Mercoledí, il 23 Febbraio: Castellammare/Bracigliano/Naples
This morning we'll begin our tour from Piazza Municipio, with its splendid view of the Harbor, to the impressive Castel Nuovo, passing Teatro San Carlo and reaching Piazza del Plebiscito. We will visit the Archeological Museum to see all the artifacts taken from the ruins of Pompeii. Next we'll head to Bracigliano. This quaint town is in the region from which many Italians in the Greater Springfield area migrated.
The townspeople will host us for a concert at San Giovanni Battista Church, followed by dinner.
We return to our hotel in Castellammare for the night.
We're excited about our opportunity to meet the musicians and townspeople of Bracigliano. Here's a link to the band's website. I can tell they're saying SOMETHING about us, but I'll have to wait 'til Siriki can translate for me before I can understand WHAT they're saying!
http://www.bandabraciglianofdamato.it/
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! Greetings from everyone here in Naples! You can expect a Happy Birthday video sometime today (or tomorrow, depending on how long it takes to download). But know that I’m thinking about you and wishing you the happiest of birthdays!
In other news:
Goal: One Italian prom dress for Mai for 150 euros or less.
Game on.
-Kim
I made a new friend yesterday. His name is Ez and he’s the cutest cat who lives in front of the Auto Grill Gas Station. I was thinking of taking him home but thought he may be tough to get through customs. Next topic: juice. I miss the juice from our old hotel, it was just so good that nothing can compare.
-> This is addressed to my family, I’m aware I have a problem and I’m going to try and cut myself off now since I still need to eat. You should be proud.
Sarah Mae
Greetings dear old America! This is surprisingly my first blog on tour so far, and I have so many stories to tell. The past days have gone by incredibly fast, due to the combination of numerous performances in Roma and Naples, and touring incredibly large and beautiful churches. The different interior decoration and ornamentation of the churches have blown us all away, and will be ingrained in my mind for the rest of my life. Traveling to numerous European countries, Italy ranks at the top with its beauty and preserved historic buildings. One of coolest parts about these churches along with the design is the great acoustics. At the end of our pieces, the euphoric sounds echo through the cavernous buildings adding a unique experience for listeners and performers alike. If you haven’t checked out the recordings, I would advise you to pull up another tab while you read this and download the music. You won’t be disappointed, I assure you; the sound quality is astounding.
In other words, we are traveling to a museum in Naples today. Some of our group went on a little jog on the boardwalk adjacent to the beach, which unfortunately is littered with trash, but still very scenic. I am enjoying Italy greatly, and learning the Italian culture slowly. This is an amazing vacation spot, and it is even better complimented with a close-knit group of talented musicians. Stay tuned for the next performance recording; tonight we will sing at a night mass.
Shout out to everyone in America or whoever is reading this, love you mom and dad.
-Tucker
Naples…well, its pretty from afar but that’s about it. Once your up close you see the trashed lined streets and graffiti tagged buildings. Though there are fruit filled trees lining our street. The views from our hotel’s rooftop garden are spectacular; you can see the whole port. My voice has returned but unfortunately now I can no longer breath! If its not one thing its another but hey sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. Hope everyone back home is enjoying the snow; I’m looking forward to driving down to the Amalfi Coast. :P ~Emily B.
Buon giorno! It’s Wednesday morning here in Naples and it is approximately 38 degrees. This morning my room and two others did not receive a wake up call, so that was safely the fastest I have ever gotten ready. We are going on a tour in Naples for the first part of the day and then we will travel to Bracigliano and sing. I think the majority of the group is sick, including me, so I don’t know how good our performance will be tonight. I miss you all and I hope Longmeadow isn’t too unpleasant. –Hannah S.
