Firstly, Rome was lovely, and the group was surprisingly congenial, given its size. I think there were about thirty of us in all, but as far as I know we managed to escape most forms of drama, which was excellent. We all had to trundle over to Leeds Bradford at five in the morning, which was just lovely, and then queue for forever due to the airport being under construction, but other than that, our travel was mostly smooth.
(As it would turn out, Leeds Bradford apparently hates me, but more on that later.)
Rome was ridiculously warm, and getting warmer, which was initially entirely welcome because Durham when we left it was cold and miserable. On the other hand, however, it was really, really warm. I got a bit sunburnt initially, then tanned, and then just oppressed by the heat, which was up in the very high 90s by the time we left, such that the Durham weather now seems, while not precisely nice, at least a bit more comfortable.
I am really happy with the tan, though. I forgot my skin could turn this colour.
Our first rehearsal was in a Jesuit meetinghouse that had been restored to its former glory after being forgotten for some time, and it was resplendent with the usual Italian aesthetic of coloured marble and gold festooned in every direction. It was a pleasure to sing in, and pleasantly cool in contrast to the outdoors. We ended up doing an evensong service in there at the end of the week, which was attended apparently by some bigwigs from the Anglican church, among others--all in all, it was a surprisingly good crowd.
In fact, we got quite good audiences for nearly all performances, probably in part due to some impromptu performances in St. Peter's Square, the Spanish steps, and various street corners.
Incidentally, I should mention that we were practically staying on the Vatican's doorstep. We were hosted by four very kind nuns with very limited English and were able to mostly come and go as we pleased, with the exception of a curfew. This was the view from my window:
Pretty crazy. We saw the pope drive up in a motorcade the first evening, complete with tinted windowed town cars and circling helicopter.
Anyway, other than the Jesuit venue, we also did a concert in a small medieval church near the Forum, San Giorgio, and couple of services in the only Anglican church in Rome, All Saints, which was also lovely, but which I resent due to the fact that I blame its warm central hall and chilly basement for my cold, which developed half-way through the week. It wasn't long after that I lost my voice completely and therefore failed to contribute all that much to performances, which was more than somewhat irritating.
Nevertheless, I did manage to continue to have fun and socialise, albeit while apologising profusely for having to blow my nose every fifteen seconds. I went with one group of people to the Coliseum, and another to the Spanish steps and the Pantheon, and got some shopping in as well. Roman fashion seemed all about the nicely cut pencil dresses and suiting, which was good for me and bad for my wallet, and I only barely managed to restrain myself from acquiring many nautical dresses and comfy shoes. Overall, it was a very fun trip with very good company.
The only hiccup luckily/unluckily occurred at the very end of the trip when we arrived back at Leeds Bradford, at which point I was questioned yet again about my visa, only this time they didn't simply ask me about my past failtasticness at paperwork; instead, they decided to not tell me what was going on, pull me aside for questioning while handing me a sheet of paper that says they're "withholding my right to remain in the UK" (thereby inducing panic in me while several more plane-loads of people went past me in line), search my bags, question me again, and then finally ask me about my visa trouble, which I suspect would have prevented all of that hullabaloo in the first place. So it seems that despite the fact that I've now had three customs officers tell me they're going to clear this nonsense from my record, it still hasn't been cleared, so I'm going to have to call/make an appointment with the US Embassy to basically ask, "WTF, mate?" and have them deal with it. Oy.
Oh, and of course this was all taking place while everyone else in the choir had already gone through and was waiting in the bus on the other end of things, causing me to tell them to leave without me, which they would have...had the bus not gotten stuck behind some ridiculous barrier, therefore delaying them long enough for me to emerge, searched but unscathed.
It was a bit of a mess. There was a lot of trash talking about Yorkshire on the way back.
But anyway, that was the only hiccup, and it was my hiccup alone! So all in all, a good trip indeed.
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