It was expected, we knew that at the end of 2024, and exactly at the end of November, Il Volo had also recorded this program, but it was not known when it would be published.
Finally a few days ago the announcement, Il Volo would be a guest on the last episode of the show hosted by Maria De Filippi: C’è Posta per te.
And I am here to give you my translation.
For those unfamiliar with the format, Maria chooses true stories that have been sent to her and tells them in the studio. In this case, she fulfills a daughter’s wish to give a thank-you gift to her parents for their support during a terrible illness.
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MARIA= This is the story of a gift, let’s start with a video.
(A video starts from the direction that summarizes some moments of Il Volo’s career. While the song Who Wants To Live Forever is heard, the following text appears on the video:
“Even the most distant characters, if they share ideals and passions, can navigate together, creating an indissoluble bond……this is: Il Volo. Over 20 million copies sold worldwide.”)
GIANLUCA’S VOICE in video= We have always been performers but we have a message to send, we want to build our own repertoire, really understand who we are and Capolavoro is the beginning of this new project.
(On the video, the images of the Verona Arena full of people and the written words superimposed: 17 platinum records, 11 gold records, for over 15 years they have been singing on the most prestigious stages in the world.)
In each group there is a scale that maintains a balance.
Piero and I are on the right and the left, the opposite poles.
IGNAZIO’S VOICE in the video = I am Mattarella (he is our President of Italy who must always maintain the balance. Laughter)
(The writings continue on the video: Four concert events at the Verona Arena. Record TV ratings. A world tour with 150 dates.)
MARIA = Il Volo!!
(Piero, Gianluca and Ignazio make their entrance amidst applause, elegant and dressed in dark suits and dark shirts, hugs and kisses to Maria.)
PIERO = But thank you! Good evening
IGNAZIO = Hello everyone, good evening.
Are you all right?
GIANLUCA = Hello Maria.
MARIA = I think you are very good!
PIERO= I put on a tie for you tonight (Ignazio and Gianluca don’t have a tie).
MARIA= (to Ignazio) How is your wife?
IGNAZIO= She’s fine, we’re happy.
GIANLUCA= Look how much more cheerful he is now.
PIERO= For those who don’t know, he just got married.
IGNAZIO= We’re trying to give life to a new Boschettino (a son), let’s see if he’ll be born directly with a goatee!!
MARIA= Sit down over there.
(Maria makes them sit on a long sofa.)
I’ll let Millie in. (It’s the woman who sent the letter to Maria, Millie enters, a beautiful young woman.)
MILLIE= Hi Maria.
MARIA= Come in among them (among the boys)
PIERO= Come on, come on.
(Millie and Il Volo have already met and gotten to know each other backstage. Millie is undecided about where to sit and then sits between Ignazio and Piero.)
MILLIE= I stand here.
IGNAZIO= Ok.
(applause)
MARIA= Millie told me:
“I want to come to C’è Posta PerTe (You’ve Got Mail) for my parents. My parents gave me life twice and if it’s true that you can be reborn, I would like to be reborn in the same exact family, to have mom as mom and dad as dad.”
(At this point Maria reads a summary of Millie’s story)
It’s August 2022, she’s in Germany, she’s married, she’s there with her husband and her son has just been born.
She’s so tired, she can never recover and she keeps losing weight. At first she thinks it’s due to the birth and then she realizes that something is wrong. (Gianluca squeezes Millie’s hand).
She goes to the hospital and they give her the diagnosis, it’s in a foreign language, but she understands perfectly that she has a very large tumor.
She goes into a total panic and says: “I need mommy”.
She calls her mother, tells her what’s wrong and tells her that she’s coming to Italy.
She and her husband pack their bags and together with the little one go back to Puglia to mommy and daddy.
Her mother takes her to the hospital in Bari, the doctor tells her that she can’t have surgery, given the extent of the tumor. Her mother doesn’t lose heart, she changes hospital and changes doctor.
In the meantime Millie becomes more and more discouraged and decides to write four letters, one she writes to her son and it was the most difficult farewell letter because she apologized to her son for having to leave him perhaps alone, then she wrote one to her husband, one to her mother and one to her father. (Ignazio puts his hand on Millie’s shoulder).
