understand Latin. I wondered what it was like as a peasant, attending church and not understanding the words spoken or the people speaking. I wondered what it was like, having the entire town of Firenze in attendance at this building, back when il duomo was the only place to go to church. I wondered at the quality of the Gregorian chant back in the day. In the duomo, I saw real pages of Gregorian chant “music.” Some of the oldest musical notation around! Before the church service started, the bells tolled for the hour, and it was such a neat experience hearing the bells ringing from inside of the duomo. It was eerily silent, besides the bells, as all of the tourists had been ushered out of the duomo, and there were maybe 15-20 people attending Vespers. I really won't forget the sounds echoing in the duomo. If you ever get a chance, you really ought to attend a service there, just to hear the silence. And to hear the sound.

Speaking of sound, as I'm writing this, I can hear the rain falling outside! It's been raining all day in Spoleto, and all week the temperature has been in the mid to low 70s. I'm certainly not complaining, as I've heard that a heat wave has struck back home. I only wish I would've brought more pants. I've been washing all of my clothes in the sink here with some soap made especially for handwashing. That's been an adventure. A time-consuming and exhausting adventure. While I normally agree with the motto, “if you want it done right, do it yourself,” I'd willingly admit that the washing machine back home has me beat at this job.

This week has been especially difficult, as we're rehearsing Rachmaninoff's 2^nd symphony. This may be one of the most difficult orchestral works I have played. It's relentless. It wears down one's energy pretty fast, not to mention wrists. Each day this week, I've had stop practicing earlier than I want to simply because my wrists are exhausted. And I've certainly learned never to play through wrist pain. (This situation is one of the few exceptions to “no pain, no gain”). The motto for string players is a bit different. It would probably sound something like: play thru pain, never play again. I'm very excited though, because all of my hard practicing is really starting to pay off. Today's rehearsal was the first of the week that I wasn't completely depressed afterwards! After Monday and Tuesday's rehearsals, the orchestra members shuffled off silently, each to his or her doom in the practice room. But today, I heard snippets of chatter and laughter again. It's nice to know the hard work is starting to come together. We're also accompanying a famous Korean violinist (my Korean roommates are awestruck...I think they've mentioned her every night when we're chatting ;) on the Sibelius violin concerto, and rehearsing with her today was very exciting. Whew. I think we're all caught up! Now my hands are sore from typing. Time to run off to the chamber concert!

Roma

The long-awaited blog post of my Roma adventures is finally here. Don't get too excited folks, it's a pretty brief (meant to be brief, this totally _isn't_ brief)recap. This week's practicing schedule has been heavy and energy levels are running at an all-time low here in Spoleto. I see few students venturing out for walks (maybe that's because I'm not outside either). We've mostly been practicing and wishing we had more to eat than the cheap pizza that we can afford(needless to say, I spent a lot of euros in Florence, but they were euros well spent! :). There are six concerts this week as well as the usual masterclasses, rehearsals, and lessons. Anyway, I digress....

Back to Roma. My adventures began at 5 am, as the group of 5 met outside our hotels and walked down to the train station, which is located at the bottom of Spoleto. The very bottom of Spoleto. One doesn't realize how far down Spoleto goes until you have to return up to your hotel from the train station after a looong day of tourism! :) We don't use north or south here as much as we use up and down. I went to Roma with my new singer friends, Elly and Sam, and my new viola friends, Zachary and Abby. We made good travelling group, since we were all interested in traversing the entire city on foot AND were were all interested in being as thrifty (yet thorough) as possible. We stumbled off the train in Roma and perked up after a delicious cup of coffee at a little stop in near the train station. That restaurant didn't look like much, but I find that those not-so-notable places are the ones with the BEST coffee. We continued on to a church called S Maria Maggiore, whose front facade was designed by Michaelangelo himself! This church was the first massive church that I had been in at that point, and I was completely overwhelmed by the grandeur of the place. Our little country-bumpkin group from Spoleto was so awed by the church that we all took a seat to take in all of the beauty. (Little did we know what was waiting for us at St Peter's Basilica). This was the first church that inspired my thought on the grandeur of a church acting as a reminder to the people of their littleness in relation to God. Not only do the churches make you feel insignificant, but they always cause you to look upward (literally). We tarried here for while, until we realized that we had much more in store for the day. Crossing the traffic circle infront of this church was an adventure in itself, and it probably took a few years off of my life. All you need to know is that there was a lot of indecision, screaming, and sprinting involved.