Hello America! So, last time I blogged it was Monday evening so I don’t have too much more to add, however, I do have some stuff! Yesterday we drove to Naples and sang at the Montecassino Abbey. It was a spontaneous performance with no audience, yet it still hit home for a lot of us. We sang two songs and the surroundings in this monastery were absolutely breathtaking. Some people even started crying because have how deeply they felt the passion in the music. After that we had a panoramic tour and then free time in Naples. There are certain parts of Naples that are, just like any other major city, worn down and not pretty. At one point when our tour guide was talking to us, street vendors legitimately barricaded us so that we couldn’t move. Afterwards we got to go shopping. There was even a homeless lady that bombarded the majority of the group and long story short, caused a little bit of ruckus among the group. One thing I have noticed about Italy is that there are lots of homeless cats and dogs. Our tour guide told us that strays here are not like strays at home; we are not supposed to pet them or help them. This is because some of them have diseases and are not kind animals. It is so depressing seeing some of these sickly animals. Yesterday we were in an outdoor mall type thing and this dog started barking at me and some of the other lyrics members. Forgetting that I wasn’t supposed to pay attention to the dog, I called it over but then I remembered and I didn’t touch it or have it come near me or anything like that. About 5 minutes later when we walked back into the center, the dog was lying down in the center of the mall looking so exhausted and in pain; it was a horrible sight to see. Today(Wednesday,) I saw two other dogs on the street and they looked sweet and healthy, just emaciated. It really kills me to see these poor animals that in the US probably would’ve been helped and maybe brought to a shelter to then be adopted and taken to a good home, whereas here they are left on the streets. I know that when I go home I am going to try and do something to try and prevent this whether it be writing to the ASPCA to see if they have any “sister corporations” or something in Italy or something along those lines. These animals cannot help themselves and I want to do something to try and help them. Aside from my little tangent on the animals, this trip is going very well. The food is really good! If you don’t know me, I am a VERY picky eater and so everyone in the group was joking around with me beforehand telling me that I am not going to eat anything, but I have been branching out and trying new foods. Not many of them have been successful, but I have been trying J. Hope America is going good and will see you all soon!
-Ilanna
Greetings America,
Our trip to Italy has been amazing thus far. Today we woke up at 7:00 and headed to a wonderful breakfast at the Hotel Stabia in Castalamare, Italy. We headed on a bumpy ride to Naples. In Naples we arrived at the Arcahelogical Museum of Naples. In the museum, we saw many forms of ancient art including Roman erotica and amazing mosaics from the city of Pompei (which we are visiting on Friday). In addition to a time-well-spent in the museum we headed out to see historic Naples. After this long period of amazing sights and experiences we took a break for lunch. Our group headed to a wonderful pizzeria called “Vera’s Pizza. We performed in the small town of Brachilliano.
Overall today was a fun, once in a lifetime, exhausting experience!-Joey
Today we spent the day in old naples. Initially I noticed the small streets, destitute economic situation of many citizens and difference in scenery in comparison to rome. But as the day went on I came to appreciate the gastronomic and historic beauty of the city and things lightened up. We will now be headed to bracilliano to experience the real Italian way of life. The trip is flying by and im already missing my past experiences here. Hi mom.
-ben
We’ve been having a great time learning about Italy and its culture. Here’s a list of a few little things we’ve noticed that are very different from America.
- Although cars drive on the right, people walk and pass on the left. Walking along the sidewalk we’ve bumped into people because they’re trying to pass us on the left and we’re trying to pass them on the right.
- Emergency signs (exit signs, pharmacy signs) are green rather than red.
- In order to call the elevator you press the button with the number of the floor you’re on rather than the up or down arrow. This is confusing because there are also up and down button symbols on the button panel. It took us a while to figure this out, so we had to drag our suitcases up three flights of stairs when we got to the first hotel.
-All the drinks are carbonated, even the apple juice at breakfast. We learned early on to specify acqua naturale senza gas.
-The floors of buildings are numbered so that the ground floor is 0, the second floor is 1, the third floor is 2, and so on.
-The sink turns on a different way in each bathroom. Many have floor pedals, which we didn’t find until we saw someone else use them.
-There are no alarm clocks in the hotel rooms. The first hotel had a clock on the TV but our second one doesn’t have any clock.
-Many people understand Spanish (the waiter at lunch today thought we were from Barcelona) but sometimes they just look at you like you’re speaking really bad Italian.
-In general stairs are a lot more popular than elevators. In the new hotel we’re on the fifth floor (actually the sixth) and most of the time we just take the stairs up and down.
