Lunedí, il 21 Febbraio: Roma

After breakfast, we visit the Vatican Museums, which house one of the world's greatest Classical and Renaissance art collections. The visit will include the Sistine Chapel, whose ceiling holds the famous Michelangelo "Creation." We also visit St. Peter's Basilica, Roman Catholicism's most sacred shrine. After free time for lunch, we continue our journey to discover the center of Rome, featuring the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

We sing during the 6 pm Mass at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, followed by a 30 minute concert.

Dinner at a local restaurant and overnight at our hotel.

Once again we are eating at the delicious breakfast buffet at our hotel. Today we are heading to the Vatican and singing in St. Peter's Basilica. I can't wait! I know know we're going to have another fantastic day!

Best wishes to everyone.

Tyler

After a good nights sleep and a day full of sore feet and wonderful sights, were off to see the rest of bella roma. The food so far has been stellar, 4 cheese gnochhi was the best. more food is based on mushrooms then expected, but this is often times a plus. enough from me. hi mom.-ben

Honestly, K-werl told me to write this during breakfast. I'm hungry so this is going to be short. Yesterday during our free time Brian, Steve, Matt, and I decided to wander. And then Brian decided to continue wandering. We ended up visiting a basilica at the end of Cavour. But we also had used up most of our free time. We ended up booking it down Cavour and once we reached the area that we had passed with our tour guide earlier that day we sprinted. We flew over steps and sprinted down sidewalks. It was a lot of fun and I want to do it again. On the other hand, we got back five min. late and were yelled at. That part we shouldn't do again.

Dan S.

Bonjourno, America!

Right now it is 1 am for all of you on the northeast but it's almost 9 here and we are currently enjoying a delicious breakfast here at the hotel. All you can eat. You just eat. Whatever you want. All the time. Well, just during breakfast. Mr. Fontes said I could even eat the chair if I could manage it. So, yesterday we were the "headliners" of a Roman mass, which is certainly something you don't get to say everyday. The priest and all the other big guys enetered the mass to us singing "Tu Es Petrus" by Palestrina. I knew that song was the Pope's "theme song" but, it never occured to me that they would be entering to us singing it. It almost brought me to tears when it hit me that this is something you do once if ever in your life. We are so blessed as a group to be here singing the Italian music where it is meant to be sung. On a lighter note, I got my taste of real Italian pizza and Gelato yestarday and I can assure you that is most certainly as good as everyone say's it is.

Stacy

This is one VERY happy music teacher. =) KW Buona Sera America!It's about 10:06 pm here in Italy and we experienced a wonderful day today. We stared by taking part in a three hour tour of the Vatican which was absolutely stunning. The paintings and sculptures were miraculous and everyone was extremely enthusiastic about the viewing. The Sistine Chapel was.... well quite frankly beautiful would be an understatement and i find it hard to find adequate words to describe its splendor. After our tour we sang our second concert in the breathtaking Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. It's hard to explain how satisfying it is to have our music performed in such amazing spaces such as the chapels of Italy. Being together and performing this music as group is so emotionally gratifying and i wish you all were here to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity with us. Especially when we sang in the Vatican. Seeing the words of the song you're singing inscribed around the inside dome of the Vatican is such a special feeling and it really brought us together as a whole. We are all having a wonderful time and we'll see you soon!- GraceHello United States!!!It's 10:30 on Monday night and today was most definitely my favorite day. This morning we all had breakfast and then went to Vatican. It was pretty awesome to get to zoom by everyone in line since we were "so special" and got to cut everyone. I wasn't sure what my opinion of the Vatican was going to be because I am not really a museum person, but it was absolutely gorgeous. The paintings and tapestries were so beautiful and I couldn't believe how anyone could make/paint them. They were breathtaking. We even got to perform at Saint Peter's Basilica which was totally spontaneous. The acoustics in the place were amazing and we drew lots of attention to ourselves, but it was all for the best. We sounded amazing. After that we sang in the streets and we sang our Italian song from Pops concert, Funiculi Funicula and then we sang Bohemian Rhapsody. We had SOO many people stay and listen to us. One little girl was dancing with us. The funniest part was when a policewoman came up to Kwerl and told her that we had to stop. After that we had free time and then performed at the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. Surprisingly, I liked singing there better than at The Vatican because I feel like this church hit everyone more emotionally than the other one. I know it did for me. It was absolutely stunning and when we hit the last not in Elijah Rock, you could hear the continuing final note forever. I am loving this trip to Italy! It is so much fun! One thing that is TOTALLY different than in America is the bathrooms here. The thing that is the most different is the flusher. It is not built onto the toilet, it is a button on the wall. Then the locks here are also very different. Stacy and I have had to have people help us open our door basically every day and I have gotten locked in the bathrooms twice. Also, in some public restrooms the paper towel is not like it is at home either. It is more of a cloth that you can't rip off(Hannah Sears will explain this in the video blog that is coming soon!) This trip to Italy already has been more than I imagined it to be. Everyone is becoming friends with everyone and branching out of their natural friend groups. I love everyone in this group so much and we are like a family. I couldn't of asked for a better group to travel with for my first time abroad.

-Ilanna

PS. Hi Mom and Dad :)

Just a couple songs today! More to come when possible.