I wish I had taken a picture as we rounded the corner towards the Colosseum. Certainly, I got plenty of pictures of the building itself. But the real moment of Kodak quality was the look on each of our faces as we saw it for the first time. There were several moments during our Roma tour when you could hear a collective gasp. I don't think I've ever been so surprised by glimpse of a building, but Roma had many surprises in store. The Colosseum was our first stop, and it was a mad house. There were people EVERYwhere. If I had any fear for pick-pocketing, it was at the Colosseum. There were street-vendors, beggars, tour guides, little men dressed up in plastic gladiator uniforms (you'd think they could've made leather ones...), and of course, tourists. We decided not to pay the fee to see inside the Colosseum and the forum, and honestly, I don't think we missed much. We saw almost everything from different vantage points along the road, and we snapped several photos from a nearby bridge. When we walked right up next to the Colosseum, the group grew serious as we saw a mini graveyard realized that the very structure we were awed by was originally used as a human slaughter house. I spent some time thinking about all of the persecution that the Christians were subjected to under Roman government, and as much as the Romans contributed to society, there were certainly major major drawbacks to such a strong European power in the ancient world.

We were heckled by SO many of the little plastic gladiators. They mocked our bad Italian accents and growled awkwardly. I think they were enjoying their machoman personas. I even heard them volunteer to slaughter someone's whiny kid. Ha! We continued our tour of Roma past the forum. The ruins were really truly fascinating. Imagining what had been their before was fun. We walked past several sculptures in the museum's courtyard. I even walked past Peter's prison cell. I decided not to pay for it this time. I wonder what Peter would think about people paying 15-20 euro to see his prison cell. Ha!

Only two sights in Roma cued music in my head, and they were the enormous twin statues guarding the entrance to the museum plazza, and the state building. The state building was so.......white. And amazing. It makes the white house look like off-white ivory. I was seriously blinded by how white the building was. And it was SO gigantic. There were beautiful beautiful statues. I really have a thing about statues. I love sculptures. There were stairs and people everywhere. Just a note to future tourists...if you so much as allow a square centimeter of your rear end to settle on of the stairs, a police man will blow a whistle and ask you to leave. Standing only. Only standing. No sitting. Capito??

After the state building, we all headed to the infamous Trevi fountain to send in a coin and a wish. I'd tell you my wish, but then I'd have to kill you all. But suffice it to say that it was one of the most grownup wishes I've ever had. I always feel so much pressure when I'm blowing out birthday candles, so my mind blurts some stupid wish out and I realize later how silly they all are. Well, wishing in general is silly, but the Trevi fountain certainly is full of wishes. And euros. The Trevi fountain was beautiful but it was so crowded. To get to the fountain, you were either stepping on someone's dog or someone's child. I was happy to get out of there! :)

Blah blah blah. I seriously need to learn to consolidate. After lots of other sights, we finally arrived in Vatican city, which, heads up, you do NOT need your passport to enter, ha! We were smart to arrive at the Vatican in the afternoon, as the lines were really manageable, and we didn't end up waiting long at all to enter. Luckily, we were all dressed for entrance into a holy place, because I saw some girls turned away because their shoulders were covered, or their kneecaps were showing, etc, etc. St. Peter's Basilica. Where do I even begin? It was gorgeous. It was huge. It was overwhelming. I was tired. It was in St. Peter's Basilica where I began to understand why, back in the Christianity's history, the little man (aka the everyday worker) felt so far away from God. All of the statues are above eye level, looking down on you. The artwork is HUGE. The front of the church is SO far away from the benches for seating. The ceiling is so high my neck was aching by the end. There are side chambers of side chambers of secondary main chambers....etc. The building is too grand. Just too much. I really was overwhelmed by it. Maybe I was just tired. I just couldn't see everything, there was so much! I enjoyed seeing it, but it really was just like sensory overload. I really can't describe it. Ya'll should just go there! :)

Anyway, I also went down into the crypt where a lot of the Popes are buried. There's plenty of room for more down there...they have a HUGE crypt. One of the biggest I've seen. They also have a completely separate, gated-off chamber where the body of Saint Peter is supposedly buried. I think I need to research my Peter history. I'm a little confused at how he had a Roman prison cell and then ended up buried in the heart of Roma's main, top-notch religious center.