-There are never paper towels in bathrooms, always hand driers.
-Alice
How is this possible? Until about a week ago when my husband brought home a book about Neapolitan food from the library, I had never even heard of sfogliatelle. Now I’m in love. These pastries, one of the real delicacies of Naples, are layers and layers and layers of crisp pastry filled with sweet cream. The name sfogliatelle is related to the word “foliage.” They’re shaped like seashells. I’ve had two, but my favorite was in a gorgeous café called Gambrinus, a very elegant place right on the Piazza del Popolo in Naples. Life is SO good! I’m glad we’re doing a lot of walking. – K-Werl
Hi… so my day was great. We went to a really cool museum with some really awesome mosaics from Pompeii… its so interesting how the people back then put so much detail into everything they did… later today we went to Bracigliano, and we got the chance to sing with their choir and band there… all the people were so nice and treated all of us like celebrities... everyone kept asking us for pictures haha… well I guess that’s all for now. Hi mom and dad josh and bek… and josh btw presents for you are NOT more important than me eating…
-Hannah D
It goes without saying that music is the universal language. Tonight, thanks to music, all of us were able to create friendships and memories that will last with us forever. We performed beautifully, capturing the meaning behind all our pieces; however, the story tonight was not what we did as a group, but what we did with other Italian musicians, Having prepared two pieces to sing tonight with a band and a choir, we got the chance to work with an Italian conductor and raise our voices to join another choir in the national anthem of Italy and another well-received piece. The night was a success, as Lyrics received a standing ovation after performing our last piece, The Lord Bless You and Keep You. After having received an ovation, we performed Funniculi Funnicula, which brought smiles to many of the local’s faces. In short, the night was a huge success. We plan to travel to the Amalfi Coast tomorrow, which I hear is a beautiful location. I hope that the recording of our performance tonight reaches you, as was a truly impressive night.
-Max
p.s- there was a solo cornet player with incredible tone
p.p.s- here’s for early morning runs!
Dear Mom and Dad,
I am having a wonderful time in Italy, but there are some side effects from it. I found a 13 year old boyfriend, and from there you can do the math. I will not be returning with the rest of Lyrics to Longmeadow, because quite frankly I’m smitten.
JUST KIDDING… we’re already married, I packed him in my suitcase.
But what can I say, that’s amore!
Love, Pallavi
Good Evening! I posted an extremely long blog earlier today, but I just had to post again tonight. Today I was feeling pretty sick, sore throat and stuffy nose(basically all of us are feeling this way.) I was not very excited to go to Bracigliano and sing for the people there because I was just not in a good mood. When we got to the rehearsal room, the choir there was rehearsing and one Italian girl named Arianna started talking to me. We talked a little but that was it, she could speak some English. We then went into the church to perform for a large crowd. On the first day here I had said to Mr. Fontes that I don’t feel like we’re in Italy and he told me that when we perform I will. I didn’t feel like I was in Italy till we performed today. In the middle of one of our pieces, Pater Noster, something came over me and I realized we were in Italy. It was an amazing feeling. I just couldn’t believe the beautiful place we were in and how amazing we sounded and I was just absolutely mesmerized. We then sang The Lord Bless You and Keep You and I almost started crying. It was an unbelievable feeling. We sat down in the chairs while the other choir performed and I looked at Max and he had the exact same expression on his face. We realized that we felt at absolute bliss. I felt that everything was perfect and I felt like jelly inside. It was a strange feeling for me that I had never felt but it was wonderful; nothing could bring me down. After we performed the other group performed and Arianna sang a solo and was absolutely amazing! Then we ate dinner together and her and I took some pictures and then these little girls came up to some of us and asked for pictures and our facebooks and it was so much fun. I was shocked when one of the little girls kissed me on both cheeks to say goodbye; it was not something I was used to. Today had to be the best day of my trip. I made a new friend from Italy who is planning to study opera and I felt a feeling I had never felt before. A feeling of utter bliss that was absolutely amazing all from singing in this one church in this small little town called Bracigliano.
Goodnight J
Ilanna