"Con Teeeeee Partiroooooo',"
...is the song that all the students were screaming and singing on the pullman as it embarked on their field trip. It is the classical Andrea Boccelli aria that has recently been remade in a pop/rock-version for a cellphone commercial. It was a familiar atmosphere, and there was a recognizable energy that all the students expressed despite the early morning departure from the Collegio--a day off! How many times can I place myself in a yellow school bus parting from the confines of the school--claiming my seat, grabbing my lunch, and filled with excitement for a day out of the classroom, with my friends. The atmosphere took me back, recalling my own years of school bus shananigans--and all the classic High School characters were fulfilling their prescribed roles.
However, my nostalgic memories e were finding confusion in this new and lovely confrontation with my past--some things just weren't adding up correctly. This time around, I wasn't the girl running to claim the seat in the back of the bus with my girlfriends--instead, I was perched at the front with my two colleagues, the leader in charge. This time, I wasn't signing permission slips, nor would I be returning to my familiar stomping grounds--I would be headed "home" on a train. This time, I looked out misty morning windows upon foreign landscapes and farmlands. This time, mini-ipods took the place of radios and bulky CD players--and sleek colorful cellphones laughed in the face of our big, unbreakable monsters. This time, evidentially, I found myself in Italy--taking a bunch of Italian students on a field trip. How suddenly the roles have changed, and what a funny feeling it is to relive old memories in a new country and in a different language.
We were headed to a monastery called, "Abbazia Olivetana di San Nicola"--A Benedictine Monastery. It was an absolutely glowing fall day, and the colored leaves were falling and swirling around the pullman as we passed vineyards along the high way. I was tickled at this new experience on an Italian high-school field trip, and my Italian colleagues, Anita and Rossana, are incredible kind and sweet. I talked to Anita for most of the trip--they both graduated with a degree in architecture from the Politechnico school in Milan.
We arrived with the students to our destination in Brescia, and it was a town so small and quiet that you could hear a pin drop all the way to the mountains hovering in the background. The grass was blowing, making swooshing noises, and the air was clean and crisp. I looked out on the cultivated farmlands that extended out into the distance as the faint smell of manure tinged the breezy day. We took the students to the Abbey/Monastery, and the monk, Helios, greeted us from a window above "I'll be right down!"
He gave his introduction of the Baptistery and the Benedictine order of Olivetti, which is a very wide-spread order. He explained, from the best of my understanding, that there were different types of monks that lived in the monastery. For instance, he had already been married with children, but after his wife died, he decided to devote his life to study and reflection inside this monastery. The main monastery of this order is located in Tuscany, in Siena, and there the monks still devote time to scribing texts and restoring old books.
I actually bought some apricot jam, one of many products made near the monastery--and it is delicious!!!
By the way, I am listening to "Nessun Dorma" by Puccini, by Pavarotti. Wow, that is too powerful.
Anyways, back to my day: It was a fantastic church with a mix of Renaissance, Baroque and Roccoco designs. The Baroque designs by Giovan Battista Sassi were incredibly illusionistic, and it is incredible the amount of detail and tromp l'oeil decoration he utilized to make the church walls breath on the wings of angles flying amidst the decorative architecture and up into the clouds. There was a whole stairway and architectural wing of the church that they added through painted decoration, and it was fantastic to see the illusion that the artists created. When you look at all this beauty and artistry, it makes your culture feel like it is so dead and lazy--like we gave up the idea of worthwhile projects of beauty, substituting an idea of mastery for an idea of cheap convenience. In effect, we are a chinsey reflection or maybe even departure from an incredibly rich past of operas.
We got to view the two refectories--in the one there was an incredible ceiling fresco of architecture that if you stood in one place (in the center), it looked like there was another story to the building. In the forestry rectory, there were beautiful frescoes of Romanino.
It was a beautiful day, and I loved the courtyards. They were so peaceful with gentle light beaming down into the galleries enclosing the green area. The light was warm and soothing.
We headed back on the bus, and we stopped at an Autogrille on the way back. Their "rest stops" are incredible, and there really is no comparison to those in the US. Fresh meats, blocks of cheese, fresh pasta, paninos, etc. Anyways, we arrived at the school in Monza, and I went home to crash in my bed. Last night, I went out for a pizza with my Jordanian friend, and we had a really awesome night together.
Alrighty....it is now Halloween and I have to figure out a costume to wear for tonight. Me and a few friends + Matteo will be dressing up and going to a party at a Milanese bar tonight.
To end, my morning youtube searching of Pavarotti, led me to "Nessun Dorma." From that song, I found a video of "Britain's got Talent," from 2007. What you will see in this video is a man, a phone salesman, who after this first audition won the hearts of Britain. Please look at this video that made me cry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Byebye!
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