by Siobhan Brady
The Choir trip to Tuscany was first mentioned to us in September 2008 and it was hard to believe, as we were waiting for the bus to the airport at 4.30 am on Friday 19th of June, that the day had finally arrived! Everyone was exhausted on the bus as we had just finished our exams the day before and here we were at the crack of dawn. Things improved in Dublin Airport when we had checked in our bags and had finally had something to eat. As the plane took off we really felt we were on our way. Once we stepped off the plane the heat hit us straight away. It was a welcome change from Ireland. We collected our bags and a brand new coach was waiting for us in the Arrivals. We wasted no time and were on our way quickly to our hotel in Montecatini. We were sorted into our rooms first and each group was given a key. I was delighted to be sharing with Dearbhala Gernon and Nicola Dalrymple. Our room was quite big and it had bunk beds and two single beds. We also had a lovely en suite. We had to be downstairs for a meeting at 2 o’clock with Mrs. Malone-Brady and Chiara, our Club Europe rep. We were told some rules about the hotel, and then to our delight we were told that we had free time until 6pm when we had to be back for a rehearsal.
We were starving! The first thing we did was go to the pizzeria where we had a HUGE slice of pizza and a drink each. It was boiling hot outside so we immediately went across the road to an ice-cream parlour where we had the most amazing ice-cream ever. While I got strawberry and Dearbhala got mint, to Nicola’s surprise she ended up with Sherry flavoured ice-cream instead of Fruit of the Forest that she thought she was getting!
We headed quickly back to the hotel as it was so hot and we were dying for a swim. We were so glad the hotel had a pool, even if it was pretty small. The pool was outside and was already warm from the sun and was absolutely gorgeous. We had a lovely swim and had a shower and got changed. We headed downstairs with our Light Music Folders for our rehearsal. We learned Freedom Train, which soon became a favourite among the choir members. We then went through all the songs for the concert the next night. Although we were all tired, it still sounded pretty good. 
We finished at 7 o’clock and then we had more free time until dinner at 8 o’clock. It was a three-course meal with a pasta dish first and then turkey and chips and even more ice-cream for desert. That night we sat outside the hotel in the green plastic chairs and chatted to the Americans who were staying across the road. We headed to bed around 10 o’clock and went straight to sleep. It was a great start to an amazing trip.