At the Verona concert, I met some friends of Flight Crew, not many this time, because most of them went to the concert in Taormina, how lucky !!
To friends who came to Verona, I asked them to tell me their impressions of the concert, as I did with Kirsten who did a long review that everyone liked.
The others weren’t that lengthy in their comments, so I’ve grouped them all here.
LAURA and UGO = They are Italians, from Trieste, but I met them through the Flight Crew blog that they always read.
I don’t have a photo with them, but here’s their comment:
“They were amazing, beautiful, elegant and talented. You know that we love classical pieces very much and it was very nice to hear LA DONNA È MOBILE and several pieces taken from operas. The voices were top!”
SUSAN and her brother = They had the tickets for June 4th and I for June 3. We couldn’t meet by a whisker, but it’s like I saw them and hugged them.
Here is Susan’s comment:
Hi dear! What a wonderful concert !!
I LOVE the song “Hallelujah”.
The concert was truly fantastic. The orchestra was smaller and the guys seemed different…still as wonderful as ever but more mature….more settled in their skin. They seemed more comfortable with themselves.
The difference in them, after two years without live concerts, was unmistakable.
They are professional men at the top of their game!
It was wonderful to hear new tweaks on familiar songs and I especially enjoyed the “montages” they did on several songs with a part of a song leading into another. The duet Gianluca did with Ignazio “Hallelujah” was really good. I never cared much for that song but the way the guys sang that song makes me hope they will include it on an album.
The audience was really involved in the concert..singing along to their favorite songs. There were also quite a few people who attended both nights, the guys asked.
A beautiful evening!
Here is a picture I took.
This year, together with my husband and me, my son’s mother-in-law Mariella also came to the concert.
It was the first time he had come to an Il Volo concert and that he entered the Arena. Here she is with me.
And here is her comment.
Hello dear Daniela.
Thank you for inviting me to the wonder of the evening at the Verona Arena with the wonderful trio Il Volo, I have never experienced an evening like this !!!
In addition to the skill, which I already knew, I discovered their sympathy, which I never would have thought !!
I lived almost three hours, and if I remember correctly 27 thrilling songs.
For me, it was the first time of their concert, but now I think it is the first of a long series …. Thanks to Il Volo and their organization ….❤❤❤
Here is my video of the concert finale!
Now I want to tell you some gossip about things that happened during the concert.
First of all Torpedine, it was just a few rows in front of me, I managed to take this photo of him.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t at the beginning of the line, so if I wanted to get up and say hello to someone, it meant getting several people up, and I did it once, but I knocked over the bottles of water of the people who were next to me, so, then I never got up to avoid making more disasters.
The concert was starting, the orchestra was already on stage, and 4 people were advancing in front of me and I recognized them immediately.
I took a picture, it’s not very clear so I’ll explain it to you.
Behind the man with the blue shirt, there is Ernesto, Gianluca’s brother, so Rachele, his girlfriend, can be clearly seen, behind her, you can only see the raised arm of Eleonora, Gianluca’s girlfriend, and after her, Eleonora, Gianluca’s mother.
Without being too conspicuous, they sat two rows in front of me, and never moved from their position.
While Gianluca was singing and descending into the audience, he passed behind them and bent down to give a light kiss to his brother, his girlfriend and his mother.
Everything was done very delicately and without giving too much emphasis. When the concert ended, immediately after the confetti was thrown into the air, I realized that the four of them had already gone out, without being noticed, they were gone, they took advantage of the final moment of distraction to go out.
The same scene was repeated the following evening, but perhaps Gianluca and Eleonora took more courage and Gianluca exposed his love for Eleonora more to the audience.❤❤
I find them adorable !! 😘❤😘
Another nice thing that made me laugh a lot was another thing that happened at the second concert.
During one of the dialogues between the boys, Ignazio teases Gianluca, imitating the expression on the face that Gianluca makes while singing. Laugh watching this video, while Gianluca sings Il Mondo and Ignazio moves his face and mouth.
Some of you have asked for Maestro Grani, he is a good pianist, but also a good conductor, usually abroad he directs the orchestras, but above all he is a great friend of Ignazio, Gianluca and Piero. He always helps them and keeps their voices trained throughout the tour.
I got to know him in Florence during Notte Magica. I was wearing the Il Volo shirt, which he immediately noticed, he said words of great esteem for the boys. We took a picture together.
These are the words and the photo he posted immediately after the concert in Verona, on his Facebook:
È iniziata alla grande !! It got off to a great start !!
Bruno Farinelli, the drummer, is also part of the band.
I interviewed him (search for the post named INTERVIEW WITH THE DRUMMER OF IL VOLO) and he had very nice words of esteem for Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca.
Here is his comment and his photo posted on Facebook after the concert.
