Wooo tiring weekend
This weekend was pretty great, I'm very happy I signed onto the group organized trip last minute. On Saturday morning, at 8:30am, we left on an (AIR CONDITIONED!!!!!!!!!!!!!) charter bus to Parma. It was about a 2 1/2 hour ride, and everyone just slept on the bus there, because we were all very tired from the night before (virtually everyone in the program had stayed out late at a local bar). Parma was an alright town, my own friend called it a, "Poor Man's Milan," which is exactly how Laurie said it would be - nothing special.
Except - for Kristen - THERE IS A MANDARINA DUCK STORE IN PARMA!!! There's not just cheese there. I literally flipped out. We were looking for a backpack for my friend Emily, and we walked by this store with really cute purses in the window, so we went in. The moment I realized what store we were in, I started saying, (complete Laurie Lewandowski style), "THIS IS THE STORE! THIS IS THE STORE!!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS IS THAT STORE!" My friends Emily & Rob thought I was kinda crazy.
So we left Parma and had another 2 hours or so until we got to Verona. We checked into our (AIR CONDITIONED!!!!!!!!!!!) hotel, and somehow I lucked out and got a room entirely to myself, which was beautiful and much needed. From the weekend of air conditioning and a lot of decongestant/allergy meds, my sore throat lessened and my voice came back a bit. I'm still going to take it easy early this week...but anyways....moving on.
We went to see the opera, Aida by Verdi, at the Collessium in Verona. We had nosebleed seats, which means that you basically sit on ROCKS. Aida is in four acts, and with many intermissions, sometimes in the middle of acts. The soprano got ill halfway through and her understudy went on, but it doesn't matter because no one acts in opera and they just take huge bows after every aria. However - props to them. There are NO MICS used. Their voices fill a space with 40,000 people. It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen. The opera started at 9:15pm, and it was over at roughly 2am. 5 hours of singing, no mics, for 40,000 people. I'm uploading the pictures as we speak.
We came back, exhausted, to Verona, and crashed. The next day we got up early and I explored Verona with my friend Emily. We saw Juliet's balcony, some beautiful piazze, great architecture, and a museum of old busts and art work. It is very pretty in Verona, but it was SO HOT outside today, and we were pretty much covered in sweat. We got on the airconditioned bus, I totally fell asleep on my friend Hunter, who made an incredible pillow, and arrived back in Lucca around 7pm.
It was a great weekend, the money was worth it, if only for the air-conditioning.
Except - for Kristen - THERE IS A MANDARINA DUCK STORE IN PARMA!!! There's not just cheese there. I literally flipped out. We were looking for a backpack for my friend Emily, and we walked by this store with really cute purses in the window, so we went in. The moment I realized what store we were in, I started saying, (complete Laurie Lewandowski style), "THIS IS THE STORE! THIS IS THE STORE!!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS IS THAT STORE!" My friends Emily & Rob thought I was kinda crazy.
So we left Parma and had another 2 hours or so until we got to Verona. We checked into our (AIR CONDITIONED!!!!!!!!!!!) hotel, and somehow I lucked out and got a room entirely to myself, which was beautiful and much needed. From the weekend of air conditioning and a lot of decongestant/allergy meds, my sore throat lessened and my voice came back a bit. I'm still going to take it easy early this week...but anyways....moving on.
We went to see the opera, Aida by Verdi, at the Collessium in Verona. We had nosebleed seats, which means that you basically sit on ROCKS. Aida is in four acts, and with many intermissions, sometimes in the middle of acts. The soprano got ill halfway through and her understudy went on, but it doesn't matter because no one acts in opera and they just take huge bows after every aria. However - props to them. There are NO MICS used. Their voices fill a space with 40,000 people. It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen. The opera started at 9:15pm, and it was over at roughly 2am. 5 hours of singing, no mics, for 40,000 people. I'm uploading the pictures as we speak.
We came back, exhausted, to Verona, and crashed. The next day we got up early and I explored Verona with my friend Emily. We saw Juliet's balcony, some beautiful piazze, great architecture, and a museum of old busts and art work. It is very pretty in Verona, but it was SO HOT outside today, and we were pretty much covered in sweat. We got on the airconditioned bus, I totally fell asleep on my friend Hunter, who made an incredible pillow, and arrived back in Lucca around 7pm.
It was a great weekend, the money was worth it, if only for the air-conditioning.
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