Category Archives: Our Stories

My Reflections About Music and More ~ Lydka

My Cat Molly, by Allene and a Lucky Christine

As you all know,  we sometimes get emails from The Crew that I just can’t help sharing.  Here are two ~Marie

My Cat Molly

  • Jul 28 at 12:22 PM
    To
    maryjane, Mary Bohling, Suzy Rust, marie crider

Tanti Auguri, Piero! (somewhat belated….)

It was June 24, 2015, and everything was a buzz of excitement as we waited in anticipation to celebrate Piero’s birthday in Detroit! Most of the same group that celebrated Gianluca’s back in February, was once again, joined in Il Volo love, to celebrate the “real” opera singer of the group!

balloons

The balloons were in place outside to make sure no one missed where the party was. Red, green, and silver star balloons were waving in the wind to announce his special day. Along with a happy birthday one, of course!

 

Sharon and her lovely house were the hosts of this event. Everyone started arriving around 6p. Our theme was “make your own pizza” and we had salad from Buddy’s and angel hair pasta to go with it with a very creative tomato sauce! And, how could we forget all the wine! Oh, did I mention cake???

 

About 6:30p, we decided we better quickly make our “tanti auguri” video for Piero. So, we all gathered around Emilia’s phone and we sang “Tanti Auguri” to Piero and even added some harmony in at the end! Emilia sent it off into Ivolosphereland and it was quickly picked up on a few Facebook pages.

After some more chatting, it was time to prepare the toppings for the pizzas! I put on the Italian apron that Sharon had won at the Gianluca party, and I went to work chopping and prepping the toppings. We fired up the grill – yes, we had pizza cooked on the grill! They actually turned out wonderful and we all enjoyed our individual pizzas, angel hair pasta, salad, and wine. We ate outside in Sharon’s lovely backyard, surrounded by beautiful trees, a few Koi ponds, and a lovely breeze. It was a very beautiful evening for Piero’s birthday.

group oval

salad

Of course, earlier in Italy, he was having his own fun at their last concert in Roma, where they gave him a cake, and flowers, and he had his fun with Ignazio!

 

Later, it was time to cut the cake and it was delicious. We also had some M&Ms custom made with Piero’s picture on them, along with Tanti Auguri, his birthdate, and stars. The M&Ms were in red, white, and green. We also had lots of other Italian themed decorations to go along with the other festivities of the evening.

mms packages

 

We were stuffed full of pizza, pasta, wine, and cake, but we finished off the evening watching one of our favorite videos of them – “Il Volo Takes Flight – from the Detroit Opera House!” We never tire of their first performance taped live from Detroit!

 

By then it was nearing 11p and the party started to break up. Emilia had a really long drive home and a few of us had to go to work the next day. We helped Sharon clean up and Emilia, Ginny, and Donna had gone home. Chris, Sharon, and I were just about to leave when we got a Facebook instant message from Emilia! She was very excited and said that she thinks Piero saw our video on Facebook and gave it a “like!” Well, that just made the perfect ending to a perfect evening for us! All of our hard work and efforts did not go unnoticed by our guest of honor for the evening.   Even though he was thousands of miles away, he was as close as our fingertips!

 

Chris and I finally left about 12:30am! We were exhausted, but sated, and are looking forward to Ignazio’s celebration in October!

group square

 

Part II

 

Since I did not write this story as soon as I had wanted, and as often happens, procrastination pays off, I have some personal accounts from Piero that I can share here to go with his birthday celebration!

 

As everyone now knows, the guys were here on July 6 at PBS and all of us at the party were fortunate to have also been at the PBS evening with them. A few of the girls, Donna and Sharon, from the party, were also lucky enough to meet them at the airport when they finally arrived. They brought some of the decorations from the party, and they also told Piero about the M&Ms that were made special for his party. He was very excited about seeing the M&Ms and lucky for him, we had each saved one package of them! They told him about the cake and showed him the pictures of our evening. I do have a direct quote from Piero…. he asked, “Who ate the part of the cake with my glasses?” Sorry, I don’t have a answer though – I don’t remember! Lol!

cake

So, at the meet and greet, Donna, Sharon, and I all brought him our saved package of the M&Ms with his picture, etc. on it. I later found out that he was very excited to receive each package and even though when I gave him my package, and it was the 3rd one he had gotten, he was still very happy, as he showed it to Gianluca! I wonder if they ate them and if he shared? I guess we will never know the answer to that one….mms small

DO THEY KNOW? ~ By Jane

Do they know what a positive profound impact their young lives have had on so many?

Do they know how they captured the hearts of Americans way back at their FIRST PBS SPECIAL in the Detroit Opera House?
Do theyDo they know their fans go speechless when in their presence?

Do they know they are loved like family members to so many?

Do they know devoted fans go to the Flight Crew site, Facebook, Youtube…anywhere on the web just to see what they have been up to in the last 24 hours?

Do they know how watching them interact with young and old teaches many how genuine love and respect are shown?
do they 5Do they know they are wise beyond their years?

Do they know their music helps heal the broken hearted?

Do they know they are genuine role models for the young in this world?
do they 4Do they know we watch with awe and admiration when they are on stage sharing their passion for their music with us?

Do they know their love and devotion to their parents and families is a testimonial to who they truly are?
do they 8Do they know how much we appreciate them giving so much of themselves to their fans…
Always willing to give an autograph or pose for a selfie and never making anyone feel like they are asking too much of them?

Do they know just when we feel our hearts will burst with love for them, we find more and more to love about them?

Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca…I hope you know…for you are extraordinary young men with extraordinary talent…
Yet you carry yourselves as casual, sincere and comfortable as the day is long.

You truly are…LOVE.

~Jane

SHARING A MEMORY ~ by Victoria

 My Sister and I went to the concert on 6-7-14 at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. I managed to get 2 tickets in Row A, but a little to the left of the stage. I’m sorry I don’t remember the songs when this happened, but I was taking pictures, as we all were. Piero came to the left of the stage where we were. I was trying to get him on my phone to get a picture. He seemed to know I was having a problem, but he looked at me and stayed there until I snapped the picture. He then pointed his thumb at me like “You got it?” and I pointed to him, “thumbs up“! I was thrilled. Later, Gianluca came and faced where my Sister and I were, and, again, I tried to take a picture and I snapped the camera, and Gianluca blew me a KISS!!! I blew him one back and I almost fell off my seat. Later on, Ignazio came to our side and he had 2 of the drummers sticks and threw them to our side. Unfortunately, they went over my Sister’s head and the woman behind my Sister caught them. I had the best time and wished I could have met some of our flight crew members. I have to say that was the best night that I have ever experienced. I had been listening to them since 2011 and never thought I would have gotten such great seats. I really hope and pray they will come back to Los Angeles so that I can see them again. They are so talented and so handsome and God has given them Angels Voices and they make us so happy in a world that needs something in our daily lives to make us smile.
Thanks,
Victoria Litizeto Blue

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For you Victoria: