Venice

Tuesday June 24

We woke up early and went into Venice by 8:00 AM and toured the Basilica of St. Mark as well as the palace of the Doges. Venice was one of the most powerful cities in the early Rennaisance perioed, and they city elected a leader or Doge, to govern the city along with a Senate. The palace was beautiful, but not elaborate like some of the castles where kings lived and ruled. We also had time to wander around town and ride a gondola. I had so many scenes from different movies I have seen, such as "The Italian Job" as we went through Venice. It was fairly crowded with tourists, and I was amazed that I actually heard more Americans speaking than any other nationality, including Italian. The Italians, of course, worked in the shops, but they almost always spoke English as well. We went to the glass factory and watched them blow glass for beautiful Venetian glass goblets, pitchers, glasses, you name it.

As wonderful and charming as Venice is, the highlight of the day was hearing Brian's choir sing in one of Venice's renown churches, the Chiesa de San Rocco. When I heard his 18 member choir sing to a packed audience, particularly the songs written specifically to be sung in these churches, I felt chills down my body and had to wipe tears from my eyes. I noticed that many of the other parents there had similar reactions, too. The audience was thrilled with the performance and were touched too. Most of them stayed for the entire 1 hour concert. As the choir was singing, I thought about how these people are listening to these kids who came half way across the world to sing to them. We get to look forward to 3 more performances in different cities during our stay here.