Monthly Archives: June 2015
Il Volo Professional ~~ Live Tour 2015; Rome
https://instagram.com/p/4MqnkmsRFh/
Note to reader: Technical difficulties resolved. Thank you for your patience.
~Kelly
“Il Volo will be performing in the Cavea which is a fourth concert hall of Auditorium Parco Della Musica. It is an open air theatre recalling the days of Greek and Roman theaters. I saw a photo of it but was not able to do a copy paste. I found it on the Auditorium Parco Della Musica website. It is a beautiful and stunning outdoor theatre. I have not yet discovered the seating capacity but looks fairly significant. This has to be a great concert gig for them, since they have three consecutive performance dates there.” ~~ e-mail from Mary S.
Parco della Musica ~~ Wikipedia; Mary S.
Parco della Musica ~~ Lots of pictures! ~~ Google; Mary S.
Bing Images Parco della Musica -Theaters in Rome Park of Music – venue of Il Volo Rome Concert – Live Tour 2015
(Photo by: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images); Bing Images Venue Il Volo Live Tour – Rome Concert – June 2015
Bing Images Parco della Musica – Inside view of the Rome Concert venue Live Tour 2015
Bing Images Parco dells Musica – Outside view Il Volo Concert venue Live tour 2015
Preshow
Concert
3 NIGHTS SOLD OUT @ 40,000 PEOPLE!!!!
(This is not an all inclusive selection of videos. I’m late on this post trying to capture them all, and that is just not possible. You can go to YouTube and search, “Il Volo Rome 2015” for many, many, many more.)
Concerto Roma 22-23-24 Photo Album ~~ Il Volovers Italy Official; Mary S.
Rome 22 23 and 24 Photo Album ~~ Rocke Me Il Volo Facebook; Mary S.
Grande Amore Tour Rome; June 23, 2015 ~~ All About Il Volo
Il Volo June 22, 2015 ~~ V.I.Photo Facebook; Mary S.
Il Volo, Roma ~~ Sara Fiore Facebook; LiJoy
Piero’s Birthday 
Thank you, Mary, Lisa and affiliates for all of your help!
~~ Kelly
Hug (‘həg) vb: To clasp or hold closely. ~Jana
A hug is a smile with arms;
Our guys, they have all the charms;
Hugs by day and hugs by night
Our guys, they rule, with all their might
When we’re feeling sad, you see
We just have to look to Italy
Piero, Gianluca, and Ignazio, too
We just love them so, don’t you?
You are feeling blue, you say?
Why, it’s a beautiful day!
Their eyes so bright, they light up the room
It’s certain to chase all our gloom!
They greet us with smiles and arms open wide
We sigh, and we melt, our eyes filled with pride
You see, our young boys, have grown into men,
They’ll soar to new heights, for we know that they can!
So, hugs all around, for you and for me
From us, and from them, to over the sea
Our angels in flight, will always be near
That is the truth, for we will not fear!
Jana
A Trip of a Lifetime ~ Part III ~ Maria, Madeline, Joan and Deborah
So far they’ve toured Rome, visited the Vatican and had an Il Volo Pizza made specially for them. Then they spent quality time with Gianluca and Mr. Ginoble. They were even made famous in an Abruzzi news article:
Read on. ~Marie
May 13:
We went to Bar BereBene in the morning for coffee, where we met Emiliano again and there was Nonno Ernesto, sitting outside with a group of his friends! Our guide and Maria both speak Italian and told Nonno Ernesto that we had met with Gianluca and Ercole the day before and Ernesto said that Ercole had told him all about us. We stayed a while and had coffee and took pictures with him. Like his son and grandson, he was very accommodating and charming! We talked about his having been to New York and California with Gianluca, and what a sweet boy he is; Nonno said that Gianluca has always been that way… very caring and sweet. We expressed our thanks to him for his beautiful family. Nonno thanked us for coming.
Nonno Ernesto said that if we wanted some good pictures, we should walk down a certain road for a beautiful view of the sea below, from way up on the mountain in Montepagano. You’ve all seen pictures of Gianluca in the same spot! We took photos of the most exquisite view of the sea and towns below us. A man who was fixing up an apartment to sell invited us in to take pictures from his balcony. The apartment was adorable and the views were spectacular.
Once again we were on the road, traveling around Abruzzi. We went to San Benedetto di Tronto in Marche District where we saw buildings that were built into the mountainside in the 16th century. We bought lunch at a small shop on the square and sat outside eating stuffed fried olives, eggplant, and roasted tomatoes. We toured this beautiful region and enjoyed every second of it! We almost hated to leave but we had plans for Sicily!
May 14: Hotel Vecchio Borgo, Palermo
Since our flight to Palermo was postponed from 11:00 to 22:00, our hopes of meeting Ignazio and Piero were snuffed out because they had to leave for Bologna to get ready for Eurovision.
Having time on our hands, we had the opportunity to tour Pescara. What a beautiful city!
From a deck atop a seaside hotel that we wandered into, we took some pictures of the beautiful scenery around Pescara and other interesting sights.
We walked around the town for an hour or so and stopped at a little seaside café where we ate individual pizzas that were served with brown paper wrapped around them; very good, too! We did more touring, then headed to the airport where we said goodbye to Christophe and “dined” at the airport while we waited for our flight!
