From Verazzano, With Love

My friends, as is wont to

happen in the music world, by the end of our first short week the time had come for a

concert. Now in America, common emotions that arise during times of performance may in

clude stress, nerves, concerns with what to wear and if we remember all our words. In Italia, these such worries don't seem to exist. Why, you ask? Well, because this concert just so happened to take place in a castle...on top of a mountain. Oh...ya

know...no big deal. Um...WHAT! The view was something I had only really seen on the travel channel and I'd always thought they used T.V magic to make it look perfect. My friends...I was wrong. This place was flawless and it made us feel invincible. Puccini, Mozart, Wagner...No match for the Castle Verazzano. The evening began with a Champagne reception followed by a beautiful concert on the veranda. After the concert of course, is when the real fun began. Being a castle on a vinyard, of course there was a fantastic reception complete with all sorts of Tuscan treats and Verazzano's own wine. Italia...I have arrived. The night was hazy, so pictures will soon follow. A few highlights however..

• Eating fantastic food
• letting wine get the better of me and buying a raffle ticket
• Winning a painting with said raffle ticket...?
• Magically becoming proficient in Italian and convicing the artist to autograph it for me.

For some reason our bus back to Greve from the vinyard wa

s a no show, so we all ended up piling into cars with some of the local Greve boys...I believe ours was named Mario. After a slightly confused bilingual conversation about philosophy we reached Greve...the painting is still taking up space in my room. If anyone has ideas as to how

to ship in home, they are much appreciated.

A domani

Liz