Wow, not even a week has gone by, and I'm already blogging again? Crazy! It has been quite a week--it is weird to think that last Sunday I was just getting on a plane to come here--it seems like I have been here so much longer! At the same time, it's hard to believe that a quarter of my time here has already gone by. I find myself wanting the days to go by slowly so I can savor all the time I have here. This is such a beautiful place, and I love being immersed in my study of opera.
We had our first master class on Friday with a renowned opera singer, Claudia Catania. She has sang both at the Metropolitan and on Broadway and is on the Metropolitan Wall of Fame. Sounds intimidating, right?? In theory, yes, but, in person, she is actually very down-to-earth and sweet. She did an excellent job of being forward and direct without being condescending. She was very encouraging to everyone who sang (which, by the way, everyone here did a wonderful job--it was amazing to hear one great performance after another) and towards the end said we were all good enough to be at the Metropolitan if we wanted to. Inspirational!
Saturday our whole group took a day trip to Florence (or Firenze, as it is in Italian), which is a little over an hour train ride from Lucca. I had no idea there could be so much to see there. We spent a lot of time at the Pitti Palace, where the first opera was performed and there is a lot of renaissance art. I mainly wanted to see Michelangelo's statue of David--which I did, in the Galleria di Accademie--but there is so much more that I didn't get to see that I am hoping to go back next weekend. I still want to go into the Duomo (see pics on Facebook) as well as some other old buildings that I didn't get to see yet (I'm not so good at remembering all their names :)).
Today (Sunday) a few of us went to Viareggio, a city near the Mediterranean Sea, in hopes of swimming and sunbathing on the beach. However, it rained all day! So when we got there, we ended up going to a restaurant near the sea that serves fresh fish. The waiter said they don't have a regular menu because it changes based on the fresh fish that is caught each day. And how fresh it was! We got a couple types of pasta with fish in it as well as some sea bass--which he brought out to the table before it was cooked! I don't think I have ever had fish that was still completely in tact--eyes and head and all--until today! You can see photos of it on my Facebook page :). Now I wish I would have gotten a "before" shot from when the waiter brought it out before being cooked--but it didn't look too much different after being cooked, either!
Well, that's all for now! Again, check out my corresponding pictures on Facebook!
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