Well, to end this ramble, I just have to say that on the way back to the train station, we witnessed a shop-lifter just a few meters in front of us. One got away and one was pinned to the wall by a police officer. We watched the man run away through the traffic and down an alley way. We're pretty sure we saw him later as we made our way down to the metro. I also got kicked out of the McDonalds in Roma because I took a picture of the menu. Don't worry, I wasn't planning on eating there. On the way back to Spoleto, our tickets were checked by the train serviceman, and apparently, we'd printed the wrong tickets for our trip. We tried to explain that we didn't realize that student tickets were only for EU students, but he didn't seem to care, so we had to pay the price of the ticket (again) AND a fee for being caught on the train with the wrong ticket). That was a super disappointing circumstance, but we still managed to see Roma for under 30 euro.

Firenze will be up next!! :)

Basilica di S Salvatore and Outdoor Concerts

A day or so after my visit to Ponziano, I went to visit the Basilica di S Salvatore. I went here primarily on the recommendation of the man who showed me around Ponziano, and it certainly exceeded my expectations. Salvatore was just a little ways up the road from Ponziano, although I did make a couple wrong turns on my way up there. It was a bit of a hike, but nothing that my viola section friend Zach and I couldn't handle! Prior to our journey, I had worked on memorizing some Italian phrases, and the Salvatore day was my first day actually speaking Italian to a native. We met a man in the courtyard outside of the Basilica, and I asked him in Italian if we could enter. He said yes, and at the time, I'm glad that's all he said because I wouldn't have understood much more! :) Zach and I headed into the entrance and we found the Basilica and its surrounding graveyard completely empty. We waltzed right in, and we were greeted by a beautiful glimpse of the past. As soon as I walked in the duomo, I was absolutely impressed by the awesomeness of such an ancient building! We found a couple brochures sitting on a small table in the back of the duomo, and it was from these brochures that we found the approximate date of the church's construction to be about 600AD. Honestly, there wasn't much to see in the duomo, but the huge, cave-like sanctuary and the very live acoustics were impressive enough. There were a few very worn frescos, and you can see pictures of them in my facebook album, Italia. At that point in the trip, I had never ever seen anything soooo old, much less walked right into a deserted historical place to touch the very stones that were placed over a thousand years ago. The brochure said that some of the pillars used in the original construction were possibly borrowed from pre-existing structures, so it may be that those pillars were even older than the church itself.

Well, once I write about my Roma trip, we'll be completely caught up to my present experiences. This evening I'm attending a masterclass on orchestra excerpts, so that should be interesting and informative. I'm not playing today, but I hope to play some of my solo rep in a later masterclass. Last night, I attended two concerts put on by CCM Spoleto: the 2nd chamber concert(musica da camera) and the very first jazz concert. Both concerts were well-played and well attended by both CCMers and local Spoleto people. In fact, last night, we learned at the chamber concert that most Italians don't mind letting their phones ring during performances and they also don't mind answering them. The concert was outside, so birds were tweeting above the terrace and children were calling out in the street. I must say, I've never been to such an interactive chamber concert before...that was certainly a first. Brava to everyone who played, despite the unplanned distractions. A local restaurant and bar hosted a welcoming party/jam session for all CCMers last night. I didn't make it last night, but apparently, the owner of the restaurant said that we're welcome to come and jam any night of the week!

Chiesa e Monastero di S Ponziano

Last week, one of my first afternoon explorations involved visiting Chiesa e Monastero di S Ponziano. I've already forgotten some of the precious details about the chiesa since it seems like weeks ago that I visited! As you can see from my pictures, I decided to save some energy and take one of the two escalators that run in the city of Spoleto. This particular escalator begins slightly below the Rocca and takes you towards the west end of town. It exists in seven different sections that automatically turn off after a period of idleness and turn on when the weight sensor detects you at the top. What's really fun is when you approach the dormant sections, step on the first stair, and get jolted by the sudden movement of it turning on...but, I digress.