The two concerts at the Verona Arena with IL VOLO were, as always, a unique emotion !!
A special thanks goes to all the staff, the orchestra, the band and the artists who have been and are simply magnificent !! ❤️
However, I believe that the biggest thanks goes to the 20,000 wonderful fans of IL VOLO, who filled the Arena with love for two days !!! ❤️❤️
Now I want to tell you about a fortunate situation.
After the concert in Verona, on my way home, I read the various comments on the concert on Facebook and I saw the comment of a person who is my friend and who lives near my town, Donatella.
I immediately got in touch with her and asked her if she was at the concert and she replied that she was there with her husband, Maurizio whom I know very well.
She told me that their children had given them concert tickets for Christmas and it was the first time they had come to hear Il Volo in concert and they were thrilled.
What few people know is that after the second concert in Verona, therefore on Sunday 5th, Gianluca and Piero went to Gardaland.
Gardaland is Italian Disneyland, it is the most beautiful amusement park in Italy, and is located near Verona and also in Brescia.
Also Donatella and Maurizio, on Sunday decided to go to Gardaland and you guess with great surprise who they found ????
Gianluca, Piero and Barbara!
I saw the photos posted on Facebook and the comment below says so:
“When you decide to go to Gardaland, and meet Il Volo, a welcome meeting.”
I immediately called Donatella and asked her to tell me about her experience, here are her words:
It was a stroke of luck, because we usually enter Gardaland from the main entrance, but this time we parked where the buses are and entered from the side. We saw them right away and I said to my husband: “Look, Maurizio, are those the guys from Il Volo?”
The guys heard her question and answered, “Yes, it’s us!”
I asked them if we could take a picture and they immediately said yes.
Look Daniela, I didn’t think they were like that. I was really surprised, it seemed to be talking to our children, they were very kind.
Piero told Gianluca: “See he (Maurizio) will ride a roller coaster and she will follow him out of love, I’m sure it is.”
They told us that Gianluca had already been to Gardaland years ago, but he was very young, while Piero had never been there.
They asked Maurizio: “But if you go on a roller coaster, do you go in front or behind?” And he replied “I’m going in front.”
I was stunned, I didn’t think they were so humble, you know, the notoriety, I thought they pulled a little, instead nothing. We were really delighted to have met them.
Wow, what luck Donatella !!!
I’m so happy for you !!
I hope you liked these last things about the Verona concert, now the tour has continued and therefore we will soon talk about Taormina !!!
Plus, coming soon, there are two short translations in TV shows where IL VOLO has participated in !!
Daniela
Credit to owners of all photos and videos.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, thank you so much for taking me ,via your post ,to the concert in Verona, it must have been great. I have to dash to Doctor’s appointment but didn’t want to forget to say thank you. Cannot wait to go to their concert here in October.
Thanks Marion, I’m glad you liked it
Hi Daniella, thank you for these blogs…you bring the concerts to us! I’m so eager to see the guys in September, my first show, I’ve been waiting for thirteen years!! The last couple you mentioned, oh my to just run into them! I love hallelujah and thought Gianluca and Ignazio did a fantastic job ,very emotional as it should be. I loved when Gianluca went to sing to Eleanora, so sweet, she’s a very lucky young woman to receive so much love and affection from her man.❤️ I wish them every happiness. I love to see the guys happy and Gians smile, pure joy!❤️🥰
Carol, the wait will go up even more and then in September you will rejoice for a good concert.
Yes, Donatella and Maurizio were really lucky to have met Gianluca and Piero by chance.
Who wouldn’t want to be held in Gian’s arms while he sings you a song and shows all his love? Priceless, lucky Eleonora!
Hi. I wonder if you can make readers aware of the scams that are on Facebook?
There are many sites pretending they are one of our lovely guys asking where the fans are from etc.
I replied ti two, one for piero and one for gian.
They reply asking normal fan type questions and appear to be genuinely interested in all their fans. I thought this was lovely.
They then ask if they can continue chatting so I was flattered.
To cut a long story short, although they were saying and doing the right things, I was sceptical.
After a few dsts and them trying to get closer, they then are asking fir money. I was lucky but others may be taken in as they really seem genuine in their requests. Too tired to buy this is that after their concerts. I called one of their bluffs and he admitted that he was 19 and from Nigeria and needed money.
You can imagine what I told him.
I reported him to Facebook straight away.
Another actually sent me a copy of his italian I’d card. I googled the cards dhich are issued for 10 years and similar to our passports here in the UK but the ones they sent had ussued 2019 yo expire 2024, making this only 5 years.
I am not only bothered about anyone making a mistake and giving money but also for the 3 idols themselves.
I think they would be very upset to find out.
I have yet to have a reply from Facebook but did not know who to turn to get this story out to true il volo fans.