Millie told me that she put the letters in a drawer and doesn’t know if her mother has read them, but one day her mother gets angry and yells at her that she has to react, she tells her that she has to look forward and that she has to do it for her son.
That sentence was very important to her because she started to believe that she could still live and so she started to fight.
She tore up the letters and started chemotherapy, her father accompanied her to do it, while her mother was always with her little one.
Millie told me: “I’ll do chemotherapy and shortly after we’ll go and see if the tumor has shrunk so that I can have surgery.”
But when they went for the check-up nothing had changed, at that point Millie was very discouraged, she didn’t understand anything anymore and she started to get angry with everyone, especially with her father, Millie told me that she treated him badly, and she wanted to apologize for this. In the evening her father often appeared at the door of Millie’s room and asked her if she was sleeping and she answered in a bad and arrogant way: “If you ask me it’s difficult for me to sleep.”
Millie did a year and a half of therapy and after this year and a half it was possible to have the surgery and everything was resolved. (applause)
Millie understands that everything is fine when after the operation she opens her eyes and sees her father and after a while she sees her father hugging the doctor.
She then returned to live in Germany with her husband and her son. She told me that there is no moment in which she does not think of saying THANK YOU to her parents and also SORRY for how she sometimes treated them.
Her parents are crazy about you (Il Volo), they always listen to you, every time you are on television they are there in front and so you are perfect!
And now let’s see the moment of the mail delivery! (applause)
(The format requires a postman to deliver an envelope to the recipient with an invitation to the show C’è Posta Per Te – You’ve Got Mail.)
In front of the sofa where Piero, Millie, Ignazio and Gianluca are sitting, there is a high dividing wall in the shape of a large envelope that opens at this point, there is a monitor on which a video starts where there is a postman.
POSTMAN = Hi Maria, we are in Manduria in the province of Taranto (they are cities in Puglia) to go and deliver your invitations to Mrs. Rosaria and Mr. Vincenzo. I’m going to look for them. (He leaves on his bicycle and some parts of the city of Manduria are seen on video. He arrives at Millie’s parents’ house who open the door to the house.)
Good evening, I’m looking for Mrs. Rosaria and Mr. Vincenzo.
ROSARIA = Yes, it’s me, nice to meet you.
VINCENZO = Nice to meet you.
POSTMAN= Nice to meet you (they shake hands).
Mrs. Rosaria, I know that you were born in July and I know that you graduated from the Lecce music conservatory. (These are simple questions to ascertain the identity of the person.)
ROSARIA= Yes.
POSTMAN= Instead, I know that Vincenzo was born in November and I know that you have been married for over thirty years.
VINCENZO= Yes, thirty-six.
POSTMAN= Congratulations. I officially deliver the invitations to you on behalf of Mrs. Maria De Filippi.
For Rosaria….(he delivers the invitation envelope).
ROSARIA= Thank you.
POSTMAN= For Vincenzo.
VINCENZO= Thank you!
POSTMAN= Do you know the program? So….(The recipients must give an answer……)
VINCENZO+ROSARIA= C’è Posta per te! (You’ve Got Mail) applause
MARIA= So, you stand there. (She indicates to Il Volo to get up and hide in the corner of the dividing wall. The wall has a monitor that can be seen from both sides of the wall. On one side is Millie and on the other side will sit Millie’s parents, but they do not see Il Volo. Applause.)
Are you okay? (Maria asks Millie)
MILLIE= Yes, yes, thank you!
MARIA= Giovanni (he’s the postman), have Mr. Vincenzo and Mrs. Rosaria accepted the invitation?
POSTMAN= Yes Maria, Mr. Vincenzo and Mrs. Rosaria have accepted the invitation and are here with us. You’re welcome! (Millie’s parents enter the studio, unaware of the whole surprise. Applause.)
ROSARIA= Hello Maria.
VINCENZO= Nice to meet you and thank you for everything. (They shake hands.)
MARIA= Nice to meet you, thank you! Have a seat. (They sit on the sofa on the opposite side of the dividing wall, which on their side is also shaped like a large envelope that is closed at this moment.)
Is everything okay? Are you nervous?
ROSARIA= A little nervous.
MARIA= Okay. We’ll see who’s sending you a call in a little while, then you watch and tell me if you want to listen.