Ponziano. I had heard from the Spoleto tour guide that there was a road cutting under highway SS N 3 Flaminia (the old Roman road that connects Rome to the east coast via Spoleto), that allowed safe passage to Ponziano, but I wasn't exactly sure where I was going. Accompanied by my two roommates who had no idea how far I was intending on going, and my new friend Elly Chew, I trudged up a new hill in search of this road. We eventually found the road AND the chiesa and enjoyed a nice view of Spoleto from a little “foothill.” As we entered the courtyard to Ponziano(a place that appeared all but deserted), a man called out to us in Italian. He quickly discovered that we spoke very little Italian, and so instead of speaking, he took our hands and headed towards the door. He pulled back an enormous door—behind which was another set of doors—and we were amazed at how we'd somehow managed to land ourselves a guided tour. Once we entered the chiesa, he began to speak to us with all of the English he knew to tell us about the chiesa. The “sanctuary” was built in the Baroque era, and it is the most modern part of the chiesa. It was at Ponziano that I first learned of typical European church construction. Typically, from what I've seen here in Italy, you have a church with three “aisles”; the center is filled with pews, and the side “aisles” have artwork, sculptures, and confessional booths. The organ can be tucked away in many different places, but usually, it's near the front of the church, in a balcony that may initially be hidden from your view. The organ may also appear at the back of the church, above the entrance.

More interesting is the crypt. Every church I've been in so far (except for S Salvatore) has had a crypt that is beneath the front platform. In every case, the crypt is by far the oldest part of the church. The crypt in S Ponziano was absolutely beautiful. In some ways, I was more impressed by this ancient crypt than all the finery of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. You can see my photos on facebook of the crypt, and you'll see several beautiful frescos that have survived the test of time. Only a few of the frescos in Panziano were ever restored, and even so, the restorations were limited to square centimeter spaces. These restorations most likely happened in an era that most Americans would still consider ancient. I can't remember exact dates on each of the frescos, but our guide used his fingers to tell us that they were all from the early 1100s. He told us which pillars were original, and where the original doors to the crypt had been blocked in. At one point, he took my hand and put it up on a fresco so that I could feel the beeswax coating that had been the reason for its survival all these years. He was excited to point out the appearance of each member of the trinity on the fresco in the center of the crypt. The fresco depicted Jesus' crucifixion, with God the Father shown above in heaven, and the Holy Spirit as a dove perched on top of the cross. It was a beautiful fresco, and he eagerness to describe that moment in time to us was also beautiful. The hallway to the crypt had a few random frescos that we simply passed by. I can't imagine having so much history living around you that there isn't even enough time to see all of it!

As we exited the church, we could hear the nuns praying the evening prayers. It sounded like a buzzing beehive, although we found out later that there are only 9 nuns living there today. Our guide said that the monastery had changed from housing monks to housing nuns about 104 years ago, and he's uncertain how long that tradition will continue. Beatta Marina, who I imagine was one of the first nuns to serve at Ponziano, is “buried” in a glass case in one of the side aisles. (I only know her name because I asked our tour guide in my broke Italian "there, who woman dead?") It took me a while to realize what I was looking at, and as soon as I did, I snapped a quick picture like a good little tourist, and hopped outta there super fast!!

"Adagio, Adagio"

I keep waiting to blog until I've filled ya'll in on the local duomos and the Roma trip, but I just haven't had a chance to compose those posts yet! Hang with me for a little longer, and we'll see if I can post them soon! My music engagements are picking up a bit since we're starting to have chamber group rehearsals for our many chamber concerts. Also, masterclasses, individual lessons, and group scale lessons are starting this week, giving the instrumentalists some more music to prepare. We've starting rehearsing on the stage in the Teatro Nuovo, our main performance venue here in Spoleto. It was on stage that I realized upstage and downstage really used to have literal meanings. I'm terrified that with any particularly energetic upbow, I just might send myself flying into the orchestra pit! Our first orchestra concert is scheduled for Saturday, and rumor has it that Mahler's granddaughter is going to attend our performance. The Mahlers own a house in Spoleto, and I think they might be visiting for the weekend. This has definitely increased the amount of pressure for a stellar performance, and I'm hoping that the next few days will bring even more inspiration to pay attention to the symphony's finer details.

