Highway To Hell!

That's me, always on a highway to hell! (pic by M. Rimati)

“To pee or not to pee, that is the question”!

Ahh, if only other countries around the world, including Iraq and North Korea, had the grave problems that Italy has, especially regarding urinals. Urinals? Yes, urinals, in Italy’s parliament of all places. It looks like the (less-than) very honourable Vladimir Luxuria, a “transgender” politician (as he/she likes to call him/herself), had some urinary problems the other day, so he/she calmly walked into the women’s washroom at Montecitorio (the name of the seat of the Italian government in Rome). But good’ol Vladimir wasn’t the only one in the washroom at the time: Elisabetta Gardini, the spokeswoman of the Forza Italia party (the party belonging to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi) was also in the washroom merrily peeing away and thinking that she was in the company of other fellow female parliamentarians. When she exited the washroom stall she was apparently startled and horrified to find the honourable member of the Refounded Communist party doing the same thing. “Heaven forbid”, cried Ms. Gardini, claiming that she had been psychologically “raped” (at which point some of her female colleagues uttered that out there, there are women who are actually raped and face much graver problems than seeing a man/woman peeing). The debate now going on is whether or not to find Ms./Mr. Luxuria his/her own private potty, no doubt at the expense of Italians taxpayers. Now, if only Korea’s Kim had these same problems when facing the Americans at the negotiating table…

Halloween Italian style?

When I moved to the “Old Europe” (as Donald Rumsfeld once defined it) and Italy in 1989, I thought that I was going to live in a continent/country full of real “culture”, home to such luminaries as Da Vinci (the painter, not Dan Brown’s creation), Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. Instead, after nearly 17 years, what do I see? Wrestling on tv, reality shows, McDonald’s restaurants everywhere (followed by American-style fat asses too. The first one opened up in my home town of Winnipeg in 1968. The first McDonald’s which opened up in the tiny town of Udine was at the end of 1999. I give Italians a few generations and they’ll be obese as the Americans) and now, Halloween! Yes, even Halloween in Italy. The trend in Italy goes back to 1997/98. We can also thank the U.S. Embassy in Rome which has a press office that also feeds Italian media news bits if Italians have now jumped on the Halloween bandwagon. Add to this also places like “Rock Hard Café” which not only is conveniently located right in front of the Embassy in Rome but which also does its fair share of promoting anything related to American culture. American schools in Rome (such as John Cabot University and the American University, not to mention the American Overseas School) also are heavily involved in promoting Halloween. We have to also that while Italians in general don’t like America’s death penalty mentality or their foreign affairs (see Iraq for example) they will take anything almost anything from the U.S. hook, line and sinker, so there you have on October 31st Italians slightly going bonkers over a pagan feast (its apparent origins) but which they fail to understand how Halloween properly works. I used to go out for Halloween in Winnipeg when I was 5-6. Inevitably, Halloween coincided also with the very first snowfall and/or blizzard in Winnipeg. So here I was dressed like Frankenstein walking around in knee-high snow and freezing my tush off! This was some 42 years ago. The true concept of Halloween, at least the way I remember it in Canada, had nothing to do with pagan festivities or rites. On the one hand, it had to do with one important thing: going out and getting as much candy and lots of apples (which our mothers would convert into great apple pies! The city cops would also tell us to be careful as some nut would always try to stick razors in our apples so unfortunately we had to chuck them out, indeed a pity!) after we’d spend the entire evening going door-to-door and yelling at the top of our lungs, “Trick or Treat”! (the Italians have gotten the concept backwards and call it “Dolcetto o Scherzetto”—“Treat or Trick”!). The Italians on the other hand haven’t yet made it to going out and knocking on people’s doors. They like getting dressed up but have missed out on the true meaning of Halloween (the other one is just an excuse for university students to get dressed up, to go out and get pissed and to have a great time, like I used to do at university). It’s quite comical, as one can see from the pictures taken of store windows in Udine, how the Italians have jumped on the Halloween bandwagon (and for the last few years the Church inevitably always comes out and thunders against such an obscure festivity which is so foreign to Italian culture. “Experts” on the subject will also describe the way Halloween actually has its roots in Italy. No doubt some Italian in 1492 by the name of “Allo Weeno” kicked-off the entire thing in the New World just after landing with Columbus and the boys). Oh, and by the way, when the Italian media mentions Halloween across the Atlantic, 100% of the time, they’ll always mention the event in the U.S., but never in Canada (all pics by M. Rimati)!

