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Durante quel ritiro, ci si è lavati e vestiti prima del sole mattutino.

Durante quel ritiro, ci si è lavati e vestiti prima del sole mattutino.
During that retreat, one washed and dressed before the morning sun.
From Lesson 380:Impersonal 'ci si' in the past (ci si è + plural)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Durante quel ritiro, ci si è lavati e vestiti prima del sole mattutino.

Why does the sentence use ci si instead of just si?
The verbs lavarsi (to wash oneself) and vestirsi (to dress oneself) are reflexive, so they already use the pronoun si. When you make them impersonal to say 'one washes,' you would theoretically get si si. To avoid this awkward repetition, Italian changes the first si to ci, resulting in ci si.
The auxiliary verb is singular (è), so why are the past participles plural (lavati and vestiti)?
This is the special agreement rule for impersonal reflexive verbs in compound tenses. Even though the auxiliary verb essere must stay in the third-person singular (è), the past participle must take the masculine plural ending (-i) to reflect that 'one' refers to people in general.
Could I use the plural auxiliary and say ci si sono lavati since the participles are plural?
No, the auxiliary verb for any impersonal si construction must always be in the third-person singular. You must use è, never sono, even though the past participles jump to the plural.
Is mattutino just another word for morning?
Mattutino is an adjective meaning 'of the morning' or 'early'. While la mattina is the noun for 'morning', you use mattutino to describe something happening in the morning, like il sole mattutino (the morning sun).

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