Italian Interlude, Part II

The concert~

The concert was held on Saturday evening in the village of Civitanova Alta, which is an amazing medieval town on a hill.  Italy is famous for its hill towns built to protect them from invaders.  There are three main regions in this part of Italy -- Tuscany, Umbria and Le Marche.  Civitanova Alta is in the region of Le Marche, which is a much less discovered area, so we experienced Italian living away from the traditional tourist areas.  Cristina was our translator (thanks, Cristina). It made it so much easier to have someone with us that was fluent in Italian!

Because the concert was not until later Saturday evening, Tom and I had some time to explore the town.  It is a ten minute drive up the hill from Civitanova Marche.  Parts of Europe had just experienced some record snowfall, so we were lucky to have been here the week after the snow.   As you can see, there was still some leftover snow.

Civitanova Alta.
  Lots of small alleys and cobblestone streets
 gave us an idea of what it would have been like  in the 1400's.  

These stairs were much steeper than the picture shows.
  This is the Via Porta Zoppa, one of the four "doors" to the city.

This is the door of the Teatro Annibal Caro.
 The stone portal dates back to 1480 and came from a nearby palace.
  It includes portraits of ancient Roman emperors and important people of the 15th century.  

By looking down the narrow streets, you can see in the distance
 the  stunning views of the rolling hills and courntryside of Le Marche.

We knew that Adam and Cristina would be busy practicing and getting ready for the concert, so we entertained ourselves walking around the town, stopping for some cappuccino along the way.   As we were walking around the town, we turned the corner and saw Adam unloading the marimba that had been shipped from the Netherlands for the concert.   Adam's group, So Percussion, are artists for Adams Marimba (great name for a marimba company, don't you think?),  so they made special arrangements to provide him an instrument of outstanding quality for this performance.

I warned Adam when he was in fourth grade that maybe he should consider the flute or piccolo as a choice of instrument, but he insisted on playing percussion.  Little did he realize then that much of a percussionist's life is moving multiple instruments everywhere.

The concert was held in the charming theater , Teatro Annibal Caro.  

Annibal Caro was  a famous writer and poet, most famous for his translation of the Aeneid.

This is a view of the theater from the stage.

The entrance into the concert hall

As Adam set up the marimba, Cristina was already warming up at the piano.   It's hard to realize what goes into preparations for a concert like this until you sit and watch all of the happenings. Cristina had flown in on Thursday from New York and Adam arrived on Friday from Texas, so jet lag alone would have been plenty for me to handle, let alone playing an entire concert the next day.  They seemed to handle it without a problem.

The repertoire that they played included a mix of solos and  duets.  Tom and I thought the concert was superb, but of course, what else would we think!

Post concert smiles.  

After the concert, everyone was ready to sit down and relax. However,  the marimba had to be disassembled, put back in the crates for shipment back to the Netherlands on Monday morning.  Flute, piccolo?  Is it too late to change instruments?

Everyone was ready for some vino, a pizzeria that was open until 4:00 a.m. and late night conversation. It was an evening filled with beautiful music in a beautiful space played by amazing musicians.  

Arrivederci, Civitanova.    

Civitanova Alta with the Adriatic Sea in the background

                              

Italian Interlude, part 1

  You may have the universe if I may have Italy.   Giuseppi Verdi

On Thursday,  February 16, Tom and I left London for an extended weekend in Italy. Adam and Cristina had been contracted to play a concert together in a town south of Bologna on the Adriatic and we were fortunate to be able to spend the weekend with them and to hear the concert.  We flew out of Gatwick Airport and had a beautiful view of  the Alps the day after a record snowfall. As I took this picture with my Iphone, I found it hard to believe we were flying over the Alps.

We spent the first night in the captivating city of Bologna (which I will come back to in Italian Interlude, Part III)  and on Friday morning we boarded a train to Civitanova Marche.  Civitanova Marche is a seaside resort on the Adriatic which was probably founded around the 8th century BC.  In 50 AD, the Romans captured it and started a new settlement Civitanova Alta on a hill near the sea.  

The first things we saw when we entered the town were posters and billboards of Adam and Cristina's concert!  Of course, I had to take a picture of all of them.  

The seaside town of Civitanova Marche was a charming town with palm trees, great shopping, colorfully painted buildings and of course, fantastic food.    

apartment building on the square in Civitanova Marche

the town square with palm trees and leftover snow!

town center in the square of Civitanova Marche

Easter chocolates were already displayed in the store 

Fresh pasta was everywhere                                                  

 

Thanks to Trip Advisor we found a delicious restaurant for lunch.  A two hour lunch with complimentary dessert  and dessert wine.  This was our dessert at ZERO733 restaurant.  The filling in this piadina was chocolate and vanilla .  The piadina is an Italian flatbread from this region in Italy (the Romagna region) 

The sunset from our hotel, hilltop town of Civitanova Alta in the distance.