Arrivederci bridge

Under the previous Berlusconi government, Forza Italia had come up with the less-than brilliant idea of finally building a bridge over the Strait of Messina, connecting once and for all the island of Sicily with the Italian mainland, in particular the Calabria region. The zillions of euros would have played directly into the hands of the local mafias (Cosa Nostra and the ‘Ndrangheta). The Prodi government has now apparently put a slab over that project once and for all, but not without a major price: some 150 million euros have now gone up in smoke in 35 years' worth of environmental, engineering and scientific studies. All the paperwork behind the research into the construction of the bridge weighs about 126 kilos! Not only that, but the jobs that would have been created from the project, 40,000 of them, have also gone up in smoke with Prodi’s decision of canning forever the bridge. The entire cost of the bridge would have been more or less 4.6 billion euros, money that no doubt could be better spent by providing Sicilians with running water during the summer months as well as proper highway links (such as the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway which has been under construction for several decades).

Bruce Springsteen Villa Manin, Udine 04/10/06

The Boss came, he sang and he conquered all of us! What to say about Bruce Springsteen’s concert at the Villa Manin, located a mere 15 kms or so from Udine? Simply fantastic! Out of the 148 concerts I’ve seen so far I’d this performance in the top 10. Indeed a tremendous honour for the folks in Udine and Friuli to have hosted such a magnificent performer. Menacing clouds the day before and the day of the concert threatened those 10,000 fans with a good downpour. Instead, Bruce’s great charisma spared us all the rain as the stars even came out for the concert. Bruce was joined on stage by “only” 17 terrific musicians, including his wife Patti Scialfa who has also been part of Bruce’s legendary E Street Band (which, in total honesty, I did not personally miss last night as his “Seeger Session Band” was simply superb) and violinist Soozie Tyrell who was part of his 2003 world tour. After his “Born in the USA” concert in 1984 in Toronto and his epic world tour 3 years ago in Florence (3.5 hour concert with a record 3 encores), The Boss ONCE again outdid himself with a wonderful performance of old tunes by Pete Seeger. He began at 9 pm on the dot and ended at 11.30 pm with about 20 songs or so, including “The River” and “My City of Ruin” in honour of 9/11 plus naturally songs from his latest work with the Seeger Band, in particular “Jacob’s Ladder”. Forget hearing “Born in the USA” or “Born to Run”, this was Springsteen singing perhaps the roots of his own music (mixed in with some old Irish ballads). One of the concluding songs was everyone’s favourite (even for Italians), “When the saints come marching in”. His band members? You name it, he had them: banjo, tuba, horns, fiddles, drums and even washboards! I had stated publicly that when you go see a Tina Turner or Springsteen concert and you’ve spent a lot of bucks/euros, you come away very, very satisfied for the money you’ve spent. This is once again confirmed with Bruce’s performance last nite. And oh, another thing, both he and Paul McCartney REALLY know how to work an audience (Bruce is now 57 years old). At one point he yelled out in perfect Italian: “Udine e’ anche famosa per la grappa, ma dov’e’”? He repeated this about 3 or 4 times. Finally, after the 5th time he repeated the same phrase, a roadie came out on stage with a bottle of grappa and glasses! Seeing that in this part of Italy they make some mighty fine grappa, the crowd naturally went wild. And there was Bruce serving grappa to all his band members. Upon conclusion of the concert, I said to some friends: “Gee, I wonder if the grappa he had was the Nonino version”? Just as I said it, Mrs. Gianola Nonino, of the same grappa distillery, passed right under my nose with her husband. I only presume that The Boss, no doubt a drinker in his life of some fine Jack Daniel’s whiskey, no doubt probably appreciated a crate or two of Nonino grappa, considered by many one of the finest grappas in all of Italy (all pics by M. Rimati)!

