It's roughly 6,600 miles from the Bay Area to Siracusa, Italy, which makes for a long plane ride.
No problem. Annabelle Marie figured out how to ease the pain for her VOENA children's choir members, who have never made the 11-hour flight.
"I'm not going to tell them," she said laughing. Not that most of the Benicia-based choir — involving 150 young people from Solano and Contra Costa counties — haven't travelled to various parts of the world before. In its 21 years, VOENA has performed in China, Greece, Mexico, and Bali.