Today, I had a lesson with a cellist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra! I played some Bach from the cello suites and learned some really interested things about Bach interpretation from him. I'm excited to let what he spoke about ferment in my brain. Yesterday, I had an Alexander Technique class with a certified woman on staff. There were 8 musicians in the class, but she had time to look at my set up, and help me learn to work with my muscles to make my playing more efficient and ergonomic. She had a lot to say about bodymapping...meaning your mental concept of how your body is put together. Everyone has an idea of how their body works and how it's all connected, and your movements all happen based on that frame of reference. However, sometimes our concept of our body's makeup is inaccurate. This led me to lots of new thoughts and questions, so I'll have to let that simmer too.

I've been trying my best to learn as much Italiano as I can while I'm here. I've made two friends at my favorite sandwich shop(Lo Sfizioso) in the piazza del mercato. Their names are Sabrina and Clara, and they both are helping learn a little bit of Italian everyday in exchange for a few lessons in English grammar/vocabulary. Sabrina has a gigantic Dizionare of English-Italian Italiano-Inglese words, so I find myself flipping through the book everyday, memorizing some vocab that I can try out at dinner time. My goal is to learn three new phrases everyday and use them in conversation with a local person. So far, I've been pretty successful, and the Italians have been very gracious in correcting my horrible grammar/accent. Clara doesn't know any English, and Sabrina knows a little from when she attended school. Sabrina has lived in Spoleto her whole life, and she's exactly what I imagined a European shop lady would be like. She sits outside her store in the afternoons, chatting with her friends until a customer drops by. Her store has seen A LOT of action since the American students have come to town. It's literally a sandwich buffet, and all of the ingredients are SO fresh. The only problem is, you have to learn what they're called so that you can ask for them. Usually, if I don't know what something is called, I just point and say "questo, per favore," which means, "this, please." They always teach me afterwards how to order my ingredients, and I find that they are very patient as I slowly try to talk to them and tell them about myself. Today at dinnertime, I ordered my sandwich and I sat outside on the sidewalk, flipping through the Dizionare. I chatted with Clara about how Italian music words have helped me a lot...in fact, I didn't realize just how many Italian words I did know, thanks to reading music! I told her that I'm sad that my Italian is so bad, and she looked at me with a smile as she said, "poco, poco, adagio, adagio" (little by little, slowly slowly).

Prelude

Well!! There is so much to catch ya'll up on, and I'd really love to type everything up before I leave for Rome in the morning. I know when I return from my Roma escapade, I'll have TONS more to say! To start off, here's a brief overview of what a typical day looks like for me here in Spoleto. We have orchestra rehearsal from 9am to 12pm, I usually practice from 12pm-2:30pm, and then from 2:30-4:30pm, the entire town observes “pausa,” a pause in the day when businesses close and people go home to eat lunch or nap. During this time, practicing is absolutely prohibited, as any noise may disgruntle a neighbor, and that neighbor may very well be only ten feet from your window, ha! It's during this time that I've been able to explore, find a quiet spot to journal or read my Bible, hike, or explore local historical sites(kinda funny...the entire town is a historical site!). I really enjoy pausa, because it's teaching me to take a break, to slow down, and to savor the moments that I have here. I've reflected on the music I'm practicing, and I've just sat and reflected on the awesome awesome glory of God that is literally screaming from beautiful these rolling hills. The heat doesn't seem to bother me too much. I don't like to sweat, but I certainly haven't let that keep me indoors. Also, thanks to my marathon training, scaling the hill several times everyday is pretty simple for my legs. I'm very thankful for this, because the heat saps my energy enough, even if I don't notice it. At 4:30pm, I usually practice some more or do some kind of housekeeping business(small things like connecting to the internet, adding euro to my Italian phone, buying a ticket for the weekend trip, etc, can take FIVE TIMES as long as in the US...for instance, today I spent 3 hrs on purchasing a train ticket for my Roma trip), and then later in the evening, I find some fellow festival mates and start the long walk/search for dinner. Places don't open for dinner here until 8pm or maybe 7:30pm at the earliest. The air is much cooler in the evening, so everyone seems to sit outside on the vias or on their balconies to enjoy the breeze. As I type, I can here a group of people talking below my window. I absolutely love hearing them speak, especially since I have no idea what they're saying. It's so peaceful to hear language without the burden of one's mind automatically understanding it! (Sometimes this definitely is not true. Sometimes I really want to know what they're saying. Especially when they're speaking directly to me and requiring a response). Anyway, after dinner, I might walk by some fellow students busking, or I might walk by a gelato shop, thinking of any reason why I shouldn't go in, and rarely do any come to mind. The night life here is absolutely beautiful.

