Rome, Italy
Day 1
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Lunch when we just got to Rome
It was a very early morning. With a 5:30 wake up and a 6:30 departure, many ringers rested on the bus and caught a couple more hours of sleep. We were again reminded of "Italian" time when our supposed three and a half hour trip turned out to be over six hours. This extended road trip was a result of the closure of a checkpoint needed to pass in order to get into Rome and no decent map. Needless to say, we missed the 11:00 church service we were supposed to ring at, however, with the help of our guide from Duquesne, Michael Wright, we were able to find a delicious lunch spot which consisted of two pasta's, a salad, and gelato. We then walked to the information booth located centrally in the city to get the maps of Rome. We then had the afternoon to explore the city. Many chose to go into St. Peter's, some were inside on the ground level, and some lucky ringers who found the other entrance were above the main chapel and on the roof. The inside of the cathedral was covered with gold, different color marble, and mosaics of scenes from the Bible.
We met the bus at 5:00 to take us to where we were playing our concert that night at Chiesa Valdese. The concert was in a beautiful little church where we entertained around 65 people, some who even walked in right off the street. It was a very nice performance to an audience where most people were hearing handbells for the first time. Someone even asked Mr. Pinkerton if, "he had invented handbells and put this group together or if handbells had been around for a while." After the concert the people in the audience were very appreciative of the performance and over half of them came up to touch the bells and look at the music that we were reading.
Michael then took us to get dinner at an all you can eat pizza restaurant. The meal started out with water and Pepsi, then a mixture of appetizers that pleased everyone's palate. The pizza was brought out on large wooden platters that had three different types of pizza on each. We were then offered dessert and after dinner drinks. There was a small contest between some ringers on who could eat the most pizza, the teams were Blake and Ean and Sam Fixx and Spencer. Ean ate 18, Blake ate 12, Sam ate 12, and Spencer ate 16, so Ean and Blake were crowned the champions
We are just getting to bed in our first hotel of the trip. The rooms are a little small for 4 people but we always make it work. The shower is just a small tub about half the size of an American tub, where you hug your knees to clean yourself. We have another early day tomorrow in order to get our tour of the Vatican.
Day 2
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Sam was sleeping and when the bus stopped, she fell off her seat
We woke up at 5:30 again this morning in order to beat the crowd in our Vatican tour. We took public transportation via the very crowded metro to the Vatican and managed to get there without a problem. Our tour guide was a very lively and knowledgeable professor from Duquesne. We were able to see many styles of art from baroque to classical and on. The tour included a viewing of the Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter's Basilica. We were then given an hour to explore the area on our own.
We then ran into a couple of familiar faces, the Blairs, and we went out to lunch together. By now, many of the ringers were tired and excited to get back to the hotel in order to take a quick nap and relax before our concert.
The group then proceeded to take our bus over to the Duquesne campus/convent of the The Sisters of The Holy Family of Nazareth. The nuns fed us a delicious dinner that included fruit they grew in their own gardens. Our concert for them went well, and they really seemed to enjoy it. They were holding a convention, so we ran into a few fellow Pittsburghers. After the concert it was back off to the hotel to rest up for a big day of touring Ancient Rome, celebrating the fourth of July, and buying Blake birthday presents ; ) (by Blake Bonnewell)
Day 3
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Who would win in a death match?
Today we took our 25 mile (exaggeration) walking tour of ancient Rome. We visited the Coliseum with another guide from Duquesne University in Rome, Dr. Lori-Ann Touchette, who was extremely knowledgeable. We learned more about the construction, gladiators, and performances than we ever could have hoped. The thing that most people remembered was that the mortality rate for the gladiators was only 5-10%, and they were really treated like professional athletes or actors. We then went on to the Forum and learned more fascinating facts about ancient Rome. We were able to see so much history here and are so lucky to be able to still learn and enjoy. Our final stop of the day though, was the beautiful Trevi fountain, where most people threw in the three coins to ensure their return to Rome in the future. It was an absolutely beautiful experience enjoyed by the group to be able to see this famous work. (by Katelyn King)
That evening back at the hotel we celebrated Blake's Birthday. An Italian cake was ordered for the occasion, and it was quite yummy. The party was not without presents, as there were several. The good-looking birthday boy received two different types of Italian cookies as well as a jar of nutella. The main present was a gladiator outfit which he wore with much distinction and good-lookingness. all the ladies were clamoring to take their picture with him as he cut a striking figure. He was very appreciative, thanking everyone in his fluent Italian, and was very glad that his birthday was lots of fun! (by Blake "good looking" Bonnewell in the third person)
Some adventurous souls went into the city of Rome to watch the semi-final match with the Italians and we were as awesome as any Italians in cheering for the soccer game. We had to abandon watching the game at 11 in order to make it to the metro station to catch our ride home by 11:45 because that is when the city shuts down. First, we knew that the Line A was closed at 9:30 for construction, BUT we didn't know that the city's taxis were striking also. Well... we had to run to catch the metro entrance in Termini and rode the train to Piramide only to find that the next train we needed was already closed. After running around downtown Rome for nearly an hour trying to find ANY way home, we managed to find a city bus at the last minute that drove us all the way home to Vitinia, allowing us to make it to the hotel just before they locked the doors at 1 am. We got more exercise in two hours than we will have accumulated by the end of the three weeks, but it was a blast!!! (by Meredith Taylor)
Day 4
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The audience with the Pope
Despite the fact that many ringers experienced a late night, we were out of the hotel this morning by 7:30 for our Papal audience. We arrived at St Peter's around 8 o'clock which gave us approximately two hours to wait for the pope to address the audience.
The entire group managed to stay awake for the first two hours but the Pope's presence had an interesting soothing effect on our group that put the majority of the members to sleep. We were good enough to be awake for the English part of the audience, but we slept through Italian, French, German, Hungarian, Polish, etc..
After lunch we received an expert tour of the Pantheon given by the revered Sam Reid and Richard Pinkerton. After marveling at the beauty of the structure, we returned to Villa S Cecilia for some time to wash clothes, update the website and rest up for our voyage to Greece the next day. (by Nora Diehl)