Northern Italy and the Pope

Although Rome was very fascinating, there was still much more to see in Italy. The next part of my Europe trip landed us in the Vatican City, going through their security check process, avoiding the panhandlers and Gypsies, and seeing everything that this beautiful country has to offer. Because of its importance in the world, it is actually considered its own little country, which I find adorable. We didn't have enough time to visit the Sistine Chapel and see the wonderful works of Michelangelo, but we did get to go in and see the ornate Chapel at the Vatican, to see the coffin that contains one of the oldest Pope's, and admire the church organ. The pope himself was not there at the time, unfortunately, but it was still pretty cool to see how security works in a foreign country regarding the most important Catholic location in the world.

After this, we were in Florence, scouting out the house of Michelangelo and finding the house of Leonardo DaVinci. We saw the big chapels, interacted with locals, tried speaking Italian (but got answered by in English), and enjoyed our mandatory serving of gelato. As folklore has it, you are only happy and Italy if you have at least three servings of gelato every day. There were little pop-up kiosks and stands everywhere selling the finest traditional Italian recipes of gelato. In Florence, there were so many different kinds of people, and it was quite a marvel to say the least.

In the mid-afternoon, after some sightseeing, we had some free time to wander around. I saw the old lucky bull in the Town Plaza that my uncle took a picture next to 30 years prior when he was studying nephrology in Italy. I saw Trevi Fountain. And, I saw people who I thought were an unlikely fit. Namely, I met a man speaking perfect Italian, who invited me to sit and talk for a while, and then telling me that he originated from Hartford Connecticut. His business partner, who also helps run the little jewelry stand they owned, was from Salem, Massachusetts. He moved to Italy right after college. Quite inspiring.

After this day, we traveled to Baveno, a district of Italy in the north, near Genova. Much to my surprise, there is a huge population of Spanish people here. And one point in time, I actually acted as a translator for the group, being one of maybe three people that spoke Spanish in my tour group. A lady didn't speak any English and was asking us when are concert started, and I was able to help her out. Exuberant, she kissed me on the cheek gave me a hug and promised to be back later. The rest of the kids looked at me with mouths agape, impressed at my prowess with foreign language.

The climate in Baveno was mild compared to Florence and Rome, but still rather hot. Influences from other part of Europe were starting to become noticeable and prominent, something I didn’t realize until I was in other places later. The people were also nicer to tourists there, as I met some resistance from the locals in the south. Since Baveno is an area that isn't often heavily populated by tourists, almost everyone was happy to see us. This was also the location of our second performance.

In this part of our journey, it became apparent that music really is the universal language. There were many people in the crowd that only spoke Italian or Spanish, but everybody had the same amount of enjoyment out of our “John Philip Sousa March”, or “Air for Band”, or “West Side Story” compilation, and our percussion solo that featured buckets. Specifically, gardening buckets. It was also two shows in and we already had people breaking their first buckets. They just don't make them the same as they do in America. More to come on that later.

If there's any part of Italy I would encourage people to visit, the culture and history of Northern Italy is so profound and rich. If I ever went back to Italy, I would be visiting there. However, I would still be encouraging anyone who goes not to drive, as Italians tend to just put their car wherever they feel like it on the road and try not to hit things occasionally. Regardless of this, Italy is very quaint and cute, and worth a visit for anyone.