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We spend this week mostly around Cortona, and we had been fortunate to have several relatives come to visit. We have been joined by Roger & Bev; Tina, Jody & Joseph; and Carole & Family. We are having a great time! Since I’m starting to fall way behind on my posts, I won’t be able to give you all the details of all the places we visited and all the restaurants we have enjoyed, but here are the high-lights:

1. Sunday (07/01) - We went to a wonderful party at one of the professors’ home. Rosaria (Italian Professor) had her family visiting from Sicily, and they were kind enough to invite all the faculty and their families for a “Sicilian Lunch”. It was wonderful — lost of food and good wine.
2. A Musica Sacra Festival also started this Sunday, with different performances every night at diferent churches, theaters, piazze, and museums around Cortona. It will end on Saturday with an all night event– all free btw. On Monday (07/02) we attended “Pur essendo Dio”, a vocal soloist accompanied by a classic guitar, performed by Paola Cecchi & Michele Santoro at the Museo Diocesano.
3. Tuesday (07/03) was Chloe’s birthday. So we spent the day accordingly. We started by giving her birthday gifts in the morning, then we headed to the park, then went to the pool, and we then we had a small birthday party at the apartment. That night Ashley gave a faculty presentation about her work, and Pam (the photography teacher) followed it up with her presentation. It was the first time I have been to one of Ashley’s talk, and she did a fantastic job — yep, I was very proud indeed.
4. On Wednesday night, we attended another concert — Concerto d’Organo del Maestro Andrea Macinat, performed at the Santuario di Santa Margherita, a beautiful cathedral on the very top of the Cortona hill. The accustics on these olds churches are just remarkable.
5. Thursday night, we attended “Dante: L’armonia delle sfere”, with lecture from Mons. Marco Frisina accompanied by pianist Maestro Carlo Michini, and snipets of the play performed by Lettore Fiorella Mezzetti. If one could get through the pretty long lectures, the piano and reading performances were excellent.
6. Friday we visited the Etruscan Museum in the morning, and took it easy in the afternoon.
7. On Saturday, Ashley, the kids and I went to the field trip to Arezzo & Sansepolcro, while everyone else went to Florence.
8. And this past Sunday, we all visited the city of Lucca, where Carole gave us a brief tour of the city wall, piazza San Michele, and the San Martin Church. Since we were on our way to Pisa, we didn’t have as much time as we would like to visit the city, and I would like to come back if time permits. Lucca has a lot to offer, and we barely touch all its focal points. We had a nice lunch, while listening to Brazilian Samba, and then we caught a train to Pisa. we pretty much stayed at Campo dei Miracoli, which is just phenomenal. We didn’t have early reservations to climb the tower, but just the sight of it is worth the trip. The cathedral and the Babistry are also incredible and I can easily run out of adjectives to describe this place. I will definitely make an effort to go back before we leave.

Hope everyone is doing well! Ciao!!