Sunday night update

Today was one of the highlights of the trip - the Gunn choir sang for the noon mass at the Vatican. It's quite an honor to be selected to sing during the service at the home of the Pope, especially for such a diverse group of kids (read: not so many Catholics, lots of other faiths represented). After a wakeup, breakfast & bus load we traveled to St. Peter's Square where we passed through security and did some sight-seeing inside the cathedral while waiting to sing. At noon, the choir was in place at the left of the altar and mass began. It has been a while since I attended mass, but somehow I could still figure out when to stand up, sit down, kneel & say 'amen'. Even in Italian. Early imprinting lasts a long time.

After the mass there was a quick change out of choir attire into street clothes, and a bus trip to Campo die Fiori for a quick lunch (spaghetti for me; pasta seemed to be a popular choice) - then back into the guided tour mode under cloudless blue skies. Today we saw 'less ancient' Rome, including Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Spanish Steps & Trevi Fountain. This was a good three hours of traipsing over cobblestones & dodging crowds, so you can be sure we had plenty of exercise! We ended the day with a dinner at Pizzarito and a follow-on blood sugar rush of epic proportions. Post-dinner we burned off some of the energy with a long night walk back to the Colosseum, and onto the buses for a chatty trip back to the hotel.

Tomorrow includes a guided tour of the Vatican (if they lock us into the Sistine Chapel, watch for white smoke from the chimney as a signal to let us out) and a concert at Sant'Agnese, a beautiful basilica on Piazza Navone (next door to a legendary gelato restaurant, at least according to our tour guide Paolo). That will be our last day in Rome, hopefully you'll hear more about it tomorrow night … after some complaining at the front desk (and some muscle from our tour agency), they've agreed to let me use the hotel business network for access. With luck that could mean I'm in bed by 1AM tonight and you all have a fresh update and pictures! Assuming all goes as planned, the pictures are below (thanks to Lisa for some of the photos). I don't have pictures of the mass yet, but I will have some shortly so hold on…