I was taken in the first couple of days but as I consider myself to be a big fan (since 2009) I kept prodding and poking. They are very clever and must search the Internet for every bit of information.
Can you make at least people on your flight crew aware as when I look on Facebook, there are so many pages from one of them, some with every nations flags, asking where the fans are from and hundreds respond so if only the odd person gets contacted by them, pretending to be our guys then I am frightened that someone is going to get hurt.
If you want any more information, please do not hesitate to contact me
Hopefully there will be at least one site shut down but I presume plenty more will pop up.
I am thinking that a lot if our fans will be maybe 40+ age group, some on their own like myself and could be vulnerable to succumb to their charm. I know I was for a while.
Having watched a few programs regarding scams on the telly here in the UK, it doesn’t surprise me that this sort of thing is going on. Sad but true, let us hope that folks do not believe these requests come from any of our boys.
At least with these sorts of scams one has the time to think about it before parting with anything. It is the telephone scams that are the worst, they don’t allow one time to think. I know, I have had several over the past few months. The first was Amazon Prime, when I kept insisting I didn’t have access to my computer he gave up. The last was the tax office telling me I had incorrectly filled in my tax returns. Too darn true, I have never filled in a tax form in my life, and I don’t aim to start doing so now!
Anyway peeps, do please be careful, especially when the subject of money crops up. Or if somebody wants to download something onto your mobile phone, laptop, tablet, or computer.
Stay safe.
Roz
You’re so right about the telephone scams, Roz. I had a phone call this morning at 5:50 a.m., and, knowing it was probably my favorite person from Nigeria, I promptly hung up. I guess they don’t realize, with the time difference, it is too early in the morning for legitimate businesses to be open!!! Sure messed up my sleep, though! Dol.
Hi Kay, you have done very well in raising this big issue.
It happened to me too, after my comment, to have an “alleged” Gianluca and also my son’s mother-in-law was contacted by a fake Piero and a fake Gianluca. The true
Piero once made a post where he warned fans not to fall into the scam of these people. Anyway, since the problem persists, I will make a post to alert all fans not to fall into these ignoble scams. Thank you.
Hi, it’s comforting to know that it’s not just me who has fallen victim to these horrible people. After I emailed, I trawled through Facebook and there was at least 5 sites that are still going on pretending to be our precious boys.
I will do all I can, to assist Facebook to illuminate this horrible scam.
I had to smash a mobile with Bank details as they’d cloned it and registered it to Nigeria. How they do it I don’t know.was scammed from my internet banking.
Many thanks Daniela for such an interesting read, and also to everyone for supplying their thoughts.
Roz
Thanks Roz, it’s nice to read people’s opinions and also to discover that some of them have truly unique encounters!
I think reading is about all I am going to get. I really cannot see them coming to the UK, and as things stand at the moment I can’t see me getting to Italy in the next couple of years. Sheffield and Carlisle are about the only places on my future visiting list. At least I am keeping up with my Italian lessons, just in case! 😉
Roz
It’s one of the things that endear the guys to the fans–their normal-ness! They act and talk with genuine warmth and interest. They are like the boys next door. They love and appreciate their fans and we fans love and appreciate them!
That’s right, Penina, they are the “boys next door”.
Donatella kept repeating to me that she had been very surprised at their simplicity.
Thank you for sharing with us all these beautiful 6impressions. It was magnificent concert. It’s my dream to go to Verona for Il Volo’s concert , I hope it come true sooner or later, maybe next time. Would be wonderful to meet with you and other fans there. But for now I’m waiting for the concert in Łódź, I will go there with my doughter-in-law and I’m sure will be great 🤩. Thanks again Daniela and Pat, thanks to you we can relive these beautiful moments.
You’re welcome, Jolanta!
Jolanta, in the meantime you go to enjoy the concert in Lodz and then, I’ll wait for you next year in Verona !!
Thanks as always, Daniela, for more photos and stories about Verona–we can’t get too many! (Especially loved Gian and Eleanora–and your lucky friends!) Regarding the scammers, they are on Instagram too. I got hit by one pretending to be Ignazio, but I caught on quickly that it wasn’t true (darn!) Now I see there are several others supposedly from the other guys trying to “follow” me–non, grazie!
Judi, you have to be very careful with these false friendships. The first time I happened to read someone who pretended to be Gianluca, I was stunned, but how do these people afford ???
Watched IL Volo on WEDU PBS Tampa Bay in concert at the Colosseum in Rome this evening. Great performance other than those annoying pledge breaks, but I realize they are necessary. Gian’s solo “Your Song” was the last dance played at my college Senior Ball-oh, the memories!
It’s always nice to see their concerts again, they evoke beautiful thoughts!
More Verona fun from Daniela! Lucky you and your lucky friends! Question: Is Gardaland near Sirmione on Lake Garda? Happy memories on that beautiful lake. Thanks Daniela and Pat.
