Stomachs filled with Italian pastries and cake, we began our second day in Rome with a visit to the Vatican Museum. We wandered through the museum, eventually reaching the Sistine Chapel. Its reputation does not do it justice. Whatever one may have heard, and no matter how many photographs and films one may have seen on the chapel, the intimacy and freshness of the depicted scenes from the Book of Genesis can only be appreciated in the Chapel itself.
After a quick lunch, we made our way back to the hotel for a quick change into formal clothes for the next concert at Chiesa di Sant’Agnese in Piazza Navona. Brucker’s Locus Iste, Caccini’s Ave Maria performed by the talented Scarlett, and an arrangement of Our Father sang by the Balborough Hall Choir, drew more and more people into the church. When the final chords of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus melted into silence, the audience was brought to its feet by roaring waves of applause. After the performance, the Music Director of Chiesa di Sant’Agnese who organizes numerous concerts by visitors every year, praised The Mount St Mary’s and Balborough Hall Choir, saying that they were the ‘best choir she has ever heard’.
Upon leaving the church, the choirs, staff and parents enjoyed an ice cream as they walked around Piazza Novana before heading back to the hotel for a meal and a good night’s rest.
Written by Lucy Kitchener