We said goodbye to Orvieto this morning at 8 - with check outs and breakfasts in our neat little hotels. A 2 hour bus ride saw us pulling into Rome at about 10:30 or so. We passed through the area of the 1960 Olympics as we made our way through the Trastavere region of the city (past one of our tour host's home!) and to the Victor Emanuel monument.
We hit the ground running with new guides who lead us through the area of the Forum and into the Colosseum! As one student put it today, "THIS is why I came to Italy!" Everyone seemed very appropriately awed by the sense of history and magnitude of this structure. An added bonus to being here during Holy Week is seeing one of the Seven Stations of the Cross where the Pope will observe Good Friday.
We then checked into our new digs and went foraging for a quick lunch. At 3 we departed to our final performance at the Piazza Minerva in front of the Basilica Santa Maria sopra Minerva. We arrived with plenty of time before our 4:30 start time, so the students got to walk basically around the corner to the Pantheon - the most well-preserved (almost 90% of it is still original from ancient Roman times) Roman temple in the world - and now a church. At about 4:10, some of the passersby started chanting "U.S.A" to encourage us to start playing. As it would happen, this was a group of tourists from Spain who heard us in Zaragoza 2 years ago; they remembered us as a good band and wanted to hang around for our performance!
At 4:30, we kicked off the cadence and marched to our concert positions. The band performed well to a very receptive audience - once again moving several listeners to tears with Nessun Dorma and earning a "Bravi!" from a gentleman who seemed to know what he was listening for. :-) Many audience members took time to find a chaperone and the directors to express their appreciation of the performance. In fact, the Rector of the Basilica taped the performance, gave us a copy, and while touring the basilica, waved me over to express his appreciation for the performance. He also wanted to make sure we were happy with having performed there!
Following the performance we bused back to the hotel with enough time to change and walk a few blocks to "The White Chicken" for a meal of pasta, kabobs, and another delicious dessert! An evening walk by the entire group to the famous Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps took us right to an 11 pm room check.
Tomorrow, the chance to sleep in just a little with an 8 am wake up call, the Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Basilica, some free time for some last minute shopping/touring, and our (hard to believe!) farewell dinner.
Here are a few picture highlights -
Breakfast in Orvieto
Taking the tour in Rome!
Ruins of The Forum
Inside the Colosseum
Green Bus at Gladiator/Lion level!
After the tour
The Pantheon
Lakers inside the Pantheon
Another group photo in front of the Basilica Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Concentrating hard... ;-) and yes - the round building ahead is the back of the Pantheon!
The band in front of the elephant obilisk in Piazza Minerva
Doing what we do
Inside of the Basilica Santa Maria sopra Minerva
(unassuming from the outside - very grand inside!)
Dinner!
Lakers at the Trevi Fountain
We might get a few more pictures up to Snapfish in the morning (while you're sleeping!) - but, for sure - we have a ton to load when we get home!
Ciao, ciao!