PBA in Italy

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July 23, 2007— to Gubbio

In case it hasn't been mentioned recently, it continues to be quite hot. Rome was less humid, but still near 100. We're now in Gubbio where the temperature is the same but it's now humid again. It's raining in Milano we hear. You shower and then dry off, then you're soaking wet again. Reminds me of August in New Jersey. I remember Alabama being hot, but more hot than humid. I think the biggest difference here is that there is no AC except on the bus. The hotel rooms don't have AC so you just sweat all night even though the windows are open; it doesn't seem to cool off much at night.

We started the day loading the bus for the ride to Gubbio. We stopped in Assisi about 11 for sightseeing. We had a guide that showed us around the medieval town and on to the basilica. There is an upper and lower sanctuary, and then the tomb of St. Francis in the crypt as well. Luigi asked around and got the priests there to agree to let us sing in the upper sanctuary. Fittingly, Continuum sang one of the four Prayers of St Francis, and then the full choir sang Bogoroditse. The tourists applauded right there in the basilica of Assisi, we went on our way, and the priests resumed the requests for silence from the tourists on the PA system.

We checked into the hotel. Did I mention it's quite hot and humid? After rest period, we had some recreation time, then showers, then dinner. After dinner at a local restaurant we headed to the town of Cantiano for the first of our two concerts as part of the Gubbio summer music festival. We thought the concert was supposed to start at 9pm so we rushed to be ready for a 9pm start, but it turns out the concert was listed for 9:15 p.m. Then add on 15 minutes of Italian summer time, and we're starting at 9:30. Good thing, because at 9pm there were about 12 people there and by 9:30 (or 9:45!) there were a couple hundred people, filling the 1631 church.

Mr. Kula started the concert with the full choir singing Denn er hat, which sounded great from the back of the church. Then the choir moved up to the sides along the length of the church for Hail, Gladdening Light, and we had the start of a great concert. The rest of the concert was also excellent, with probably our best performance of the Barber Agnus Dei. It was quite hot and humid in the concert, but the guys sounded and looked great. We've been working on focusing and keeping the energy up and keeping things fresh when we've done lots of concerts of this music already.

Because the concert went so well, we went to the town square, about a block down the medieval cobblestone street, for some gelato. There were a bunch of people hanging out in the piazza at the cafes (it was 11pm on a Monday), and this guy walked up to me speaking in Italian asking me if we can sing a song. I explained we just did a whole concert, and he said he didn't know about it and after our gelato could we sing a song in the square. I said perhaps and then he invited me and the rest of the staff to sit down at a cafe and he gave us all a glass of champagne. Without knowing exactly who this guy Sergio was, it was pretty clear he was the person in town to know. He seemed to have lots of friends and at the least I think he owned that particular cafe. He also was curious to see if he was taller than Avid. So Sergio rallies everybody in the square to listen to us sing a song. We did two songs (Ain't got time to Die and Elijah Rock) in this piazza in this small medieval town in Umbria at 11:30 p.m. on a warm summer evening. It was great moment in time, something that would never happen at home, something that would never happen in America. Two concerts left, just a few days left before our adventure is over.