Aha... I found it!

Success! I’ve managed to get my hands on a saxophone!

I don’t think I mentioned this before. It seems that it’s getting harder and harder to fly with musical instruments, and upon arriving at LAX, I learned that I had the choice of checking the tenor sax I’d brought (and paying for an extra, non-insurable bag that they'd probably mutilate), or going without it. Fortunately my parents had remained nearby just in case this happened, so they came back and relieved me of the horn, and I crossed the Atlantic horn-less. It was certainly better than having the thing destroyed by Air France, but I was still pretty bummed at the thought of what three months of no playing could do to my already-suffering (28 units in six months cuts WAY down on practice time) chops. But Lorenzo, one of our friends at CAPA, knew of a music store very close to our apartment, and lo and behold… they happened to have a tenor I could rent for the duration of my stay! It’s a Maxtone--another of those ubiquitous Taiwanese labels that used to be awful and have gotten marginally better over the last five or six years--but it will give me something to play scales on. And I grabbed my mouthpiece out of the case before I left, so I’ve at least got a decent setup to hobble along with on this horn.

Last night we had dinner at Judith’s house, and we all went out for the nightly gelato afterward. As we walked toward the Ponte Vecchio, we noticed it was all lit up in a rainbow of color. Turns out that they were holding a commemoration of September 11th--kind of a show of solidarity against terrorism. One thing you notice right off the bat is that Italians (and perhaps this is true of most Europeans) seem to have more of a sense of themselves as being part of a global community than we do at home. They’re also very aware--and sympathetic--about the disaster in New Orleans, so it’s pretty clear we’re among friends here. It’s a perspective I’m going to try to bring home with me.

Today we looked at a couple of apartments that we could move to, but although both were larger and configured more conveniently, neither will be available until October 1st. That throws us into a bit of a quandary, since we’re likely to be that much more settled in where we are, so it’s looking like we’re probably going to stay. Also, given the benefits of our current digs (better location, very quiet, it’s cute, and the landlord seems nice), we’re getting more or less ambivalent about the need to move. Could be that this was part of Lorenzo’s strategy to let us adjust to the surroundings a bit and realize it isn't all THAT bad, but if that’s the case, well… it worked.

Getting back to music, though... tonight we saw the Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina (Florentine Chamber Orchestra) at the Orsanmichele, which is a beautiful chapel in the middle of town. First, they premiered a piece by Porro. Then they featured a wonderful cellist on Tchiakovsky’s Nocturne Op. 19 for cello and orchestra, and Boccherini’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (I think it was in C minor). Finally, the full chamber orchestra played Mozart’s Symphony Number 30 in B major. The cellist was Umberto Clerini—I’d never heard of him before, but he was excellent and got even better as he played. And the chapel was an incredible place to hear a group like this—fantastic art, and surprisingly wonderful (given the age of the place) acoustics. I’m really glad we sprung for the tickets.

So... that’s about all for today. Hope all is well with anyone who’s actually taking the time to read this, and I promise to add more pictures tomorrow or Wednesday.

Cheers, Leanne