Impromptu Singing at the Cheese Farm

Your Home away from Home: Hotel La Pergola in Umbria

One of Incantato's trademarks is to take our groups slightly of the beaten path a day or two during their Performance Tours for a full immersion into the country they are visting. When the WRA Choir and Ensemble stops for two nights in Umbria en-route from Tuscany to Rome, the singers, their family and friends are in for a real treat when staying at the country hotel "La Pergola" nearby the charming hilltop towns of Orvieto and Calvi dell'Umbria. This charming boutique hotel has a rich history as it was once upon a long time an overnight stop for the postal carriers, and is known near and far for its excellent cuisine. We hope you will be incantato with our selection, which means enchanted, bewitched!
Now may the fight over the best rooms begin...

WRA Concert Venue: Santa Maria Assunta Church in Calvi dell'Umbria on Thursday, March 25

On March 25 at 8:30 pm, Incantato Tours & Concerts is going to present WRA at Santa Maria Assunta Church in Calvi dell'Umbria.

Calvi dell'Umbria is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Terni in the Italian region Umbria, located about 80 km south of Perugia and about 20 km southwest of Terni. The area was inhabited in Roman times, but developed as an urban center only in the High Middle Ages. Calvi was a fief of the Orsini and then of the Anguillara families. The main attractions are the church of Santa Maria, with an elegant Late Renaissance baptisal font, and the church of Sant'Antonio. In the neighborhood are the remains of a convent erected by St. Francis in the early 13th century.

The picture is from the official website of the town.

Fun Times on Tour - New Pictures from Italy

WRA Tour Blogger Martha Miller reports from Italy: Montecatini and Pisa

Again we are on a bus! Although we're staying in the same hotel in Montecatini, (which is gorgeous) we are travelling around to see different cities in the area.

Yesterday, after our three and a half hour bus ride, we finally arrived in Montecatini and got settled into our previously-mentioned hotel. We then set out to walk around Montecatini. It's probably one of my favorite cities we've visited so far. Unlike Venice and Verona, it is not as crowded as the other cities we visited, and we arrived right at lunchtime, so the streets were especially open. After eating lunch, we were left to wander the city in groups, some visiting the markets before coming back to the hotel to do a rehearsal for our big concert on Thursday. Then it was time for dinner, and off to bed.

This morning after breakfast, we took a bus to just outside Pisa, and then took a local bus into the place itself. It was amazing! We saw the Tower while we were standing waiting to get into the Duomo di Pisa. Once inside, we were allowed to perform at the front altar, an amazing experience! Many groups stopped to watch and listen, and seemed to really enjoy the concert, even if we couldn't understand their words.

Now we have just arrived in Lucca, where we will have a guided tour and then eat what will undoubtedly be a delicious dinner. Even the most picky of our group have been enjoying meals, and are looking forward to several more days in Italy!

WRA Tour first pictures from the Kids - Venice

Day 6 of the WRA Tour: Visiting Pisa

The WRA Choir and Ensemble, along with their families and friends are at the half-way point of their 2010 Italy Performance Tour. Today, the group under the direction of Mrs. Margaret Karam and Mr. Edward Wiles is visiting Pisa and Lucca. Incantato Tours got the singers permission for a recital in the beautiful Duomo di Pisa, the most important cathedral. A special farm house dinner with Tuscan specialities awaits them in the evening.

• The present inclination of the Leaning Tower, Pisas most important sight, is measured to be about 10 percent. The reason behind the inclination still remains a mystery. However, it is believed that the inclination was due to the subsidence of the foundation soil, which was a mixture of varied deposits and clayish material.
• Pisa was the birthplace of the important early physicist, Galileo Galilei.
• Pisa's origins remained unknown for centuries. The presence of an Etruscan (civilization of ancient Italy) necropolis (large cemetery), discovered during excavations in the Arena Garibald (mulit-use stadium) in 1991, allowed to clarify its Etruscan origins.
• The city has two sister-cities in the USA: Niles, Illinois, and Coral Gables, Florida.
• Football is the main sport in Pisa; the local team, Pisa Calcio, currently plays in the Italian Serie B (second-highest division), and has had a top flight history throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, featuring several world class players such as Diego Simeone, Christian Vieri and Dunga.
• Pisa is also known for its excellent university, which was established in 1343 and has become one of Italy's top schools.

WRA Tour first pictures from the Kids

WRA Tour Blogger Martha Miller reports from Italy

Hello from a bus in the middle of Italy! Not the exact middle, but we are driving from the north more towards the middle part of Italy. We took our two-hour bus drive down to Verona yesterday with our wonderful bus driver and guide, and saw many farms out the window in that time. The bus drive felt oddly short as we pulled up in Verona and began our first adventures in an Italian city with a new added twist--there were cars everywhere! Unlike Venice, we had to be aware of cars and motorbikes driving up and down the streets, and we found that crosswalks in Verona last less time than the infamous crosswalk across Main Street in Hudson, leaving some of us on the other side of the street.

We ate lunch inside an old church that had been renovated, St. Matthew's Church. It was there that we really noticed for the first time how long Italian meals are--we ate for almost two and a half hours! After we finished, we met with our local guide and got a beautiful walking tour of Verona, complete with a very deep history of Verona. We started at the Gate of Jupiter and ended inside 'Juliet's House'--the house supposedly of the Capulets from Shakespeare's play. After that we were given some free time to walk around Verona's crowded streets before meeting back by the amphitheatre--yes, Verona has one too but it's not as big as Coliseum in Rome. It's actually the third largest in Italy.

We drove to our hotel and got settled in before heading out to Valeggio sul Mincio, a small village beyond Verona's city limits, for dinner. All of the kids went to a pizzeria with our guide and had delicious pizzas while the rest of the adults had some alone time for a nice quiet dinner (quite the gift on a trip like this one). Then we all met together at our bus and went back to the hotel to go to sleep.

This morning we got up and began our three hour trek to Montecatini, where we will have most of the day to ourselves before diving back into the intense touring once again!

p.s. Our apologies for mixing up Martha's first name

Fun Facts about Verona

• Verona is the setting of the story of "Romeo and Juliet". Although the earliest version of the story is set in Siena, not Verona, a balcony claiming historical connection to the fictional lovers has become a tourist attraction for lovers.
• Because of the value and importance of its many historical buildings, Verona has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• The Roman city with its basalt-paved roads is mostly hidden from view it stands virtually intact about 6 m below the surface. Most palazzi and houses have cellars built on Roman artifacts that are unfortunately rarely accessible to visitors.
• Verona is famous for its Roman amphitheatre, the Arena, completed around 30 AD, which is the third largest in Italy, after Rome's Colosseum and the arena at Capua. It could seat some 25,000 spectators!
• A son of the city, singer Gigliola Cinquetti, brought Italy its first Eurovision Song Contest in 1964.
• Verona was the town that Julius Caesar selected for his relaxing stays.
• Verona has several partnerships and twinnings around the world. In the USA: Fresno and Albany.

WRA visits the Charming Town of Valeggio sul Mincio on Saturday, March 20

WRA is visiting Valeggio sul Mincio, a charming litte town nearby Verona this evening.

Incantato Tours has some information for WRA about the beautiful town: Valeggio sul Mincio is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Verona in the Italian region Veneto, located about 120 km west of Venice and about 25 km southwest of Verona. It is crossed by the Mincio river. The economy is mostly based on agriculture, with some craftwork and industrial production. The main sight is the Ponte Visconteo ("Visconti Bridge"), a fortified dam built in 1393 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. The bridge is 650 m (0.4 miles) long and 25 m (0.016 miles) wide. It was connected to the nearby Scaliger Castle by two tall merloned walls, and integrated in the fortified complex known as Serraglio which extended for 16 km (about 10 miles) in the Veronese plain up to Nogarole Rocca.

The picture is from the official website of the town.

WRA Tour Blogger Martha Miller reports from Italy

The WRA tour group arrived in Venice two days ago, after several hours on three different planes. We met up with our guide, and put our bags in the hotel before beginning our tour of the city of Venice. It's confusing! The streets tend to mostly all look the same, and the shops all blur together in a mish-mash of masks, food vendors and 'I -heart- Venice' shirts. We walked through the Jewish ghettos--the first ghettos in Europe--and finally got to have our first lunch in Rialto Bridge. Afterwards we continued to St. Mark's Square. A large group of us had the wonderful oppourtunity to go on a gondola, and it really sunk in that we were in Venice! After a delicious dinner we went back to the hotel to collapse into bed.

Our second day was spent mostly in St. Mark's area, taking tours of Doge's Palace and the St. Mark's Basilica. We also visited a Venetian glass factory, where we saw a professional glass-maker make a vase in about five minutes flat right before our eyes! Afterwards we were allowed to wander and visit some of the museums in St. Mark's Square. Finally it was time for our concert inside St. Mark's Basilica for mass. Although it was absolutely freezing inside and the crowd was small, the concert sounded beautiful and we moved off to our celebratory dinner. Finally we went back to the hotel to fall back into our beds.

Today we are driving two hours by bus to Verona, and after the long walks around the winding bridges of Venice we're looking forward to some time sitting down!

p.s. Our apologies for mixing up Martha's first name