Abbazia di Sant’ Antimo

As we were about to pass into Tuscany, we got a phone call from the Resident Director of SYA-Italy, in other words, our boss. He was actually calling to suggest a side trip. He then texted the details, I located it on the map and we were on our way to our second, unanticipated adventure. This time it was a trip to the Abbazia di Sant’ Antimo. After winding through the town of Montalcino (more on that later) we jogged 10 km south to the Abbazia. It is a fascinating community of Augustinian monks who do their typical monk thing. They pray, eat and are industrious in the region surrounding the church which at one point (500+ years ago) was one of the major stopping points on the pilgrimage to Rome. The church itself is a simple, but beautifully proportioned building sitting out in the middle of tilled fields and surrounded by ancient olive trees and grapes. We happened to be there for Sext, one of the times they pray, which isn’t exactly startling since they do this seven times a day beginning with Matins at 5:45 AM. What was unexpected was that the entire prayer was done as a Gregorian chant by the 8 monks who participated. It was very interesting, to say the least.