Today was my first full day in Italy and everything is going along quite nicely!
Our first leg of the journey began in the beautiful city of Milan in the north of Italy. Milan, as many of you may know, is considered by many to be among the most prestigious fashion centers of the entire world. Along with Paris and New York, Milan showcases a great sense of where the fashion world is going and is not afraid to show it. The sight of local Italians wearing very fashionable full three-piece suits riding motorcycles, bicycles, and scooters down the street was certainly unnerving and made me, and many others who just got off the plane, feel grossly under-dressed, but we worked it all out and had a good time nonetheless.
After collecting our luggage and loading it onto a bus, we made our way to the city center of Milan where we were given approximately three and a half hours to explore and see the sights on our own. We were able to leave everything on the bus (thankfully) and our two tour guides, Isabella and Flavio, along with our contact from CTI, Susanna Panzini, left us with many good ideas and places to go. I set off with Matt Prepis and Rich Kunz to radiate out from the Piazza Centrale in order to go find out a few more insights about the city and to lose the tourist crowd of hawking merchants and potential thieves.
We were cautioned preliminarily against gypsies and other such questionable characters, but in reality it turned out that the real culprits of questionable activity were groups of North African men. These men would offer tourists a “free” friendship bracelet, tie it onto their wrists, and then in the meantime, their accomplices would close in for the “kill,” thereby pickpocketing the unwary traveler. Also, they would offer to let you feed the flocks of pigeons with the food that they held out and then charge you absurd rates hoping to trick you into paying them for no good reason. I avoided such tomfoolery, as did the rest of the group, but I will definitely be keeping my eyes open more as the time goes on.
We made our way to a small bar and ate some panini with fresh cheese (formaggio) and ham (prosciutto) and drank some much needed water, all the while admiring the passers-by and their rich attire. We passed three-level stores of Armani, Gucci, and various other inordinately expensive clothing retailers and it was quite scary to think that people actually spend that much money on clothing. I, of course, resisted the temptation and made my way back to the main square in time to step into the main cathedral, or Duomo, of Milan.
This building, despite not allowing me to take pictures, was perhaps one of the best architectural sights I have seen thus far in my life. There were soaring columns that rose well over 100 feet into the air with a dark, drab, yet sacred atmosphere. I was able to traverse all of the naves and see the small niches and ornate altars used to venerate different saints and holy figures. At the center, behind the main alter, there was even a type of inner sanctum which showed, behind one set of bars and two recessed windows, a sunken but well-lit chamber which featured a large glass box holding a smaller, ornately decorated box. I assume this was some kind of relic kept under lock and key but it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in a Cathedral and it reminded me of any of the Dan Brown novels.
We then went on to our bus and as we waited, we got to sing Spasyeniye in a small Russian Orthodox church next to the street where we picked up our buses. The nuns there were tearing up and had goosebumps after we sang this sacred piece in Church Slavonic (related to Russian) and we got a good sneak-peak at that it is like to sing in a church, no matter what size.
We finally got onto our busses after that and drove the 3.5 hours to Padua (Padova) where we are staying as a base camp for three days in the Best Western Premier (a four-star hotel!). The dinner tonight was also provided at the hotel and it was superb with three courses and plenty of bread, olive oil, and good times all around. After a refreshing shower and change of clothes, as well as a thorough steaming of my wrinkled dress clothes, I am ready to take on our trip to Venezia (Venice) tomorrow as we will be singing a great concert during the mass at the Duomi di San Marco, also known as Saint Mark’s Cathedral. This is perhaps our second-greatest performance (only superseded by the small little chapel in Vatican City…) and we are all very excited to be able to perform at such a great venue.
I hope this has been a fairly good update for you all, please continue to read if you like the description and I will try to keep it coming as quickly as I can!
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