In the morning we departed our hotel and travelled to Pisa. We went to the Square of Miracles, and viewed the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was very impressive to be able to view the tower from such a close distance. I still don’t really understand how the tower hasn’t toppled over yet.
After some free time and dinner, the group went to the Maria Nera church in Lucca for a performance. We met the musical director of the church, Elio Antichi, and he led us to the performance venue. At the church, the Brass Choir set up the stage and began to warm up by playing Nessun Dorma. As we start the song, Elio Antichi starts to sing along, as a joke. However, the sound that Elio was producing was so absolutely beautiful, it became apparent that we HAD to have him sing this song in the concert. As we continue through the song, many people in the group started to cry because of the beauty of the music and the beauty of the situation. We begged Elio to sing it in the concert, and he reluctantly agreed. Concert time came around, and Mr. Allison introduced Elio as the guest vocalist. It didn’t seem possible, but Elio sang the song more beautifully than he did the first time. The audience loved it, and again, many cried because of the pure beauty. As the concert ended, we called Elio on one more time for an encore of Nessun Dorma, with another equally beautiful performance. To try and describe how I felt during and after the concert is extremely difficult. The combination of Elio’s singing ability and the fact that we were actually and finally here in Italy made for an extremely potent emotional moment. I know one thing for sure about this concert, however. It is an experience that I will never forget.
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