Ara Pacis

Some pics of Rome’s newly-renovated “Ara Pacis Augustae” museum. The museum is actually an altar which was dedicated to peace by Augustus in 9 ad. The museum is located in an area of Rome known as the “Campo Marzio”. The monument is known as a marvel of Roman architecture and represents one of the most significant works of art of the Augustea period. It was intended to symbolise the “Roman Peace” obtained under Augustus upon his return from three years spent in Spain. After seven years of work, American architect Richard Meier was responsible for the restructuring of the building which, in true Roman/Italian style, was and still is awash in controversy (a recent International Herald Tribune article reported on the heavy criticism which Meier’s work has been subjected to by Italian art critics and the likes). The museum was inaugurated on April 21, 2006, which just also happens to be the date when Rome was first founded (all pics by M. Rimati).

Gone shootin'?

Shootings part II: yesterday I had reported in my blog that there is no doubt the odd Italian (and American) who has probably now said that Canada is becoming more and more like the States after the shooting in Montréal (even though I suspect that the one main difference with the US is after this shooting the Canadians will clamp down even harder on weapons). Well, the latest comes from Naples, just yesterday. A 43 year-old engineer from Québec who’s based in Algeria was walking around the city centre with his missus after a nice day spent in Capri when he (thought) heard firecrackers going off. He noticed a burning sensation in his leg, and then fell to the ground. What he thought was a firecracker was in reality a stray bullet that had landed in his leg: he had been yet another victim (he survived though) of stray fire between Camorra gang members. On more than one occasion innocent bystanders have been killed, including children. The last major incident involving Canadians occurred just a few months ago with a Canadian diplomat stationed in Vienna: he was robbed at the Naples train station, murdered and dumped in a sewer. The honorary consul in Naples now wants to put online a warning to Canadian tourists to be cautious when visiting Naples (a few weeks ago a poor American tourist fought off some muggers only to find the family members of the muggers come not to HIS rescue but to the muggers’ rescue!). Giorgio Bocca, one of Italy’s senior authors, recently came out with a book called, “Napoli siamo noi”. In one episode, he tells of a journalist who called the police because there was ruckus going on in her street and she couldn’t sleep. The cops never came. So she called again. They finally came. Well, as a punishment, the day after, local Camorra members literally “devastated” all the cars parked on her street!

Oh, Canada!

It’s funny, or should I say sad, that the Italian media usually talks about Canada in a negative sense: I’m referring to the American-style shooting in a college in Montréal on September 13, 2006. If it’s not that the Italian media will talk about the yearly seal hunt in eastern Canada! Very rarely though will we read up on the virtues of Canada.

Ciao mom!

