Well folks, the MDB has made history today. We were the first marching band to ever walk through the streets of Florence. It was absolutely incredible to watch those red an white uniforms marching through the streets.
It did not start off that great. First of all it started raining about 2 hours before we started the parade and continued as we unloaded the truck and got changed. Although we ha our own changing and staging area right off the square, We were operating in very close quarters. The members, having felt with 101,000 crazy fans and all that is a game day at Alabama handled it in stride and we eventually found our way into the square to warm up and then make our matching block.
They were rock stars to the people in the streets. Everybody immediately started to gather around the band despite the rain and take pictures of and with them. People were coming up to them asking them who they were and why they were here. The most popular obviously were the 6 ladies from the color guard.
We had Some friends from the states and some not so friendly people from schools we've probably creamed in the last. We had a couple hecklers from UGA right before we started but I looked around and didn't see their marching band anywhere and I hope their football team is busy practicing so it didn't really bother us much. We answered with a classic ROOOOOOOLL TIDE and then we stepped off.
We started the march in front of the large church that dominates the skyline of Florence. The sounds of Yay, Alabama echoing off the buildings and through the streets of Florence was something that cant be described. To be a part of creating history and for it to be my school was something I will always cherish. I hope these members truly appreciate what they have done.
We came to a large plaza called Piazza della Republica where we stopped to perform a stand still performance. We had gathered lots of fans that followed us down the street but we also attracted a lot of people for our performance. The band played stand tunes and cheers we play at the games and even sang the fight song once. People were smiling, dancing, and taking lot of pictures or videos. Even people from the local shops came out to watch. You can imagine being the only marching band to have ever marched through the city, we were quite the attraction. The rain didn't seem to phase them at all.
We left that square and continued through the streets once more to the drumline cadence until we came to the most famous square in Florence, the Piazza della Signoria. (the picture at the top was taken in this square) You might recognize it from the final scene in the movie Hannibal. It's also home to the fake version of
Michaelangelo's David. The real version we saw earlier today. We played many of the same songs from the last performance but this time we gathered close to sing the Alma Mater. This is a big tradition with the band and we sing it after every Saturday practice and football game. It was truly a special moment to look into the faces of these musicians as they sang. Truly one of the moments I will take with me always. It seems like Florence agreed as well as the rain had subsided by the end.
Following the performance we headed to the truck to repack everything and gather our personal items. Now we're back on the buses headed back to the hotels. We are staying in montecatini, a town about 30 mins outside of Florence. It's truly a beautiful little town with lots of shops, restaurants and a great vibe of people. We're divided into 3 different hotels here. Hotels are rather small in italy so you can imagine finding a hotel for all 160 of us is difficult. The good thing is they're all pretty close together so we all gather in lobby's and head out with our friends. Tonight we get some free time in the town to eat dinner and soak up the night life.
It's been a long day having woken up at 630am but it has most definitely been worth it. A great day with great people that we will all remember for the rest of our lives. Tomorrow we leave and head to Venice, the city of love. Stay tuned for some more updates from the past couple days. We had some tours and greeting in Venice but thought you guys would rather hear about the most exciting part first. Ciao for now!
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Awesome!!!
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