Unfortunately, even with all of the activity in Rome yesterday and forcing myself to stay up to get acclimated, I still could not sleep last night. As a result, Jordan and I were two of the first people at breakfast at 6:00am. After breakfast, I decided to head to the gym to do my therapy exercises, get my heart rate up, and do a little stretching in hopes that ballet class will not be such a shock to my body tomorrow after 4 days off and 13 hours spent sitting on the plane. Afterwards, I had just enough time to reorganize and check out before our bus call.

The countryside became more and more beautiful with each kilometer on our bus ride from Rome to Spoleto, from the unique Mediterranean fauna, to the picturesque hill top villages, and quaint stone houses. Shortly after arriving in Spoleto, I headed off with a group of dancers in search of food, which proved to be very difficult, as most of the town was shut down for the afternoon siesta and would not reopen until 4:00. Luckily, we found a small cafe that was open and I finally had my first taste of Italian gelato!!! Upon ordering, we realized that English was not as widely spoken by the locals here as it was in Rome, and it motivated me to review some Italian phrases when I got back to the hotel.

Then, at 4:00, the touring company gathered for a reception in the courtyard of our hotel to officially kick off the tour and thank James and Sherry Raisbeck for helping to make this possible for PNB.

Benjamin Griffiths
PNB Soloist

Featured Photo: View of the reception with James and Sherry Raisbeck from Ben’s room.