Ramil Blog

Well, it wasn't really an orchestra, but the program called it a "piccolo orchestra." It was more like a large string quartet. But at any rate, tonight, I went to the inaugural concert for the Florence International Music Festival. I found out about it through my friends, Morgan and Cassie, whose host father happens to be the director of a music school and is very involved in the classical music scene in the city.

It was a great concert, and they played two Mozart sonatas, one of which was Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and a Mendelssohn sonata. The musicians were excellent, and the hall sounded amazing. The concert was held in the Palazzo Vecchio, and the concert hall was covered with paintings and sculptures - and it also had great acoustics. The Renaissance art and the classical music made me feel like I traveled back in time, especially because I listen to so much modern music these days.

Tonight's concert made me appreciate Florentine culture a little bit more. After living here for three months, and being bombarded left and right by Renaissance art, I had just about had enough of all of this old art. Despite the obvious beauty of Florence's art, you can only look at so many Madonna with Child's before getting a little sick of it. But tonight in the concert hall, surrounded by these historic sculptures and such fine playing of old pieces, I think I can see why this town wants to hold onto this seemingly prehistoric culture so bad. It's obviously outdated and not fresh, but there's something hypnotic about music and art that is so organized, so true to form - especially at a time when contemporary art is so confusing.

Another good thing about the concert was that it was free. The city of Florence actually funds these types of events. Sure, it comes out of tax-payer dollars, but that just goes to show you that these people are willing to support the arts that they love. Maybe if we did the same thing in America, we would have more people involved in music and art. That's just my two cents.

During this past semester, I have been involved in a bunch of community service with Vivere il Volontariato at NYU in Florence. In addition to teaching English at a school, my roommates and I have been raising money and awareness for Dynamo Camp (pronounced DEE-nah-moh). "Dynamo Camp is the first summer camp in Italy to be structured specifically for children with serious or chronic illnesses who are currently in therapy or in post-hospitalization convalescence." Dynamo Camp, a Hole in the Wall Camp, is a Paul Newman initiative, and he started it here because, while we have organizations like Make-A-Wish in America, Italy offers no camp-like programs for seriously and terminally ill children.

So, to get people donating to and talking about Dynamo Camp, we did two things: 1) We had bake sales and 2) we held a talent show. Both of the things worked really well, and I think we accomplished our goals. We raised quite a bit of money, and everyone on campus now knows about Dynamo Camp.

In the end, everything turned out amazing, but for a time, things weren't so great. Most of us in Vivere il Volontariato had little experience with fund raisers, and even less with event planning. It was really hard to make the bake sales profitable, especially with a couple different factors working against our favor. And we really thought that the Talent Show was going to turn into a flop. The lowest point was definitely the week before the show, and maybe three people had bought tickets to the show. After working for months deciding on logistics, organizing talent, and having meetings, it looked like all of our hard work would be for nothing.

We knew that we had to change something if we wanted to sell more tickets. So, instead of having bake sales, we began to give away free baked goods. Now it sounds ridiculous, and with the sign

"Free Cookies** (**'Free Cookie' offer only eligible for Talent Show ticket holders)"

it must have looked ridiculous, but it worked incredibly well. Before the show, we had sold about 60 tickets, and at the actual show, there were over 100 people in attendance. And not only did we actually sell a bunch of tickets and raise money, but the Talent Show itself was very entertaining. I'm pretty sure that when anyone thinks of a talent show, they think it's going to be so lame. Even in High School Musical 2, the talent show was pretty bad until Troy and Gabriela whipped out "Everyday." But our talent show was really good. Despite all of the obstacles and doubtful moments, I'm really happy with the way everything turned. Take a look for yourself at some select clips from the talent show:

This Sunday, a few of my friends and I visited the lovely Tuscan beach town of Viareggio. Viareggio is probably most popular for its celebrations for Carnivale (which is like Italian Mardi Gras), but it's also a quite beautiful beach.

It was cool to be able to go to the beach and just relax on the sand, especially since the weather in Florence has been so crappy. And we picked a pretty good day to go to the beach too, because it was sunny, warm, and not crowded at all.

We played beach games, took a dip in the ocean, got very sandy, and watched a lot of beach football. Italians can never get enough football. Here's a video I made of the day's adventures. I apologize for the crudeness of "Ramil Goes to Viareggio, Sings:"

This weekend, I went with all the men I know to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a popular Tuscan tourist and hiking destination because it is both very scenic and quite rugged. As you may have guessed, there are five towns that belong to Cinque Terre, but they're all pretty much the same. I don't even remember any of their names, but they're all very beautiful. You have to hike to get to each one, and the entire path is made of cliffs along the water.

The first two hikes were extremely easy, but the last two were really hard. Most of the way is pretty well paved thanks Cinque Terre's popularity with tourists, but some parts were pretty difficult. The beach at the end was a welcome reward. Along the way, there was some delicious lemonade, singing, lots of Americans, and a nude beach - I am told. Here's "Ramil Goes to Cinque Terre":

So, this last Monday, I was in a concert over here for school. It was a nice, ecclectic show. First, my chamber group performed, then the two jazz ensembles, and then some the faculty performed. I was impressed at how quickly our director, Antonio Vanni, had assembled everything. I was also impressed at the quality of all the performances. All the groups were great, and it really was a privilege to share the stage with so many talented musicians.

I think my group's performance went well, except my battery ran out midway through, so the only footage I managed to get was the first piece, Assobio a Jato (The Jet Whistle) by Villa-Lobos. Check it out: