We were up for breakfast at 6:30 then packed up and loaded the bus for our drive to Pompeii. You can never account for Italian traffic, and we ended up in the middle of quite a lot. This delayed our arrival and shortened our visit, but the two ladies who led us through a tour still managed to hit all the highlights of this very interesting place. If you’ve never heard of it, I recommend reading more than I can put here. (What is below is thanks in large part to Wikipedia.) This Roman city was buried under 13 to 20 feet of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Remarkably preserved under the ash, Pompeii offers an irreplaceable view of Roman life, frozen at the moment it was buried. It had many fine public buildings and luxurious private houses with lavish decorations, furnishings and artworks, which were the main attractions for early excavators; subsequent excavations have many more private and public buildings that reveal much of their life. Organic remains, including wooden objects and human bodies, were interred in the ash; their eventual decay allowed archaeologists to create molds of figures in their final moments of life.
After a good pasta lunch at the restaurant at the excavations, we headed to Solerno and our new hotel. It faces the Mediterranean, which brings a beautiful view every time we walk out. The choir talked through all the mechanics of the evening’s performance, which was the first concert of this tour.
BYU Singers were part of the Festival Internazionale Cantagiovani. We walked there through throngs of people, as this was May Day and serves as Italy’s Labor Day. A speaker in a large square we navigated through was so loud and vehement we were surprised to find out we hadn’t wandered into political rally! It was just a celebration of workers.
Once they arrived, Dr. Crane conducted a rehearsal of an African piece the festival had chosen as the closing number. Seven other choirs sang with BYU Singers in the rehearsal and performance of this piece as the finale of the evening. The seven choirs came from local choirs, other parts of Italy, and some from other countries. They all sang two numbers each, then BYU Singers performed a 30-minute concert. The Chiesa di San Benedetto Church was completely full with the choir members and audience; about 100 stood to hear the concert.
Dr. Crane was already a favorite of the choirs with his fluent Italian, and BYU Singers claimed their own fans with a wonderful concert. It was met with a standing ovation, and the head of the festival proclaimed it “more than expected. It was a meditation on an experience of pure joy.” No, I don’t speak Italian, but I know who to ask for translations…
At that point all the choirs came up to surround our choir, and sang a traditional song of the region.
Dinner began at 10 pm, and we all got back to the hotel around 11:30, walking as the bus had reached its time limit with us. Lots of steps for our watches and phones to count this day! We had the incredible pizza the south of Italy, especially this area, is known for. That was a perfect ending to a fun day.
