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July 11th 2010
Published: July 13th 2010
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San Gimignano, Italy
Ya know that one chorister that gets sick on any given tour? Yeah? That's me. I've caught a cold. My throat is no longer causing me the agony that it did the last couple of days, but my nose is stuffy. And if you're ever going to buy tissue in an Italian supermarket, don't go for the 0.39 euro for 10 mini pack variety. My nose is raw. That being said, I'm still standing, which is more than a couploe of others who have gone down to dehydration. No one has fainted yet, but this morning's mass, in a _very_ warm church in San Gimignano, saw both SO and AB have some health issues that required quick escapes to the cloisters where it was much coolr.

Mass went well, with the Carillo Ave Maria being a crowd favourite (we were asked to encore it after we had finished our postlude).

We drove to Venice this afternoon, stopping en route at an AutoGrill, a sort of roadside chain on the highways here.

Anywho, we finally made it to Venice and to St. Mark's nearly and hour later than we had intended. Fortunately we'd planned on being there more than
MosaicMosaicMosaic

on St. Mark's, Venice
an hour ahead of time, so we still made it in time for mass.

Let me tell you about St. Mark's. 12 years ago when I was in Venice, it was with a group of people that, to put it mildly, didn't care. When they discovered that they had to put on longer shorts and cover their shoulders to get in, they just refused entirely to go back. So, in short, I have been waiting 12 years to get into that church. And it was worth the wait. The mosaics at Ravenna were impressive - the ones at St Mark's are insane. Everywhere is the glint of gold. Prophets, apostles, saints, disciples, gospel writers, all look down on you with their slightly blank stares while around them the gold just sparkles.

Mass would have been lovely, had there not been sound checks going on for some concert or other out in the square. Loud. Even inside the church. At the most opportune moments.

And for those of you who are wondering, it did _not_ interfere with my watching the World Cup - dinner did. We had a group dinner which, while lovely, was not watching Spain earn its first-ever World Cup victory. I had the waiters bringing us updates, I stopped street vendors as we headed back to the hotel... I was desperate... but alas, I saw NOTHING of the game.

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