It’s 3.57 in the morning, Saturday, August 19th. I don’t feel like sleeping much (for obvious reasons). I’m in the splendid little town of Udine. On Aug. 7th, the day after Madonna’s concert in Rome, I came up to Udine to see how my mother was. Udine had been hit by an incredible heat wave (on July 21st it was 39 degrees Celcius). My father would pass me the phone talk to my mother. We didn’t chat about Lebanon or things like that because for the last 3 or 4 years she was in the phase of senile dementia and/or Alzheimer’s disease. At one pt though, her voice sounded like it came from the grave. I asked my dad what was wrong. He said she was tired. I thought that it was more than just being tired. Dani and I were to have gone on the 20th to Greece on vacation. I thought that it would be a good idea to come up first to check things out. Glad I did. She was in pitiful condition. Thanks to a cousin doctor of mine, we rushed her to the emergency ward. From there, she was transferred to another ward.
My father in the meantime was hit my a severe case of sciatica. This impeded him from being able to go to the hospital to see my mother, which I gladly did twice per day. She basically lost between 6 to 7 litres of water, or 6-7 kilos of water. Her sodium level was at around 176 when for anyone normal it’s around 145. Instead of blood in her veins she basically had molasses. The dehydration was quite a lot for someone who had turned 80 in July (three yrs ago 15,000 elderly people died in France due to the massive heat wave that hit Europe). On Friday he finally managed, with great difficulty, to come to the hospital to see his wife. My mother was on intravenous, as well as being fed that way (she had gotten too weak to be fed via the mouth). She wasn’t doing that well. I had decided Friday nite, alone (Dani was taking care of her step-mother near Rome) to go catch an outdoor movie, just to wind down a bit. As I watching a Korean thriller, I kept on looking at the stars above, thinking for some strange reason that my mother wouldn’t come out of this all that well. I came home, spoke with Dani on the phone, and was reading when around midnight the phone rang. At first, I thought it was Dani. Instead, it was the hospital, advising me that the situation had gotten worse. I rushed out, again alone at 1 am in the morning, to find my mother on oxygen and with a fever of 38.2. The doctor, an Argentine immigrant with whom I got to speak Spanish with, told me that the situation had plummeted substantially. I was holding her hand, also whispering in her ear that “Com’on mom, you’ve survived the bombings over Udine 60 yrs ago not to mention German occupation and two (yes two) tumours (colon and breast), you’re not going to let a little water kill you”! At 1.41 am, with the doctor and three very professional nurses by her side, my mother left us. I don’t know exactly how to describe being physically next to someone as they (literally) breathe their last breath. It comes at greater and greater intervals. The doctor at one pt removed the oxygen, knowing I guess very well that there was little that could be done for her. One nurse said that she reacted in some way when I showed up. I guess she was happy that her "Marietto" (as I had been called for many yrs) was there for her. It was the least I could do after 12 days of going back and forth to feed her and to check up on her. I was glad that the day before my dad had managed—after 50 yrs of marriage—to have seen her and kissed her. While driving back to the hospital with the clothes necessary for her funeral, I thought how odd and ironic life really can be: she had been there 47 yrs ago when she brought me into this world and I, 47 yrs later, was with her when she left this world.
She had been an oustanding mother and wife (me with my mother in slightly better times).
Ciao mom,
Mario

Madonna rocks the Olimpico!

Italy’s largest disco was by far in Rome on August 6th! That’s what the mood was like for Ms. Ciccone’s concert at Rome’s Olympic stadium. Some 70,000 people where there, including Puff Daddy (or P. Diddy or P. Whiffy or whatever the man’s name is), Lenny Kravitz, Pedro Almodovar and even Penelope Cruz (with my binoculars I managed to see the first three people as they came into the VIP stands). The stage was set up horizontally in the south curve. We were on the opposite side in the north curve. The pics were taken with a Nikon D70 digital camera and with a 70-300 mm zoom with no flash and no tripod. The evening opened with a well-known DJ who really got the house rocking. Nice to see the kids going crazy. I thought of two things: how Elvis would have been proud (kids just wanna have fun and dance to good music) and how the poor Lebanese kids would have wanted to be present that night rather than hiding from the bombs. He played for an hour. Madonna came on around 9:45 or so and played for two hours. No encores though and no good-byes, that’s apparently how she ends every show. She must have changed about 5 times and had some great dancers with her. And yes, she did come out on a crucifix and wearing a crown made up of spines. No doubt the Vatican probably didn’t appreciate the gesture (her press officer even went as far as to invite Pope Ratzinger to the concert! American-style freedom of the press taken a wee bit too far!). The screen behind her showed images of Africans and their plight with Aids. She sang one of my favourites, “Ray of Light”, and others such as “Music”, “La Isla Bonita” and “Live to Tell”. She actually opened with a Donna Summers hit, “I Feel Love”. The concert ended with “Hung Up”. On the eve of her 48th b.day on August 16th, I must say Madonna was in splendid shape. Unlike Tina Turner, Madonna’s show was more “theatrical” in nature. Turner I think has a much better voice than Madonna. Nevertheless, a young Ciccone left Michigan one fine day on a plane for New York. The first time away from home, the first time in NY and the first time on a plane. She arrived with only 35 dollars in her pocket and lived for a period in misery without asking anyone for help. She’s now sold some 250 million records and is by far THE best female performer in the world. What is also amazing is the following day I had to take a train. I went to the Termini station to buy my newspapers. The main ones were all sold-out. I asked why? “The Madonna effect”!, was the answer from the news seller. Seems like everyone wanted to see the commentaries on her “crucifixion" (all pics by M. Rimati)!