Is that okay? He (Vincenzo) is more nervous than you!
VINCENZO= No.
MARIA= Ok, let’s open it!
(The format requires that the envelope on the wall opens and the recipients see who sent them the invitation and can accept and let them speak or close the envelope and refuse. Applause.)
(Rosaria and Vincenzo see their daughter on the monitor and smile.)
MARIA= Has the nervousness passed a little?
Can I let her speak?
ROSARIA+VINCENZO= Yes, yes.
MARIA= Go Millie!
MILLIE= Thank you.
If by some absurd chance in another time or in another life they gave me the chance to choose my parents, I would always choose you two, always! (applause).
You are not just my parents, my mom and dad, but you are my heroes, because you gave me life and saved it over and over again, always with the strength of your love and I will never be grateful enough for this, just as I will never be grateful enough to the fate that brought you together, because if you are my parents, I owe it to your love story that began just like this.
(A group of children enters playing like a marching band. Two children hang two trumpets and a big heart on a wire high in the studio. The children leave the studio.)
MARIA= (She reads a very long letter with Millie’s words.)
Blessed be the marching band of the city of Manduria. If you met and then fell in love, in fact, it is thanks to your passion for music and the fact that you found yourself playing side by side in our town band.
It must be said that at the beginning the more smitten one of the two was definitely dad, because mom was so focused on music, studying at the conservatory and her independence, that she didn’t think about love.
Blessed dad’s stubbornness, because it is thanks to his tenacity that two years after you met you got engaged. Dad was 19 and mom was only 15, but you, dad, were so convinced that she was the woman of your life that even then you brought her flowers for Mother’s Day and if someone asked you: “Why?”
You answered with conviction: “Because one day she will be the mother of my children”, in short you were moving forward.
And you were right, because step by step, your love took you to the altar and a year later I arrived.
Suddenly your life was full of everything you could wish for and your future was a wonderful descent towards happiness. Instead suddenly everything became a terrible mountain to climb that you, fortunately, never gave up on, not even for a moment.
(A piece of music begins, children enter carrying several blocks that look like pointed mountains. The children leave and leave the mountains in the study.)
You were young and inexperienced, suddenly you found yourself having to climb mountains after mountains without a guide to show you the path, without means, and with the weight of this daughter on your shoulders. I really don’t know how you did it, but you understood before the doctors that something was wrong with me, that the fever wasn’t a simple flu, but something more serious. When they told you that the only way to save my life was to take me to the hospital in the north (northern Italy), you didn’t lose heart and with the little money you had in your pocket, we set out in search of the best cure. That was the first time that, from simple parents who were sometimes inexperienced, you transformed yourselves into heroes, my heroes, capable of giving me life a second time. When everything was resolved, dad gave me a teddy bear, my Babbù, who has been with me ever since, reminding me of all the times I hold him close to my heart, that time you took me on your shoulders, climbed the mountains and carried me to safety.
(A music starts and a child enters and gives Millie’s parents a nice teddy bear.)
I can only imagine the sacrifices you made for me, sometimes I heard my mother say that those first years, at our house, were the time of soup and soufflés, because they were cheap and easily filling, but then she added that we were happy anyway as long as I was well.
I was doing very well, so much so that when you asked me if I wanted a little brother or sister, my answer was always the same: “Neither”, I was fine like that, perhaps I was afraid of losing my “state of grace”, but I didn’t know instead, that I would be even better with the arrival of my beloved brothers, Sabrina and Gregorio.
Our life was beautiful, made up of simple but for us extraordinary things, Sunday lunches, Christmas with relatives, holidays at Gardaland or Mirabilandia (two Italian amusement parks), all done to make us children happy.
We were so happy that, I assure you, packing my bags to move to Germany was one of the hardest things in my life. I missed everything, even things that may seem silly, like the smell of Mom’s fried eggplants or car trips with Dad spent chatting about everything that came to mind. My heart feels so empty that I never imagined that shortly thereafter it would burst with love for my husband and then for our beautiful baby Aleandro.
When he was born, everything seemed perfect to me, and I knew it would be even better when I came to Italy to introduce you to him.
What I didn’t know was that the weakness I carried inside me hid something that is hard to even pronounce. I was 32 years old, with a baby of a few months and a diagnosis that plunged me into the worst of nightmares.
That day in the doctor’s room I felt desperate, as if on the edge of a precipice, I didn’t think about it for a second and said: “I want to go to Mom and Dad, because my heart knew that if I hadn’t had you two by my side, I wouldn’t have saved myself from that precipice. (Applause.)
(A song begins and the children enter and hang three large IFs on the wire suspended high above the studio.)
IF I am here, IF I still have a life ahead of me, IF I can still watch my son smile, it is only thanks to you who with love and obstinacy have transformed the many IFs that make up my story, into the most beautiful of words: FUTURE.
If I had not decided to return to Puglia to have you by my side, I certainly would not have found the right treatments, the ones that ignited hope, even when hope seemed to be non-existent. You never gave up even when the first doctor I consulted told you that my chances of making it were very slim. I only learned this later, because you preferred not to tell me those words, and while you were taking on all that suffering on your own, you continued to look for a doctor who would decide to fight for me and you found a doctor who did not hide from us how serious the situation was but gave us a chance and you clung to that chance.
I was still so desperate that I started writing goodbye letters, one for you, one for my husband and one, the most difficult one for my child, in which I apologized for leaving him without his mother.
I don’t know if you, mother, found those letters, or if you understood that I was letting myself go, the fact is that one day you hugged me and angrily told me: “I know what you’re doing, you’re letting yourself go without thinking about your son and how much he needs you.”
Here’s another IF in this story, because mother, if that day you hadn’t taken me “hard on”, I would have slipped away from my own life. That day I understood that I had to fight for my son, just like you and dad were doing for me. From that moment I started to believe, I tore up those letters and I also started to hope and if I managed to grab my life in my hands, it’s only thanks to your love.
(A piece of music begins and the children enter and place lots of big red hearts on the blocks representing the mountains. Applause)
With your love, not only did you give me back my life again and again, but you also took care of my baby, whom you raised and cuddled more like parents than grandparents.
For months, when the therapies were really hard and I couldn’t even pick him up, you were my arms, my legs, my hands. When it was bath time, it was mommy who held him in the tub, mommy was always there to feed him and change his diaper, while you, dad, even if you came home tired from work, spent hours holding him by the little hands while he dared to take his first steps. You were truly fantastic with my baby, while I, on the other hand, was intractable, unfair, I took it out on you for everything, especially you, dad, who are the kindest person in the world and certainly didn’t deserve my outbursts, like when I woke up at night, I saw you at the door checking if I was okay. Of all my tantrums you never scolded me, on the contrary you justified me and moved on, I’m sorry dad and tonight I would like you to accept my apologies for all the times I hurt you with my words and for the pain you had to endure, because if there’s one thing I can’t forgive myself for it’s having hurt your heart so much.
(The music starts and two children carry a large bandaged heart that they hang high up in the studio. Applause.)
My illness and the months spent at my side have marked your soul but also your heart, especially your dad, no one can take it out of my head that if your heart got sick it was because of all the pain of all the worries I gave you and I will never stop feeling guilty about this.
When I finally got better and Aleandro and I returned to Germany, I understood how much you were afraid for me, because maybe you thought that if I felt sick you wouldn’t be by my side to take care of me. I’m sorry dad, I’m sorry for all the weight that you were forced to carry on your shoulders in these years.
But now the time has come to let go of the sorrows and worries because you will see that with a little luck for you and mom there will be no more mountains to climb but only happiness, joy and lots and lots of music, just like when you were young and played in the town band.
And since you may be a little rusty now when it comes to music, I asked three guys who are experts in the field to come over tonight and give you some lessons.
Look at the stairs in front of you because those three guys are about to hug you.
(The song Musica Che Resta starts and Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca finally appear on the stairs. The faces of Millie’s parents are excited. Millie and her parents send each other kisses. Il Volo descends the stairs amid applause.)
PIERO= Here we are. (Hugs and kisses between Il Volo and Millie’s parents.)
GIANLUCA= Hello.
IGNAZIO= Nice to meet you.
ROSARIA= Hello Piero, Gianluca, Ignazio.
VINCENZO= My wife knows you all very well.
PIERO= Can I sit next to your wife?
IGNAZIO= In whose arms should I sit? (laughter – they sit in this order: Ignazio, Piero, Rosaria, Vincenzo and Gianluca.)
You have a truly spectacular daughter, we had a little chat with her and you can tell she’s one of those daughters who is very proud of her parents, as we are a little, because for us family has always been a cornerstone of our career and of our life together as the three of us. From what we’ve heard of your story and from what Millie told us, you really are the concept of family, the concept of parents, the perfect example. (Applause.)
VINCENZO= Thank you!
GIANLUCA= If I may add, this story has taught us all that we watch and “C’è posta per te” is a special program precisely for this reason, because it reminds us in its precariousness of how precious life is, how happiness teaches us lightheartedness, but also pain teaches us life (applause), and how important health is, while we persist in chasing material goods and how this miracle of living, family, affection, giving love and receiving love, are truly the most important things in life.
So thank you for this, because you remind us all of it with your strength and we hope to have been close to you a little with our music in difficult moments. (Applause.)
VINCENZO = Thank you, yes, yes.
ROSARIA = Always, thank you to all three of you.
PIERO = (to Vincenzo) I know you cheered so much when we won Sanremo, someone told us.
VINCENZO= We have been following you since you were kids.
IGNAZIO= Piero also cheered on stage.
PIERO= As far as I’m concerned, being parents is difficult, you have a big task, that of showing us education, but at a certain point in life you have to let us fly, you have to let us go away to pursue our vocation, to pursue our dreams, but the most important thing for us and Millie is the demonstration, it is knowing inside us that we have a “safe harbor”, in any turbulence of life we know where to go and you have been very good at this. (Applause.)
IGNAZIO= And then Maria, I don’t know if you know that Piero and I sometimes text each other and I ask him what he’s doing and he says to me: “I’m looking at Maria, I’m crying, we’ll talk later.” (Because Maria’s stories are always touching. Laughter.) Really! I’m not exaggerating.
VINCENZO= Will you pass him the tissues?
IGNAZIO= Yes, yes!
GIANLUCA= But I have a little thought if I may. (He has a small jewelry box in his hand.) This is for you.
PIERO= This is for her (Rosaria).
GIANLUCA= I meant that he’s not the only one.
PIERO= Explain better.
So, (he opens the box) this is a necklace……
GIANLUCA= I was doing it!!
PIERO= You keep the box. (Piero puts on the long chain that has a violin key pendant with a diamond.) Here is the diamond, here. (applause)
ROSARIA = Thank you.
PIERO = (to Ignazio) And you?
IGNAZIO = I have the little present I’m going to get it.
So, since I know that music unites us……where do I go? (He pushes a cart with the gifts on it.)
Music unites us and so I know that you also have a grandson (he is holding a small toy trumpet) and so what better way to start introducing him to music and here in front (in the wide part of the trumpet, there is a cap) underneath there will be written a sum of money that we want you to have to go to Germany whenever you want to go to Millie. (Applause.)
Here is the sum, if you turn it over you can read it in private and this is yours.
ROSARIA + VINCENZO = Thank you! (Applause.)
PIERO= You met in a musical context, I know you were in the town band and you were lucky that you chose each other, the three of us didn’t choose each other, they put us together (laughter) this is the difference between us and you. (Applause.)
IGNAZIO= Did you hear that it was a difficult choice?
ROSARIA= But it was an excellent choice.
PIERO= Who, him? (Vincenzo)
ROSARIA= No, you three…..
PIERO= Of course not? (Everyone laughs because Rosaria had answered thinking of Il Volo and not her husband.)
ROSARIA= Him, yes, but you three, excellent choice and never let go of each other’s hands!
PIERO= No! You know, before going on stage, but even here before entering the studio, the last thing we do before going on stage is this (Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca shake hands together, an affectionate and superstitious gesture that they always do. Applause.)
ROSARIA= Here, well done!
PIERO= Before going on stage and doing the concerts and to stay on the topic of concerts, he gave the gift (Gianluca), he gave the gift (Ignazio) now my gift, the most beautiful one. (He takes two passes from inside his jacket.) So, here are two passes for our concerts….(Aapplause.)
ROSARIA= Wow!!!
PIERO= You only have to do one thing, decide the city and the concert you want to attend, you are always our guests.
GIANLUCA= Even in Australia if you want. (Applause.)
MARIA= Ok, Millie it’s your turn.
MILLIE= Mom and Dad, before opening this envelope (she intends to remove the big envelope-wall that separates them), I need to make you a promise, something that is very important to me.
I want to promise you that I will start my studies again, I will get a second degree, (applause) to be able to start a career that will make you proud of me.
ROSARIA= But we already are. (Applause.)
MILLIE= But in exchange I need you two to make me two very important promises.
The first is for Dad: Dad you have to stop turning on the sports channel when Aleandro is watching cartoons (laughter).
The second one is for Mom, this one is also very important:
Mom, please don’t do it again, don’t break the spaghetti before cooking it because it’s sacrilege! (laughter – Ignazio’s horrified face is beautiful.)
MARIA= So promises made, I’ll remove the wall! (the music starts, the envelope-wall slides back and finally the parents and Il Volo meet and hug with Millie.)
MARIA= (to Vincenzo) Nice to meet you.
VINCENZO= Thanks for everything.
IGNAZIO= I like hugs if you give me another one….laughter.
MARIA= (she kisses the boys) Il Volo!!
Backstage at the show, Witty TV gave Il Volo an envelope containing some photos and Il Volo had to remember those moments.
WITTY= Let’s browse through the memory album with the guys from Il Volo and retrace some of the moments that have marked their lives.
PIERO= Should we open the envelope?
PHOTO 1: Gianluca Piero and Ignazio sitting for an instore, really young.
GIANLUCA= This was in Rome, it was our first book signing ever, there were 23 people.
PIERO= What do you mean 23 people?
IGNAZIO= With our relatives.
GIANLUCA= Yes, with the relatives there were 23 people.
PHOTO 2: Gianluca, Piero and Ignazio sitting at the back of a motorboat in Venice, all three dressed in black trousers, white shirt, black vest and bow tie.
PIERO= Ah this is beautiful. Venice 2021 and we also put this photo on the cover of our latest book.
PHOTO 3: Piero at the marathon.
PIERO= Oh how beautiful, this is the New York marathon, 2023, last year (this video was recorded in November 2024). I trained for a year for this marathon and I’ll tell you something else, we were in Greece in Athens and Ignazio says to me: “If you place under 25 thousand I’ll buy you dinner.” I placed at 19 thousand and he still has to buy me dinner.
PHOTO 4: Piero, Gianluca and Ignazio smiling and very young.
GIANLUCA= Here we were in Germany during the promotion of our first album in Europe. We were 16, Piero maybe 17.
PIERO= No, maybe we were 20.
GIANLUCA= No, here it was 2011, we’ve known each other for a long time, eh.
PHOTO 5: Ignazio sitting on an armchair and Michelle in a white lace dress dries his hair.
PIERO= This is what Ignazio comments on.
GIANLUCA= What is it, let me see?
IGNAZIO= It was a few hours before the civil wedding.
PHOTO 6: Gianluca and Ernesto very young, both on a carousel horse.
GIANLUCA= This is my brother Ernesto, the most important person.
PIERO= More important than us?
GIANLUCA= Yes, come on, just a little!
PHOTO 7: All three with the orange shirt.
PIERO= Oh this is nice, here we were in Canada, wait what was that place called?
IGNAZIO= We were in Vancouver if I’m not mistaken.
PIERO= In Vancouver and they gave us these shirts, because there in the arenas instead of basketball they play hockey on the ice.
PHOTO 8: Victory at Sanremo 2015.
IGNAZIO= And then, last photo, Sanremo.
GIANLUCA= The victory at the Festival with Grande Amore and that was also one of the most important moments of our career.
I won’t deny that a few tears fell from my eyes while I was translating this long and moving story of Millie and her parents.
The words expressed by Ignazio, Gianluca and Piero are beautiful, as always they demonstrate their maturity and their beautiful feelings.
The gifts they gave to this family are very beautiful.
The series of photos from Il Volo with their comments is nice.
This time I also described many details to help those who don’t have the opportunity to see what happens.
Write to me your opinions on this beautiful story.
Daniela 🤗
Credit to owners of all photos and videos.