Our journey began at KCI airport at the very reasonable time of 9:00am. What made this initial part of the journey unusual for me, though, was the fact that it was my mom dropping me off rather than my wife (who had her gallbladder removed the previous day). I met up with the crew, helped a student through security (got to remember to get rid of those liquids) and then spent some time online and reading before we took our first leg to Chicago.
Yay for group shots (oh wait, I'm not in this one, am I?)
We unfortunately had a 4-hour layover in Chicago, which gave me plenty of time to do some reading as well as some idle exploring.
I tried to avoid spending airport prices on lunch, but not long before our flight I had to bite the bullet. I ended up at some Chipotle-wannabe burrito stand, and it actually ended up being pretty good. No Chiptole, but the burrito was still delicious, messy, and rather large. This would have been otherwise fine, but I neglected to account for the fact that I'd be spending roughly 9 hours and 15 minutes on an international flight shortly.
Word to the wise: don't eat a large burrito before flying internationally.
The flight was otherwise fine, if not somewhat turbulent, and we arrived in Rome the next day around 9:00am local time. Now I stepped into what was to be my first of many roles, which was airport navigator. Having done a fair amount of air travel, both domestically and internationally, it quickly became apparent that I had a comfort with the situation that other adults with our group did not necessarily share.
So we pick up our bags and start to look for our tour guide.
We met up with our guide and made our way to the tour bus that would become our collective friend over the following 9 days or so. It was here that we also learned a bit more about the group that we would be sharing our tours/bus with.
From what I've learned since, our choir, being just over 30 members, was one of the smaller choirs at the event. To save on costs, we agreed to be paired up with an even smaller group from South Carolina. Not a big deal, right? Except this was a rather senior group, and I'm not referring to either 18- or 22-year-olds. For the most part it wasn't a big deal, but with all the walking we had to (got to?) do in the coming days it made things a bit interesting.
While waiting for our hotel room to be ready, we did a little sight-seeing from the bus and then a walking tour. When Carrie and I went to Europe last summer, some of my favorite pictures were just shots of the streets, so prepare yourself to see many of these:
Our first stop was the Trevi fountain, and there was a mass of humanity there. I tossed in a British coin I happened to have from last year.
Then we made our way to the Pantheon, which is now a church dedicated to St. Mary and the Martyrs. But before we see those shots, another street view.
An here it is
Here's the tomb of Raphael
Here's the square just outside
Yay street scenes. I love the umbrella I nabbed in this shot.
Our final stop on the walking tour was the Piazza Navona
Oops, I did take a lot of street shots.
After the walking tour we went back to the hotel and had a couple of hours to either crash or desperately try to stay awake until dinner (I opted for the latter). Dinner at the hotel was interesting, if only because I ended up being seating with the other choir directors, which included Dr. Z Randall Stroope who happened to be sitting directly across from me. I am pretty sure that I didn't say much of anything as I was feeling both awkward and was struggling to maintain consciousness. After dinner I crashed. Many students went out. I don't know how. End Day 1.
