Holy Week at the Vatican!

So here is the update you have all been waiting for! =) As you are all aware, I was able to go to Rome for holy week to meet up with a choir from the US and to perform a beautiful work of music. The original plan was to have some big-name soloists (particularly Andrea Bocelli and Kristin Chenoweth) perform with us at the Vatican, on Easter, for the Pope. Incredible right? Sadly, a whole bunch of crazy circumstances forced the plans to change, and we ended up singing on Easter at a very old church on Capitoline hill (the place that Rome was supposedly founded), with some equally incredible but less high-profile soloists, and the Pope was unable to attend. But we did have some cardinals there, and some very important Romans (I have no idea who exactly they were since they were introduced in Italian, but the Italian audience seemed pretty excited that they were there!). Not quite as exciting, but still a great experience. A lot of the changes were actually a result of the terrible earthquake that occurred outside of Rome the week before Easter. Almost 300 people died and so the Pope declared a period of mourning and our concert was almost canceled as a result! That combined with the confusion (and slight disorganization) caused by the Italian production company that we were working with made it a different experience than we had been expecting, but no less exciting. I mean, how many 21 year olds can say that they've gotten to spend holy week in Rome and sing at an important historical landmark on Easter Sunday? Not too many! =) And I did end up getting to meet a few celebrities: our narrators for the concert were all pretty big name stars. James Caviezel (played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ), Michael York (famous British actor- was in the old Romeo and Juliet movie, and more recently was in Austin Powers!), and Louis Gosset Jr. (Officer and a Gentleman) were all there to tell the story for us, so that was pretty cool! I also did end up getting to see the Pope (albeit from a distance) when I got to go to Easter Sunday mass at the Vatican. Now THAT was an awesome experience! I also got to see all the famous sights of Rome- the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and so much more! I even used my charms to sneak into the Vatican Museum right as they were closing! Our rehearsal had run late and I had rushed into the city to try and get to the museum before it closed, but I didn't quite make it in time. HOWEVER, there was one last tour group that was entering, and I snuck in on the tail end of that group and convinced a very nice ticket salesman to let me go in even though it was technically closing for the day! What luck! Because of that I was able to see the Sistine Chapel and all the incredible artwork that is covering every possible surface of the Vatican buildings. Absolutely incredible! Then I got to climb up an ungodly number of steps to to very top of St. Peter's Basilica for an unforgettable view of Rome. My timing was pretty great for that too because I was in the inside of the Basilica's dome right during the Holy Thursday mass- looking down on the mass from that beautiful dome and that insane height was an pretty amazing experience. Then on my last day in the city, after having seen a ton of the sights we headed out to the coast for a change of pace and got to experience the gorgeous views of the Mediterranean and the much slower-paced life of the small towns of Italy. Overall, it was a very busy and very exciting week!