Drop everything, go to Italy and sing. Why not?

GOSPEL songs – earworms! – play in my head constantly now after two intense weeks of learning them with a choir touring Tuscany. We weren’t a choir before we boarded our respective flights, but we are a choir now.

And right now I can ‘hear’ a very beautiful Italian prayer-song, Signore Delle Cime – Lord of the [mountain] Peaks – in my mind and I, a non-believer, am nevertheless deeply moved. Who wouldn’t be?

Signore Delle Cime asks the Lord to take ‘our friend’, a fallen mountaineer, up to heaven covered ‘with a soft white blanket’. It soars.

Then there was Bella Ciao, the rousing hymn of the partisans who would die for la liberta. It seems all Italians know that one.

The 30 singers in our choir are mostly Australian and we also have a sassy soprano from Canada who lives in New Zealand, three terrific tenors (Scotland, Canada and New Zealand), and an Irish lass, our scintillating soloist and queen of the altos, who lives in Melbourne.

We learned songs, mostly gospel in nature, in Italian, French, Samoan, Zulu (yes!) and English. And we performed a selection of them in two churches, one in the gentle medieval town of Mercatello sul Metauro in the Marche region that borders Tuscany, and another in Firenze. (The angelic altos are pictured above.)

Our maestros were exceptional talents – Guerrino Parri in Mercatello, Edoardo Materassi who taught us in the first week of our tour in Montestigliano, near Siena, and in Firenze, and our own Tony Backhouse, who taught us for the entire two weeks. Many readers will know Tony from his acclaimed Sydney-based choir, the Café at the Gates of Salvation Gospel Choir, as well as his Heavenly Light Quartet. That's him, below, with Guerrino in the background getting ready to begin.

Each of these three conductors was a joy to watch at work. So knowledgeable – so animated! – and able to sing each part (bass, tenor, soprano, alto), they lifted us up with their energetic love of the music and of teaching it. What a joy.

Members of Guerrino’s choir in Mercatello joined us for our concert there, and in Firenze we were treated to exceptional performances by Edoardo’s choir, Animae Voces, who also joined us for some tunes.

Now I am in Anghiari, ‘my’ beloved medieval village near Arezzo, very happy to be here again so unexpectedly soon, thanks to one person dropping out of the singing tour before it began. [I spent last November and December here.] ‘Making Music in Italy’, organised by a Byron Bay-based outfit, The Create Escape, had been fully booked when I inquired about it months before. When I tossed my cap in, I assumed it unlikely that a spot would become available – but it did! So, with just four weeks to get myself prepared – flights, insurance, what to do after the tour, and so on – I said yes. Life is short, yes?

I have always eschewed the idea of group tours, but now I am very glad I took what felt like a leap of faith and dived in. The accommodation in Montestigliano, Mercatello and then Firenze was excellent and interesting in different ways; we ate sumptuous meals, had some lovely parties and stimulating side trips as well as the pleasure of learning. (You can see a snippet of one of those parties here.)

One of the side trips was to the hilltop restaurant Il Girone dei Golosi just out of Mercatello; another was to the beautiful organic winery Pomaio near the town of Arezzo where we went for lunch on the way to Firenze (see pics below).

I'm sure we all made some lovely new friends. (And here I must make special mention of Susie and David from the Northern Rivers who had the brilliant idea of making this tour the first leg of their honeymoon! It was a treat for all of us to have them along.)  

Now I’ve seen more of Tuscany than I had before. It is my fifth time visiting Anghiari and I’ve opted to spend a month here to catch up with acquaintances I have come to know and love. After all, the airfare is just the same for six weeks as for two, isn’t it?

A presto. Mimi :)

PS: If you would like to see the choir in action, some parts of our concerts can be found on YouTube. Go to 'Making Music in Italy, 2024'. You're welcome. xx