Borghese Gallery

Some pictures of the Borghese museum gallery in Rome. At the time of writing, the gallery is host to a collection of Raphael paintings from museums around the world (Florence, the US and the Louvre). The gallery itself is quite amazing, perhaps one of the finest in Europe, with works by Bernini, Caravaggio and Canova (all pics by M. Rimati).

Walkabout Rome

A Sunday walk around downtown Rome. A changing of the guard at the Quirinale Palace, home to Italy’s president (and a former papal palace). The Italian wave flagging up high on the left indicates that the president is at home. The equestrian statue is located right in front of the Quirinale (all pics by M. Rimati).

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there!

Italians have the (very) nasty habit of usually abandoning each summer before going on vacation up to 100,000 cats, dogs, serpents, birds, you name it. The last publicity regards abandoning dogs. The ad says: “Abandon only the city”, with a dog clearly visible in the rear view mirror. And then Italians break Canadians’ balls over the yearly seal hunt (pic by M. Rimati)?

Blues in a castle

Pics from small town located about 150 km north of Rome. We went there for a small blues festival. The town only has 450 people, including a castle too (all pics by M. Rimati)!

Bryan Adams and Billy Joel rock the Coliseum!

An Italian journalist was in Vienna a few weeks ago covering the Billy Joel concert there. He said his performance was fantastic. I agree whole heartedly with his observation: Joel was simply great at Telecom Italia’s 4th free concert right in front of Rome’s Coliseum (after Paul McCartney, Simon&Garfunkel and Elton John) on July 31st. But Joel wasn’t the only treat: Canada’s Bryan Adams got things rolling with a 50 minute performance right in front of a multi-colored Coliseum. He opened up with “So Far So Good” and followed with “I Need Somebody”, “Run To You”, “18 Till I Die”, “Looks Good On Me” and “Summer of ‘69” which nearly brought down the ancient Flavian Amphitheatre (the Coliseum’s real name). Adams was in a great mood as he practically dove into the crowd under the stage, taking pictures of himself on a small digital camera amongst fluttering Canadian flags.
Joel? Put it this way, what song DIDN’T he play? You name it, he played it: “Angry Young Man”, “My Life”, “Love You Just The Way You Are”, “The Entertainer”, “Honesty”, “Zanzibar”, “New York State Of Mind”, “Uptown Girl”, “Innocent Man”, “Big Shot”, “In The Middle Of The Night”, “Only The Good Die Young” and “Italian Restaurant”. He played for nearly 2 hours. Another treat for the over 300,000 people present was the duet for his encore with Adams. They alternated one hit each, Joel’s “You May Be Right” and perhaps my favourite Adams song, “Cuts Like A Knife”! The grand finale was left up to Joel for his one and only last encore, “Piano Man”. It was an indeed “hot” night again at the Coliseum, and not just because of the humidity and 30+ Celsius temperatures, but because of two wonderful performers on stage. As we all began to exist the area and the roadies began dismantling the huge stage poised right in front of the Coliseum, the soundtrack to “Gladiator” began blaring out. Indeed a most appropriate sound for the particular atmosphere (all pics by M. Rimati).

The usual chaos...

