‘We came, We Saw, We Sang!’
Where better to begin a tour of Europe than at the beginning? As we met the Tuesday morning sunshine on our bus ride from Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci International Airport to the hotel, I was greeted with the faces of familiar friends. The buildings, monuments, streets, and even the trees of the city I once called home seemed to wave hello to me, as though they were as glad to see me as I was to see them. I was excited. Over the months leading up to this Tour, I had grown eager for my fellow Clubbers to meet Mom (il Colosseo) and Pop (San Pietro in Vaticano). Now, the day had finally come.
The next three days were filled with excursions into the past, midnight gelato trips, and dinners in the piazzas. In this regard, it was your typical Roman tourist experience. What set our visit apart from most travelers’, though, was that we were given an opportunity available to a select few. Whereas most visitors stay solely on the receiving end of Rome’s history, culture, and (as none of our members will forget) food, we were able to flip the relationship ship a little bit. We, the Notre Dame Glee Club, got to give back to the city a little bit of ourselves.
Our concert was at Sant’Onofrio on the Gianicolo hill, a small church outside the historical center of the city. Not only was the church beautiful and the concert unbelievably inspiring, but the long walk back to Trastevere and through the cobbled streets of Rome reminded me of all the wonders this world has to offer. How fortunate we were to be allowed to sing. How fortunate we were to be in Europe. How fortunate we were to experience so many samplings of this crazy, amazing, complicated world.
We left with the sun on our backs, on to more new and exciting adventures.
Marc Gazda is a rising fifth-year Architecture Major. He spent his entire third year studying in Rome, so for him, the first stop of Tour was a glorious homecoming. He serves as the Alumni Representative for the Glee Club, and is currently based in sunny Miami for the summer. If you’d like to contact Marc, his email address is mgazda@nd.edu.
This is the first post in a twelve part series chronicling the Glee Club’s recent tour of Europe. Click here to read the next post: Francesco Tassi’s account of his trip in Florence, a return to the city of his childhood.
Click Here to view photos of the Rome experience in our Flickr Album!
