More of the Italy Trip

Tuesday, April 17:
Ahh, the feeling of waking up at 7am. Outside our bathroom door was a puddle of water about 3 feet deep because David decided to take an hour long shower (which didn’t have a curtain) and David has no concept of time. We got dressed and headed downstairs to find Will (the band clown) had a new hair cut. Minus the hair. He shaved his head completely bald. His mom thought that this was hilarious. She thought it was so funny she yelled at him for an hour. Another event happened this morning that was to be told over and over again throughout the whole trip. Mrs. Lafountaine went to my bro’s room to wake him and his roommates up. She knocked and knocked (about 30mins before they were actually supposed to wake up). She did this for about 5 minutes. My brother recalls hearing a blood curdling yell from one of his roommates. He said that what was said was inaudible. But it sounded like a wounded animal trying to fight off a threat while dying. He mimicked the yell for all who would listen. I don’t want to ever hear anything like that again. No one knows who actually yelled. But many believe it was Steve Lafountaine who was frustrated with his Mom’s knocking too early. I don’t blame him. After breakfast, which for me was about 20 packs of the oversized melba toast, we all got on the bus and headed to Vatican City once again. We arrived near Vatican City and unloaded. We all entered into a line that looked like it was 2 miles long. The line was for the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum. Though the line was long it move surprisingly quick. However, for some reason 4 people decided to skip our whole group. So one by one, all 60-80 of us decided to skip them. The Vatican Museum was very cool. We saw many frescoes, painting, and sculptures by many famous artists. The halls of the Vatican are a sight all by themselves. The floors and walls are all marble of different shades and tones that created elaborate designs and patterns. One thing that sticks out in my mind while going through the museum was a courtyard I saw while peaking out one of the windows of the hall. It was beautiful and it was in the peak of spring. So all the trees were a brilliant green and the bushes showed blossoming flowers of different colors. While passing through many corridors and room we eventually came to entrance of the Sistine Chapel. Words can’t describe the detail and the paintings done by Michelangelo. It will make anyone speechless. There are so many famous works of art in just that one little chapel. Also, one could feel the history of the place. The Sistine Chapel is where the Bishops hold the Conclave to elect a new pope. There is a small furnace in the chapel to burn the substance that produces white or black smoke to show the public whether or not a vote produced a new pope to the Catholic Church. Also in the chapel is a little side room known as the “Crying Room”. This room is the room where the newly elected pope goes to pray and think over his new burden and office and where he is given his Papal robes and gown. Needless to say the Sistine Chapel is not only a great work of art but also a huge part of the Catholic Church itself. We exited the Chapel and got some gifts in the gift shop. Then we went off to eat. To eat we had to cross the bridge over the Tiber River. As we turned on to the bridge I turned around to see what was behind us. Once again I was shocked to find another famous Roman piece of architecture. What I was looking at was the Castel Sant’Angelo. It looks like a HUGE castle. I later found the history of the castle is rather interesting. It was once a great fortress. But it got its name from a pope who claims to have seen a vision of an angel on top of the castle. It is said to hold a secret passage way out of Vatican City that can be used by the pope to escape danger or get out of Vatican City unnoticed. That fact sounds kind of shady but actually the Vatican admits to having the passage. It is very breathtaking and its size is extraordinary. The bridge that leads up to it is very beautiful too because it rimmed by many statues of saints and angels. After crossing the bridge we went into the restaurant where we were supposed to eat. The restaurant’s name was Ristorante Il Duca. This was my personal favorite restaurant. It had murals on the wall and plants hanging from the ceiling. The food (instead of pork we had veal along with the normal bread, salad, pasta dish, and bubbly water) and the atmosphere was great. The restaurant was a very authentic Italian restaurant. On the walk back to the buses it rained and we changed on the bus for our first performance of the trip. Jeez, I almost forgot it was a BAND trip. We performed in the beautiful and world famous Piazza Navonna. Which can now be read about in detail in Dan Brown’s book Angels and Demons and also it can be seen in the movie “The Talented Mr. Ripley” with Matthew Damon. The square was also designed by Bernini and it has 3 beautiful fountains in it. It was an honor to play at such a world famous site. Our performance was great and the Italians really loved our American marching band music and tunes. Matt rode around on his baritone like it was a horse. I think he did this because he never really learned to play baritone. The Italians loved it. There was a crazy gypsy woman who cursed us in some foreign tongue and there was a 300 pound man that took pics of the girls and my bro Matt (it was rather weird). We got revenge and took pics of him. Other than those two characters everyone cheered and asked for an encore. We then split into our groups and got to explore Rome at night. Rome at night is a totally different beauty than Rome in the day. It has another great feeling to it that can't be put into words. So, I won't. We all loaded the buses once again and went back to our hotel to find another band from America checking in. They were kind of rude and annoying. Everyone had an early curfew because we had to leave early in the morning. We all went to bed happy. Also, the people that lost their luggage 2 days earlier came back to find that the airport delivered all of the bags to the hotel that day. So everyone had a clean change of clothes.