When we finally landed in Sicily around 23:30, our driver & guide, Ciro Grillo, took us directly to our hotel where Maria tried using her key to get into Madeline’s room… she thought it was her room… okay, so it was late!. Lol!
May 15: Morning
Ciro picked us up and took us through Palermo, where we went to the “Capo” – the open food market where vendors had beautiful fruits and vegetables, meats, fish, etc. At the Capo, half way through the market, there is a baroque style church with mosaics made out of marble. Exquisitely beautiful.
Palermo has three opera houses, one of which is the biggest in Europe – Teatro Massimo
May 15: Stella d’Italia – Marsala
We checked into our hotel and quickly got ready to be escorted to Marsala City Hall by Alessandro Tarantino, assistant to the Secretary General of Marsala. A Mayor was to be elected at the end of May and the Secretary General took the place of the Mayor until the election. Alessandro walked us to the square where City Hall is located, and we went through the building and saw the room where Ignazio was inducted as Ambassador! Then we met the Secretary General, and Alessandro took our pictures and wrote an article about us which was later posted in the Marsala newspaper!
That evening we went to Pizzeria dei Desideri where we met Nina Boschetto and Buddy. Ignazio’s friend, Dario Piccolo, met us there as well.
♦♦♦
More? Of course, they said it was a trip of a lifetime and it’s not over yet! Lucky dogs! No offense Buddy.
~Marie
A Trip of a Lifetime ~ Part II ~ Maria, Madeline, Joan and Deborah
Ok, Ok…Here’s the next part. Stop with the emails and the begging. Sheesh. ~Marie
May 12:
THIS IS A DAY WE WILL NEVER FORGET! IT IS ETCHED IN OUR MINDS AND HEARTS FOREVER!
This was the day that Gianluca and his father, Ercole, came to the Liberty Hotel to meet with us.
We had no idea if Gianluca would be available that day so we waited with baited breath in the glass enclosed café for the car to pull up. Finally, there it was, and there was a passenger in the front seat too!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Madeline had the best view of the road and saw the car first. When she told the rest of us, we had to contain ourselves so as not to jump out of our chairs, although, we believe one of us did!! (not to mention any names, Joan!)
Gianluca, with all his fame, coming to meet 4 old(er) women who just happen to love him immensely! We all know that Gianluca is a sweet, sweet young man, so very humble, but to meet with him and his father in this way was just unbelievable!! Gianluca was so excited that we came all the way from America to see his surroundings and where he grew up and still lives. He and Ercole treated us like WE were the stars! They spent the better part of an hour with us and Gianluca kept hugging and kissing these 4 Granny Groupies (as Deborah labeled us)!!! He signed autographs and hugged and kissed us even more. Gianluca also asked us what we thought about “Grande Amore” (Need he ask!!) and also wanted to know how the Americans liked it. Gianluca loves America and was sorry they did not have a tour there this year. He and his father are so down to earth and treated us like we were long lost relatives. Words cannot describe the experience of meeting this sweet, handsome, talented, and humble young man on his own turf with no other fans vying for his time and attention. He took selfies with each of us, since he said he was the selfie king, and took time with us to discuss little things, like where to have dinner! When they had to leave for another commitment, Gianluca and his father both thanked us again for coming to their part of the world. What a pleasure to meet such wonderful, caring, loving people.
After Gianluca and Ercole drove off in the car, with Gianluca waiving to us and smiling that precious smile, we were all so excited we could barely talk to the reporter, Luca Maggitti, (who arrived about the same time as the Ginobles). Mr. Maggitti interviewed us and then wrote a nice article about us in the Roseto newspaper! As it turned out, Mr. Maggitti included us in a second article about Gianluca on June 6, long after we returned to the US.
FOUR VERY LUCKY LADIES!
- Deborah, Joan, some handsome guy, Madeline and Maria
A DAY TO REMEMBER – ALWAYS!
That evening we went to Don Franchino’s (Gianluca explained that the ch is pronounced like a k in Italian). When you walk in the door you immediately see pictures of IL Volo throughout the restaurant. Before we even sat down at our table, we spent at least 15 minutes talking to Franco Cardelli (does the name sound familiar?), who was so happy that we came to his establishment all the way from America.
Mr. Cardelli suggested that he make 5 of his most famous pizzas for us; the Pizza Il Volo, with a mayo-type floret, sun dried tomatoes, mozzarella, broccoli, and thinly sliced cod; the Fossa, with thinly sliced pears and mozzarella then drizzled with honey; another, the Colonnata with strips of grilled zucchini and different cheeses, and the Papa Francesco (the Pope), with mozzarella, thin slices of parmagiano, coated nuts and marmelade onions. Dessert was Ciocori, a pizza topped with grated chocolate, ricotta cheese, and powdered sugar. All were delicious! The best pizzas we ever ate, especially—guess which one!
Pizza Il Volo
From there we went to Montepagano to see if we could find Bar BereBene. When we approached the square we (by chance) met Ercole Ginoble again and asked if his father was around, but he was not. We thanked him again for meeting with us earlier in the day. We said good night to Ercole and headed toward the bar.
May 13:
We went to Bar BereBene in the morning for coffee, where we met Emiliano again and there was Nonno Ernesto, sitting outside with a group of his friends!
♦♦♦
That’s next! Do not email me for part 3. I’m in no hurry. I’ve already read it all! ~Marie