You’re welcome, Sally!
Exactly Sally, Gardaland is very close to Sirmione. I’m glad you liked Lake Garda!
Daniela, you are the best reporter! You know what we like to read about and it’s almost like being there. Thank you so much for keeping us up to the minute . …. I’m patiently awaiting the September concert in Washington DC, I hope it will be just like the Verona concert!
Clarissa, it’s not hard to know what you like to read, exactly the things that I like too. I await your impressions from Washington DC.
I enjoyed your visit to the concerts as usual and thank you for taking us along. i do have a question though…will Maestro Grani be coming to the US with them?I very much would like to meet him in the meet and greet session as we have tickets for that.
Jill, I assure you that Maestro Grani will come on tour and also the nice Bruno Farinelli, they are two very kind and helpful people.
I will add my Thanks to the many others you and Pat have received. It was such a lovely thing to see Gianluca interact with his beloved Eleanora. And, of course, the video of Igna taking a pot shot at Gianluca and his way of singing! They have such a wonderful relationship, one can poke fun at the other, without anyone getting upset! Love them!!!
You are most welcome, Dolores!
It’s true, Roz, I love them too and I’m sure they did other nice things in Taormina, too bad I wasn’t there.
It was very sweet for me too to see Gian hold his Eleonora tightly.
Thanks Daniela for yet some further great stories on the Verona concerts. I re-live it reading these – I cannot believe that it is just 3 weeks ago. It feels like ages and I can really not wait to go see/hear them again… oh if Only I was rich I would fly down over and over😜❤️ I do still have my Rome tickets…. too difficult to give them up albeit I know it Will not work out bacause of missing flights and it being X-mas in Denmark already on the 24th… sigh.
What a fantastic luck your fruends had meeting the guys in the amysement park!!! A Dream come through getting a relaxed few words and picture with them. So glad on their behalf. And Thank you to your friends for their reviews – so fun to read 😋👍❤️
As to the issue on imposters – it is truly sad – But there is little we Can do. In the beginning I spent much time trying to report them, But if you are lucky they Will only be out of the game for a week or so But then they Will be back with a new profile with a slightly altered name. On FB you cannot report them very well as FB want you to State whom they are resembling by clicking on a list with the correct name – But as none of the guys these days have a verified FB account you cannot fill in the form correctly😢 So it is only possible to do it on Instagram. I have given up as there are countles false profiles. I get many requests from imposters – some times I play “the game” in order to see how far they will go and when they will ask for communication by other means or ask me to click on a link etc. Once I asked one of them why he did this scam and he confessed that he needed the money to survive and that he actually lived in Africa. It’s really sad. However, today I find it easy to detect an Imposter – if one only click on the profile you will easily be able to detect that the profile often is just a few weeks old, that there are very few or no friends – and first and foremost there is no FB verification sign. The little blue dot with a tick-off sign. But it might be a good idea to write an article and Warming on the subject.
Greetings from Kirsten🇩🇰
Hi. Thanks for your report. I had 5 imposters last week alone that professed to be the real ‘Piero’. I went as far that when they actually asked me for something for his birthday, and to donate to their charity instead, I got in touch with someone called, jike Albert. He did give a good impression of being from a charity he wanted $2000. When I said no, the amount went down and down to $100. They sounded pretty desperate. If only 1 person falls for this scam, it will have been worth it for them.
I ask myself, ‘why il volo?’
Maybe it is a worldwide scam on every famous person but surely this is domething that the police and FB should be looking at?
This is major fraud!
If anyone gets a message from anyone saying they are one of our guys, please just block them.
Yes Kay – it is sad. But it is not just Il Volo that are misused. I am also a fan of Michael Buble and his name and fame is also misused ever so often. However, he has a back office who is very effective and does appreciate when you tell them that you have spotted an imposter and they deal with FB directly on his behallf. As to Il Volo I believe that our guys are so young that they are broughtt up with thiese kind of scams and have sort of accepted it. And they have withdrawn from Facebook and are only posting on Instagram as far as I know (and Twitter).. I have really tried to write Facebook numerous timees to tell about the imposters, but I get automatic replies only, so FB is really not serious about doing anything. So I have given up. But I am very alert myself these days. But it is sad.
Have a good weekend and greetings from sunny Copenhagen.
Facebook don’t seem to care one way or the other, yet put what they call a forbidden word in a posting, and they are down on one like a ton of bricks. A for instance is our local MP Stephanie Peacock. Apart from being our MP, a peacock just happens to be a bird of the feathered variety.
They not only removed my posting, but threatened to remove me too. Yet they let scammers and those who say tell lies about the Royal Family, etc remain. Weird sense of decency they have. 🙁
Roz