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. ^^