Ciao

Sorry again about the lack of updates, our hotel in Venice was supposed to have wifi, but it wasn’t working while we were there. Luckily I do have wifi for the last for days of the trip. But for now you will have to read a super long post to recap on everything that has happened.

May 31:

We got up early today and started our 8 hour journey to Venice, Italy. The drive through the Alps was absolutely beautiful! It usually doesn’t snow after March, but it had snowed the night before so the tops of the mountains were lightly covered with snow. With mountains comes tunnels and I don’t think I have been through more tunnels in my life! We went through the longest tunnel in Switzerland (around 10 miles, I think). It was so long that I feel asleep after we entered and woke up from a 20 minute nap still in the tunnel! After a quick stop for lunch we were on our way again. The first thing we saw when we entered Italy was a soccer dome in construction, soccer is a really big there here! Italy seems a lot more industrial/commercial than what we had previously seen, but it was still pretty. We arrived at our hotel in time for some dinner, than we spent the rest of the night doing laundry in the bath tub and hanging out with friends. A pretty relaxing day to catch up on much needed sleep. Below is the view from our hotel window.

June 1:

Today we took a boat to the main island of Venice; it is absolutely beautiful and full of tourists. We started off the day with a guided tour of San Marco (St. Mark’s Basilica) and the surrounding plaza and palace. The architecture is beautiful and again the history amazes me. After the guided tour we had a few hours of free time in the city so my friends and I went out exploring and sightseeing. We ended up getting lost and spent a good 1 ½ hours walking around in circles trying to figure out where San Marco was. We tried to follow the signs for San Marco, but they didn’t help much (especially when one sign pointed in two different directions). We eventually made it out of the maze and got ready for our Mass participation in San Marco. The Mass was an amazing experience to say the least! The reverb of our voices echoed majestically in the same 7^th century church that the Gabrielle brothers performed in. We had dinner in a local restaurant and headed back to our hotel for the night.

June 2:

We headed back to the main island of Venice for some more free time. This time we didn’t get last and had a good time seeing things we previously missed and buying some souvenirs for people back home. I think it was like the 4^th time in 6 days that we had gelato (that stuff is becoming an addiction)! At the very end of our free time when we were heading to the Scalzi Church for another Concert it started to rain. We realized then just how blessed we had been with weather in the past! We made it through the rain and had an amazing performance in the Scalzi Church! The audience was so responsive; some were moved to tears, some little girls were dancing, and others came up to me after the concert and told me how it had touched their hearts. It was an amazing experience that we could not have done without the strength of God. Back to the hotel for a much needed night of sleep.

June 3:

Another majority of the day was spent in the bus as we traveled from Venice to Florence. As we were on the bus I was struck with amazement of the places that I have been and the things that I have been able to do and I would just like to thank all of my friends and family for what they have done to make this trip possible for me! This trip is truly a life changing experience and I am having an amazing time. We had a guided tour of Florence planned for when we arrived, but because of the heavy rain we had to push it back a day. When we got to Florence we prepare for yet another performance. The performance went well and I have a nice conversation with a few people afterwards, God is good! The parts of Florence that I saw tonight remind me a lot of any big city in the U.S.; crowded, graffiti, pigeons, etc. I can’t wait to see more of the sights tomorrow.

June 4:

We started the day with a guided tour in Florence. Our tour guide was fun and I learned a lot of interesting things. We saw The Dome and many Medici castles and some towers. After our guided tour we had 5 hours of free time in the city. This time we were sure to grab a map so we wouldn’t get lost like we did in Venice. During free time we saw the Santa Maria Novella and hiked up a hill to some gardens that overlooked the city. It was nice to be able to sit down and relax with an impeccable view of the city below. After a little more sightseeing and shopping we had dinner and headed back to the hotel. Now all I want to do is lie in bed and drink water with my feet propped up. It was a long day in the sun, but we have been blessed with amazing weather and it is nice to have a concert free day to rest our voices. We convinced Giuseppe, Lanna and Dr. Bob to take us to Pisa to see the leaning tour and other sights so we will spend our day there and then come back to Florence in the afternoon for a concert.

P.S. Sorry there aren't more photos, I am having problems uploading them and I have a limited time onine.