Why Italy is the ideal location for your music school trip
Italy offers much more to music groups than just beautiful backdrops and good food. From having your choir sing inside a basilica to hosting a piazza concert that draws a crowd of tourists and locals, Italy is where music students and teachers can truly thrive.
Whilst there are plenty of options for performance around the world, Italy truly offers a unique opportunity to perform somewhere unforgettable, and take your students to a destination that has crafted music throughout history.
To help teachers understand the opportunities available for music groups in Italy, we spoke with Travelbound’s Head of Music and Concert Tours, Ilaria Roche. Having organised music tours to Italy for over 20 years and with an Italian background herself, Ilaria understands what music teachers are looking for and what Italy can offer you.
A country built on music
Italy’s musical heritage offers a genuine opportunity to build on your curriculum. Explore music history across centuries, sacred and secular, including opera.
Ilaria shares some interesting insight on what students can learn from a music trip to Italy: “Italy is well known for its excellence in musical instrument making, especially for violins and organs. The Violin Museum can be visited from Lake Garda in Northern Italy, or students can visit the city of Pistoia in Tuscany to learn about its organ making tradition that dates back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.”
“In Venice, groups can visit the church where Vivaldi was baptised and the church where he worked as a Music Master. In Rome, they can visit the Basilica of St John Lateran where Palestrina worked.”
Educational outcomes
By taking your music group to Italy, you’re not just letting them perform somewhere unforgettable – you’re giving them the historical, social and cultural context they need to truly advance in their music studies. You are focusing your students’ learning and inspiring a lifetime love of music.
When you offer your students the opportunity to perform in Italy, you:
- Deepen their music appreciation;
- Extend their understanding of music history and of the impact of music on local culture;
- Hone their performance skills;
- Improve cohesion within your ensemble;
- Expose them to world class venues and new audiences; and
- Help students understand the true unifying power of music through local collaborations and friendship concerts.
Where groups can perform
Italy offers the widest range of opportunities for music groups looking to perform abroad. From choirs to orchestras, Travelbound is able to offer access to once-in-a-lifetime performance venues that you won’t get elsewhere.
- Cathedrals and Basilicas for Mass: Choirs can sing at Mass in the Papal Basilicas in Rome and in St Peter’s Basilica itself in the Vatican. In Tuscany, choirs can sing at Mass in Pisa Cathedral. In the Bay of Naples, choirs can sing in Pompei’s Sanctuary, in Naples Cathedral or in Sorrento Cathedral. On the Italian Riviera, you could perform at the cathedrals in the Albenga or Imperia.
- Historic churches for choirs and orchestras: Tuscany offers the widest choice (Pisa, Lucca, Florence and Siena for choirs; Lucca, Empoli and Florence for orchestras). In Venice, groups can perform at St Mark’s Basilica and the Basilica Santa Maria dei Frari, plus performance opportunities at the Basilica of SS Giovanni e Paelo, the Church of San Trovaso and the Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli.
- Outdoor and festival venues: For groups wishing to perform outdoors, there are plenty of options available! Travelbound sends plenty of music groups to charming lakeside piazzas along Lake Garda and courtyards, squares and gardens across Tuscany. Many Italian Riviera towns also run summer events in squares, seafront locations and purpose-built outdoor theatres (such as Ospedaletti), and in the Bay of Naples, squares, cloisters, gardens and church fronts come alive with music in the summer.
- Friendship concerts: Travelbound is also able to organise friendship concerts in Italy thanks to our close ties with many Italian music groups and venues. Ilaria shares a recent example: “Last spring, one of our touring school groups performed with their jazz band in two local schools in Sorrento with great success. The Italian students were so impressed by the talent showcased by their British counterparts and it was a great experience for the touring group to be able to perform in front of a large, enthusiastic audience of peers.”
Beyond the performance
There are plenty of benefits to taking your music group to Italy that go beyond the performance opportunities and curriculum benefits. Some of our groups’ favourite adventures outside of music include:
- Tuscany: Discovering the art treasures of Florence, visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa and seeing medieval Siena and San Gimignano.
- Lake Garda: Viewing the Roman Arena in Verona, seeing Juliet’s balcony and statue, and visiting charming towns with cobbled streets.
- Venice: Exploring a unique city built on water, world-class art museums and churches spanning medieval to Renaissance and Baroque periods.
- Bay of Naples: Seeing 2,000 years of history and Pompeii and Herculaneum, visiting the Basilica in Amalfi and viewing Naples’ ornate Baroque churches.
- Italian Riviera: Discovering the medieval village of Dolceacqua, experiencing the long-standing relationship between Bordighera and British tourists and crossing the border into Nice or Monaco.
- Rome: Understanding ancient Rome with visits to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
Across Italy, students also get the opportunity to enjoy a holiday-feel with brilliant temperatures and warm weather from spring to autumn, hotel pools and high local demand for outdoor performances. The spectacular scenery of Italy is also a key factor for many groups – whether it’s Lake Garda’s blue water against the Dolomites at its northern tip, the Amalfi Drive’s cliffside villages or the Italian Riviera’s towns wedged between sea and mountain.
Italian food and hospitality
We can’t talk about a school trip to Italy without mentioning the food! Italy offers student-friendly Italian staples – pasta, pizza and gelato – within a broader Mediterranean diet of fresh fruit and vegetables. Food experiences can also be added to your itinerary and double as activities, including pizza making, learning how mozzarella is made and olive oil tastings with fresh bruschetta.
Ilaria shares one of her favourite food excursions to offer to groups: “If a music group is visiting Tuscany they can even visit an award winning ice cream parlour in San Gimignano – perfect for students and teachers alike!”
Italy also offers warm and welcoming hospitality, with communities across the country who understand and show a real appreciation and enthusiasm for music. “Music is not a core subject in Italian schools and it is unusual for schools to have choirs or instrumental groups. Because of this, it is common for audiences to be surprised at the talent showcased by our touring groups and to show great enthusiasm at each performance,” Ilaria shares.
Still unsure?
We spoke to a Travelbound music expert
Travelbound’s music and concerts team are on hand to support you in building a tour that suits you and your students. Ilaria gave us her insight on picking the best destination for your group:
“We try to find out as much as possible about the group so that we can offer the best advice. Some destinations all but close for winter and would not be the right choice for a group wishing to tour in February. The more we can find out about each groups’ requirements and aspirations, the better we can advise them on the best destination for them.”
Why music groups book with Travelbound
“The Travelbound music and concerts team has an in-depth knowledge of the country and what it can offer from personal experience. We have long-standing relationships with local suppliers, hoteliers and concert venues which have been built over many years, and allow schools to experience music in Italy in a way that they wouldn’t be able to by themselves.”
“We also offer all of our groups touring Italy a local, bilingual Tour Manager to provide assistance throughout the tour, liaise with all local suppliers and discuss the finer details of each performance with the venues. It means that teachers have someone on hand to help with the language barrier and iron out any last minute glitches. Because our Tour Managers are local, they know the area really well and are able to be incredibly effective.”
If you’re still planning your music tour and trying to figure out which Italian destination might work for your music group, get in contact with the Travelbound team today to find out how we can support you.
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Educational Outcomes
A Music Tour to Italy Improve attendance to rehearsals throughout the year
- Deepen music appreciation
- Extend students’ understanding of music history and of the impact of music on local culture
- Hone performance skills
- Improve cohesion within your ensemble
- Expose students to world class venues and new audiences
- Help students understand the true unifying power of music through local collaborations and friendship concerts
Ready to plan your next music trip?
Contact our school tour experts and start planning.