As my bio page indicates, I’ve been living in Italy non-stop since 1989. Quite honestly (and quite frankly), I can’t really say that in all these years I’ve learned anything from the Italians vis-à-vis the work ethic. I may be the only person in Italy who has worked for three different governments so far but WITHOUT being part of the diplomatic career of any of the three: I’ve worked at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, at the Canadian Embassy in Rome and at Palazzo Chigi (seat of the Italian government) and at the Farnesina, also known as the Italian Foreign Ministry. The most organised are the Americans. The least? The Italians. I’ve worked at some major events, such as World Cups, G8 Summits and other things. About the only thing I have learned is how to coach. How to coach soccer that is. I’ve taken 7 coaching courses so far in Italy (plus 1 from the English FA). When it comes to soccer (just witness Italy’s recent 4th World Cup victory), Italians are probably second to none, perhaps just behind the Brazilians. I’ve learned discipline and above-all how to be organised when it comes to running a practise and planning a game. But for the rest, forget it. The latest comes from the recent Middle East conference held in Rome with the Lebanese, Americans, Italians and UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. The title of “La Repubblica” on the organisation of the concluding press conference was: “Press conference amid chaos, the Farnesina becomes a campground”. Some 800 reporters and cameramen were squeezed into a small area without air conditioning. At one point, as Rice and the others came in, they were told to sit down. Not on chairs but on the floor! A Russian journalist had a tough time following orders as she was wearing a mini-skirt! Some older foreign correspondents complained of weak knee joints while the Farnesina’s press office described the scene as being worthy of a “Woodstock concert”! The Egyptian correspondent of the “Middle East News Agency” asked instead where the air conditioning was whereas the Swiss, always precise like their clocks and watches, asked if there was no better place in which to organise such an important press conference. Rice instead was bothered for most of the time by a pesky fly which just wouldn’t go away (and the fly was probably THE happiest living creature in that room as at least it wasn’t mobbed by fellow flies)!

Never again?

A friend of mine asked me one day, “Why do you go visit all these concentration camps”? I’ve been so far to:
-Dachau (twice)
-Buchenwald
-Mauthausen (twice)
-the Risiera di San Sabba in Trieste (twice, the only Nazi-run concentration camp in Italy)
-Auschwitz-Birkenau

I go to see not only how many millions of people suffered in these place, not only to see how my uncle suffered and died in a POW near Leipzig but also to see the hypocricy of man: many of these concentration camps show pictures of how 60 years ago millions of people were displaced and had to leave their homes. In the year 2006, in the era of iPods and what not, still more people (the Lebanese) are being displaced. A “welcome” sign in the courtyard of Dachau says, “Never again”. Useless words I’d say…

Guilty or not guilty?

Some pics from an outdoor theatre at the Basilica of Massenzio in downtown Rome. The play, 90 minutes long and free, was a hypothetical court hearing on whether Julius Caesar was or wasn’t guilty. There were two “lawyers”, one for the accused and one for the defence (the crowd voted not guilty). It couldn’t get any better because the Basilica overlooks the Roman Forum and where Caesar worked at the central government. On March 15th, 44 BC, he took a short walk from his “office” to Largo Argentina, about 1 km away, where he was knifed to death by conspirators. His assassins later all died, but not of natural causes. The next play is a court hearing against Nero, in the same location (all pics by M. Rimati).

Stones

More Stones (picture by M. Rimati. All pics taken with a Nikon D70 digital camera with a 300 m zoom from about 200 metres away in San Siro's 2nd ring).