So. We're going to skip my first day here, because it was bad. It was rough, horrible, and I don't want to remember it. Suffice it to say that an ignorant, scared, emotional, and jet-lagged American twenty-something was dumped on the side of the road in a foreign country with only a few vaguely familiar faces and no one who really knew what anyone was saying. Things have definitely improved.

Day two's adventure consisted of a tour, provided by the festival. We walked all over the city, observing some of the ruins that are still left from Roman occupation, such as the acquaduct, the arc de triumph(NOT the French one), the Casa Romana(dwelling place of the mother of one of the Emperors), and a few really crumbly walls. It's amazing how the city of Spoleto provides evidences of SO many time periods, all built around/ontop of each other. We toured the Cattedrale di S Maria Assunta, which is in the Piazza del duomo, a plaza that Spoleto uses as a concert venue for their Festival del Mundi....their huge awesome annual music festival that just ended last week. I wish I could remember all of the dates for the different churches I've seen, but since so much of the information is either in Italian or simply not specified, I tend to forget any concept of age that I may have understood from some vague interaction with a local. Ha! That sentence just speaks to the vagueness of it all. We also circled around the Rocca Albornoziana, which resides at the very top of the Spoletan hill. The acquaduct creates a walking bridge between this Spoletan hill and the hill right next to it, which is the 800 ft Monteluco. I plan on climbing Monteluco sometime this month because the journey promises a great workout, a beautiful view, and an ancient, still-functioning monastery.

So far, the locals have been so wonderful. The people that work at my hotel, Hotel Dei Duchi are extremely pleasant, and they smile through my sad attempts to communicate with them in Italian, and kindly correct my poor accent. They serve an AMAZING breakfast here, with the best coffee I have EVER tasted.....sorry Starbucks! The juice they serve is something I can't describe, but I'm sure it's some kind of blend of some known fruits. They also serve fresh croissants, and some even have a delightful chocolate surprise in the middle. Besides the hotel staff, my favorite people are the little old man that works at the fruit shop in the piazza del mercato, the woman who runs the sandwich shop across the piazza from him, the sweet middle-aged man who sells gelato on Corso G Mazzini, and the nice little man (who can barely speak English) who showed me around ancient Monastero di S Ponziano in a shirt that said, “give this man a beer.” I ran into him today actually, and he recognized me, kissed my cheek and recommended several more excellent, ancient local sites.

My roommates, Korean twins Sara and Hanna Jin, have been very sweet and kind to me during my stay with them. I've been so blessed to have an welcoming apartment to return to at the end of each day. They don't mind my loud practicing or my compulsive cleaning, so I think we'll still be great friends after these five weeks! :) I'll write about my visit to the Monastero di S Ponziano and the Basilica di S Salvatore in another post. Keep in mind that all of my adventures can be reviewed pictorially here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150254766363467.345521.500133466&l=3011f0c94d

That's all for tonight. Off to Roma in the morning!

First Blog, First Post!

I finally have a blog! I'm excited about this, but I'm still unaware of the commitment I've just jumped into. Here I will sit, thinking long and hard about when to blog, what to say, and how to say it. I'll probably spend too much time deciding these things. But, I suppose the important thing is that I'm sharing-with all of you-my musings on this life as it passes by. And hopefully, if I attend to this well, I'll be enjoying the moments more because I'll be able to return to them, reread them, and remember the memories of "the sweet life" here in Italy.