A beautiful opening ceremony recently took place in L’Aquila (the capital of Abruzzo) marking the year 2026 in which L’Aquila was named “Italian Capital of Culture.”
The opening ceremony was attended by our President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and all the mayors of the province of L’Aquila.
Gianluca Ginoble, a true Abruzzese, contributed to the event by singing the beautiful and sad Abruzzese song “AMARA TERRA MIA” on stage. During his performance, a beautiful video of the Abruzzo region was shown.
Here’s the entire moment of Gianluca’s speech. (translation captions can be activated)
Beautiful lyrics in this sad but truthful song.
The landscapes that pass by in the video are stunning, and what can I say about Gianluca’s voice and emotion?
Fantastic! He sang a single verse in the Abruzzese dialect. Bravo, Gianluca!
Did you notice Maestro Leonardo De Amicis, who conducted the orchestra? He’s also from Abruzzo and a longtime friend.
Gianluca’s speech at the end of the song was absolutely sweet, extending greetings to President Mattarella, also on behalf of his companions, Ignazio and Piero.
Gianluca also wrote a beautiful article for the newspaper IL CENTRO that I’m translating for you.
Gianluca Ginoble: “L’Aquila, the city that accepts the responsibility of flying.”
The singer writes for Il Centro: “Destiny in the name has never abdicated the upward striving.” Quotes from Jung, Battiato, and San Giovanni: “This is a land to be proud of.”
GIANLUCA GINOBLE
Myths are not a thing of the past. They still influence human affairs, dramatize our internal struggles, disrupt our character, and inhabit our lives even when we’re unaware of it. Carl Gustav Jung said that “the gods have not disappeared, they have transformed into illnesses”: into inner forces, tensions, desires, and ambitions that we simply cannot control or eliminate. Myths, in fact, represent archetypal ways of existence: symbolic forces from which we can neither escape nor fully recover. In cultures founded on myth, the gods were inhuman and eternal: the Immortals, as the Greeks called them. Forces that, precisely because they were eternal, made certain traits of the human soul indelible. If there is a mythical figure capable of embodying the tension of ambition, of impetus, of the desire to rise, it is the Eagle. The Eagle carries with it a name and a symbolic destiny. Ancient texts describe it as an animal with a hot, dry temperament and a voracious appetite, always associated with sacred contexts. It’s no coincidence that John, the most spiritual of the evangelists, is traditionally represented by an eagle: a creature that flies higher than all others, that gazes far ahead, that approaches the light without fear. The eagle is the bearer of the spirit in its highest form. It is ambition at its fullest extent: an instant bathed in the shining light and immediately ready to be reborn, to take flight again with the future still ahead. Even in Egyptian hieroglyphics, the letter A is represented by an eagle. Not a simple coincidence, but a sign. This is the symbolic power of a city that bears such a meaningful name.
This symbolism is almost inevitably accompanied by the thought of Franco Battiato (Italian singer), for whom the eagle has never been merely an image, but a key to access. Eagles, in his work, certainly recall a hit song, but above all a symbolic constellation deeply dear to him: that of birds, of the play of wingspans, of secrets revealed only to those who accept the risk of heights. Eagles are destined for unpredictable flights, sudden ascents, imperceptible trajectories that trace a sort of existential geometry. They are called to change their perspective on the world, to use his words. Walking, for an eagle, is an unnatural gesture: its vocation is flight, approaching the sky to intuit its secrets. L’Aquila is the city that rises, that observes from above, that accepts the responsibility of flight. A city that knows the risk of getting too close to the sun, of getting burned, but that never abandons its striving for the sky. Like the eagle, precisely. And Abruzzo is a strong and gentle land, reflecting this same archetype, as Flaiano described it: a harsh, severe, silent land. A region that seeks not to please, but to remain true to itself.
A simple, archaic place, unprone to rhetoric, where the landscape and its people share the same sobriety. A land that has given voice, art, thought, and resistance. A land to be proud of. Because L’Aquila is a city that has learned to rise again, to rebuild itself, to take flight again, always with wings stretched toward the sky. Despite its wounds, despite its difficulties, it has proven itself to be a people capable of strength and vision. Just like its founding myth: the eagle. Always in flight. Always alive. Always with its head held high.
And this is the beautiful moment when Gianluca shakes hands with the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella!
This article about the event published by IMUSICFUN is also very nice.
Gianluca Ginoble enchants L’Aquila: a solemn and distinctive inauguration for the Italian Capital of Culture 2026.
L’Aquila inaugurates 2026 as the Italian Capital of Culture in the presence of President Mattarella; emotion and identity with Gianluca Ginoble and “Amara Terra Mia”
L’Aquila officially opened its year as Italian Capital of Culture 2026 with an intense, solemn ceremony deeply rooted in the region. On Saturday, January 17, at the Auditorium of the Guardia di Finanza, the Abruzzo city began a journey that looks to the future, starting from memory. The ceremony was attended by President Sergio Mattarella, Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli, Mayor Pierluigi Biondi, and President of the Abruzzo Region Marco Marsilio.
But more than a celebration, the event felt like a foundational act, a choral narrative intertwining music, words, and images. And among the most moving moments of the morning, Gianluca Ginoble, the singer of Il Volo, undoubtedly stood out, giving the audience a powerful and meaningful reading of “Amara Terra Mia.”
Gianluca Ginoble and “Amara Terra Mia”: The Voice of Emigration and Roots
Conducted by Maestro Leonardo De Amicis, Gianluca Ginoble—a native of Roseto degli Abruzzi—brought to the stage a song that symbolizes Abruzzo’s identity. “Amara terra mia” (Bitter Land of My Love) is more than just a song: it’s a chant of emigration, toil, and nostalgia, born in the early 1900s as a work song for olive pickers in the Maiella area.
Also known as “Nebbia alla valle” (Nebbia in the Valley), “Addije, addije amore” (Addije, Addije Amore), or “Casca l’oliva” (Let the Olive Fall), the song has been passed down through various choral harmonizations and made famous thanks to Giovanna Marini’s work in the 1960s. Ginoble’s interpretation captured the full emotional power of this oral heritage, transforming it into a moment of great civic and musical intensity.
It is no coincidence that the artist wanted to symbolically remember all his “fraternal colleagues”, underlining the collective value of music and shared memory.
Well, Gianluca, we’re here to congratulate you once again.
The event dedicated to your hometown was certainly welcomed with affection and enthusiasm by you, you who always sing the praises of your homeland.
You are a sensitive man who never forgets where he comes from.
We admire you greatly for all this and also for remembering your friends and brothers Ignazio and Piero in your greetings!!
We continue the review of small interviews, news and comments, as we approach the start of the Sanremo Festival.
In this video, Piero, Gianluca and Ignazio are asked to compare Capolavoro to a painting.
PIERO= If Capolavoro were a painting I would imagine a horizon.
GIANLUCA= ehhhhh….THE FALLEN ANGEL (painting by Cabanel), it probably could be.
IGNAZIO= He hurt himself? 😂😂
GIANLUCA= I know him, in fact, as his name is Cabanel.
IGNAZIO= A parachute (always referring to Capolavoro)
PIERO= (to Gianluca who is still looking for the painter’s name) Don’t think about it…
GIANLUCA= It is one of the most famous paintings in the world…
IGNAZIO= It was better that you said GUERNICA, okay, come on!
GIANLUCA= Ok, Capolavoro is a song that talks about how important connections are in life, and this feeling which is the engine of life itself, how suddenly, as if falling from the sky, there are people, there are situations that they can really save your life and make your existence better.
PIERO= It’s that strong feeling that comes suddenly and you realize that until the day before you experienced a great void.
IGNAZIO= Can I say something or did you say everything?😁
PIERO= Go…
GIANLUCA= It’s because there are three of us and we divide ourselves….
IGNAZIO= If I may say, it is that love that you feel for anything or anyone, therefore for a man, a woman, for a son, a father, a mother…..
GIANLUCA= A universal love…
IGNAZIO= A universal love and we compare it to the boom we hear when we feel love.
And then this announcement, which I think is satirical news, because on the video it says: “VERY UNRELIABLE NEWS ABOUT SANREMO 2024”
I really admire the fact that our kids always want to have fun. 😁😁😁
GIANLUCA= Hi guys, we are Il Volo.
PIERO= (imitating Gianluca’s manner) Hi guys, we’re Il Volo.
IGNAZIO= I don’t know if you know, let’s give a spoiler, on Sunday morning, after the final, we will do a concert together with the LA SAL group in the square…..😁
GIANLUCA= THE SAD!! 😂
PIERO= LA SAL, LA SAL, but is it possible? 😂
GIANLUCA= LA SAD, sorry, guys, Ignazio is from another era…😂
IGNAZIO= No, because Sunday morning it will be LA SAL, however we will have a concert in the central square of Sanremo at 10.30 in the morning. We are waiting for you all there.
PIERO= Ignazio will be there alone! 😁
This is the punk group LA SAD that will be competing in Sanremo, it is famous for its songs with vulgar words that talk about drugs and sex. Evidently a concert with Il Volo is unthinkable, so it’s a joke. 😁
One of the members of LA SAD, the one with the green hair, is from Brescia and is 37 years old 😩.
What I attach below, however, is a short video that was broadcast on TG1, and talked about two Sanremo singers: EMMA and IL VOLO.
(I translate what our guys say)
Emma and Il Volo, two different emotions, two great victories in the history of the Festival (Emma also won a festival). In 2015 they were even together on that stage, although in different roles (Emma was presenter that year).
GIANLUCA= It’s as if it were the first time, we’re almost thirty years old, we’re growing up too.
G+I+P= CAPOLAVORO
IGNAZIO= Everything can be a Capolavoro, you will discover it by listening to the song.
PIERO= Here, can I book? I will introduce LA SAD. (This year the singers, on the evening that they are not competing, must also present other singers)
LA SAD= We are the new Il Volo!
GIANLUCA= Or Il Volo will be the new Il Volo of itself.
And this is a nice article already published in English.
Reading the various Facebook pages, I found this comment from my friend Luce..
Luce is Sicilian, married for a couple of years and is now expecting her first child, Giosuè, whose birth is scheduled for February 7th, just the days of Sanremo, it will be her masterpiece……best wishes Luce, a hug. ❤️
“Universal Love, the one that is not only contained in a couple’s fairy tale, but expands to an infinite horizon of love towards those who suddenly arrive and change and illuminate our lives…
Poetry, not only that, hope towards something that brings good. What can I write about such depth of thought which is the essence and soul of the music of a group that always exceeds all expectations…
Yet here we are, still reading sentences that don’t describe them, that don’t reflect either their talent or their person.
And between one thought and another, a beat and a thousand in it, I follow our incomparable trio, also reading here and there the news relating to the Festival, the curiosity of listening and of this mysterious “different” or “2.0” increases who have been meditating for some time and letting us understand, regarding the beauty of the text and interpretation, I am sure they are unsurpassed, even just by reading two sentences and hearing them talk about it… many poor, confused, incompetent pen languages full only of gratuitous malice will not be able don’t recognize it… but let’s spread a quilt on this suitable for a winter night in Alaska.
I was very pleased that they have metabolised and decided to look forward, they have certainly always demonstrated their value by working, improving every day and walking with their heads held high, the best response to silence any unjust and undeserved offence. This increases in me the esteem, respect and great love I feel towards them. Chapeau! Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca! Sanremo is an opportunity, a showcase to show your artistic evolution and celebrate 15 years of career where everything started, that once upon a time that changed your lives forever… even if you don’t have any of the Festival need because your stage is now the whole world. In any case, you have already received the first truly worthwhile applause from the orchestra and the next ones will follow in flight… it cannot be otherwise… and we will be the first to jump from our seats clapping until our hands hurt.
And I, among a thousand and more thoughts, emotions that move as if on a swing that touches and caresses the sky, waiting or perhaps it would be more correct to write at the mercy of waiting for the most important and significant event of my life, of that arrival… my little one. ❤️
Here Piero and Gianluca were photographed leaving the Arcimboldi Theater on January 16th.
January 22nd was also Il Volo’s first day of rehearsals in Sanremo, where they are arriving at the Ariston Theatre, the rehearsals already done with the orchestra were not necessarily done inside the Ariston theatre.
IL Volo was welcomed with great enthusiasm.
Now the town of Sanremo is starting to see more and more the presence of singers.
But then it happens,to my great pleasure, that IMUSICFUN publishes an article with a series of questions to the well-known music critic Paolo Zaccagnini, on the topic of Sanremo and journalists’ report cards for singers.
And here’s what he said, and I will translate only the part of Il Volo.
Is everyone ready for February 6th? If the musical ship is now ready to set sail, so are the controversies, it needs certain report cards from the first listens, which almost in unison rejected the song by Il Volo and Ricchi e Poveri.
Why does some of the press snub Il Volo?
It’s the usual acrimony towards those who are truly successful abroad. I read the pre-listening report cards… Some journalists go to Sanremo to be seen and then sell themselves better. It is the mirror of an Italy adrift where Luca Dondoni’s arrogance reigns supreme. To think that he used to DJ at Armani fashion shows…
I saw their podcast – PIECES: INSIDE MUSIC (by Andrea Laffranchi, Dondoni and Paolo Giordano) and I laughed a lot.
(These three journalists all gave below passing marks to Il Volo, one of them Andrea Laffranchi in 2019 was one of the journalists shouting against Il Volo.)
I was so pleased that someone, in particular an authoritative critic and not a simple journalist, spoke out in favor of Il Volo.
For the rest there are only 15 days until the start of Sanremo and the euphoria is rising!
I also want to give space to love and to a young couple who are currently floating above a cloud: Ignazio and Michelle. Sunday 21st January was a sunny day and our two lovers went to the beautiful Lake Como, here is their wonderful shot…..but how beautiful are they???
Daniela❤️❤️
Credit to owners of all photos and videos.
Come in and share the love of life, friends and Il Volo!