They're still the world's greatest rock'n'roll band

So how many places on the face of the planet can you say that you’ve seen and done the following? Staying directly behind the hotel of the world’s greatest rock and roll band. You then get to see the world’s greatest rock and roll band in one of the world’s “temples” of soccer. You see the world’s greatest rock and roll band in a temple of soccer together with two (very) recent World Cup champions. And you see all this together with the 5 penalty kicks during the Italy-France World Cup final. You see all this in Milan’s San Siro stadium (home to Milan and Inter) during the Rolling Stones’s only Italian gig on July 11th. The champions? Marco “I’m no saint either” Materazzi and Alex Del Piero. After their last concert in the very same venue 3 years ago (I was there for that one too, perhaps a slightly better performance than this time round) the Stones again returned to Milan and ironically, 24 years later after Italy’s 3rd World Cup victory (back then Jagger came out wearing Paolo Rossi’s t-shirt).
Indeed quite the 5 days for Dani and I: last Friday we were in Lucca to see Clapton (tonight Lucca will host both Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and Nick Mason on drums). On Saturday we took in the 3rd place match plus getting psyched up for the Italy-France final. On Sunday we joined some 300,000 people at the Circus Maximus to watch the final on 3 large screens. We then took to the streets of Rome for the massive celebrations. On Monday Rome was again inundated by celebrations as 1 million people again packed the C.M. for the arrival of the Italian national team. And then on Tuesday the Stones’s concert.
And how were Jagger, Richards, Watts and Wood? Great as ever. Three years ago—on the eve of his 60th b.day—I had said that Jagger had more agility on stage than Totti on a soccer pitch. This time, at age 63, Jagger had MORE energy on stage than the entire Italian team! Two hours of non-stop r&r. Three years ago they opened with “Start Me Up”. This time the three screens showed the cosmos, in clear reference to their “Bigger Bang” album, their latest work and the name of their new world tour (its European leg kicked off in Milan). The Milan concert was supposed to have taken place on June 22nd but given Richards’s head injury (in perfect Italian, Jagger said that both Richards and Materazzi had “heads” as a common denominator!), it was postponed to July 11th. With a very loud bang, the Stones broke out in a very explosive r&r song, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. Jagger then welcomed the 60,000+ people in Italian: “Ciao Milano, ciao Italia, campioni del mondo”! We all naturally went crazy (Jagger is a soccer fan and was in Milan watching the final. Drummer Watts instead is a cricket lover but was “forced” by Jagger to watch some of the games). This followed with “It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It)”. This time though there was no “Angie” nor “Like A Rolling Stone”. Richards? In splendid form and as “rockier” as ever. He sang a few of his own songs (his favourite welcoming line is the following: “I’m happy to be here. In fact, I’m happy to be anywhere”! Indeed a nice outlook on life).
The stage? There are three rings to San Siro stadium. Their stage almost reached the height of the 2nd ring (lucky some ticket holders: you could sit high up on stage overlooking the entire show/band). Ronnie Wood seemed somewhat subdued, perhaps due to his recent alcohol rehabilitation. Watts? Calm, cool and perfect on drums as ever. They played most of their hits, including a song which in the 60s on the Ed Sullivan show had been subjected to some modifications: “Let’s Spend The Night Together” (Jagger then had to say “Time” instead of “Night” because it wasn’t deemed appropriate for a younger viewing audience), “Midnight Rambler”, a great blues song, “Honky Tonk Women”, “Brown Sugar” (with once again Texan Bobby Keys on sax who once played the original part in that song), “Sympathy For The Devil” (with a very, very red stage and lighting), “I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction”), some songs from their new album such as “Streets of Love” plus “As Tears Go By” (sung entirely by Mick in Italian, a nice homage to Italians!). And speaking of homage, the Stones played an old Ray Charles song. Jagger was joined by Lisa, their eternal (and only female) singer. Quite the performance by the two. Before their last song, “Satisfaction”, the main central screen showed Italy’s 5 successful pk goals. They were followed by all of us with a (very) loud “Ole’”. San Siro naturally went wild with Grosso’s winning pk. After the song, Jagger, Richards, Watts and Wood took their usual bow. At that point, they were joined on stage by both Materazzi and Del Piero! Again, 60,000 people went wild. Materazzi complimented the 4 “true champions” on stage and then proceeded to poke fun at the French. The temperature as we headed into San Siro at 7 pm was 40 degrees Celsius. Once the concert and all the fireworks went off during the concert, the temperature certainly rose to 45 degrees, if not more. We made it back to our hotel by midnight and waited outside the Stones’s hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the 4 rockers. Sure enough, at 1:30 am there came out from the hotel front door Sir Mick with his wife (who towers over Mick) on his way to who knows where. We were about 40 metres away from him (quite the skinny fellow too). His car went whizzing under my nose but no pics as his windows were completely “tainted black”. What I did manage to do before he headed out was to take a pic of his limo with on the dashboard the following simple sign: “MJ”. I looked at Dani and chuckled: “Here we’re going to bed at 1.30 while Mick, after 2 hours of non-stop fantastic singing in sweltering heat in front of 60,000 screaming fans STILL at 63 years of age has enough energy to go out and party”! Indeed, what a life he and the other three have had since 1962 when they formed the band (I have this suspicion though that Watts was comfortably snoozing away in bed). Quite the day in Milan. On the train back to Rome I said to myself: “In 2012 not only will London be hosting the summer Olympics but it’ll also be the Stones’s 50th anniversary. Wouldn’t it be great if they played at the closing ceremonies”!