Off the Beaten Track - Portofino//Concert
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2008
1
4
8
Trip End
Jun 18, 2008
Genoa, Italian Riviera, Italy
Friday, June 13, 2008
Wow what an amazing day today! It started as usual with breakfast at the hotel (7:30am sharp). The breakfast was good - not as good as the spread in Milan but it still had all of the right parts. After breakfast we loaded back on our bus and were off on our way to Rapello as was our plan. Rapello is a seaside resort town about an hour south of Genoa. It is a very nice town that seems to grow right out of the sea and up the mountains behind it. We had no idea how steep the mountains in this area are. They make quite a backdrop coming right out of the sea as they do. Anyhow - back to our day. As I said the plan was to spend the day in Rapello, walk along the sea and some free time to take in the sights and shop or do whatever caught our fancy. As we researched the area we saw that Portofino was only 8 miles from Rapello. Portofino is a famous seaside town - known for gorgeous sights/views. Once we got to Rapello we went to the Port and chartered a ferry to Portofino. It took ½ an hour by boat. Today was the first day that we had a little rain on the boat. We were all sitting up top of the boat - singing songs from the Titanic, getting Italian lessons, having fake weddings and doing model run way walks. It was a fun/silly bonding boat trip together. Once we got to Portofino we were amazed at the view. It was as beautiful as I had imagined and more. Portofino had gorgeous shops, cafes, gelato places and cute Italian boys! We used "Ciao Bello" quite a bit today!! Oh- what views! Everyone fell in love with this little seaside town. People bought jewelry, postcards, and clothing. It was fun to be spontaneous today.
We left Portofino at 2 p.m. we were back at the hotel by 4 and met at 5p.m. to go to the Church. Even though I had received an e-mail/picture of the venue it didn't do it justice. We walked in and were stunned by the beauty of the surroundings. The paintings on the ceiling were stunning, the ornamentation on the walls, the altar and marble floors etc...just incredible! We set up, tuned, warm up and then left for dinner. Tonight we had penne pasta, salad, and roast chicken and apple torte for dessert. YUMMY!
Walked back to the Church and were surprised to see people already sitting waiting for us. We had an audience tonight of almost 100 people. The placed was filled up!
The students everything on our program except for our modern pieces (Folk tune, Imagine a Man, Cavalleria, and St Paul's) it was to be a Baroque program only.
Everything was incredible. The students played incredibly well and were well received by everyone. After each piece they clapped and clapped and clapped!!! It was so fun to be so appreciated by everyone. It was a very well organized concert. They had posters advertising us and had printed programs in Italian. After the concert they presented all the students with colorful brochures on Genoa and the surrounding areas and they gave me a bouquet of beautiful flowers and a history book on all the churches in Genoa. It was a spectacular day for all of us! We were honored to play in such an amazing setting.
All the students are doing very well -they are all getting along and enjoying their time with each other, but they are starting to get tired with our busy schedule of concerts and sight seeing. So tonight I sent them all to bed to get some rest, pack and sleep in a bit before we head to Pisa and to Monticatini - just on the outside of Florence.
Hugs and love to everyone!
Kathy and Craig
Comments
More bass please!
The orchestra was absolutely superb.
Especially the two bass girls!
Yo-Yo Ma
(aka Kevin Barton)