May program

In May we will be going to Salzburg for the Music Festival. This year marks the 90th Anniversary of the Whitsun Festival, a beautiful program of music awaits us, see the site of the Festival for an idea of what we will be hearing and seeing, www.salzburgerfestspiele.at
This Festival is dedicated to a period of time in the history of Music and the director of the Festival is Italian Maestro Riccardo Muti, he titled it ''Naples, Metropolis of Memories''.

We fly this time to Vienna with Alitalia, a short flight and will spend a day there, we would usually take the train to Salzburg via Innsbruck but the schedules are all changed and the Eurostar trains have been replaced by Regional trains which makes the journey longer from Rome. No matter, we have not been to Vienna for about 10 years and it is a beautiful city. We will then take the train from Vienna to Salzburg a journey of about 2 hours through the Austria countryside, always picturesque.

You could say this is a musical vacation since we have 2 musical events per day, it will also be a formal wear weekend, even for morning concert, men wear dark suit and tie. I have never seen anyone in jeans or casual wear, it is not done. All the venues are beautiful. We are staying at the Bristol Hotel, which is a gem of an hotel, the way hotels use to be 50 years ago, with professional staff, it is a family owned hotel and they know how to provide service.

BUT before I go to Salzburg I have to go to Albania a completely different kettle of fish. I leave this weekend for a week.