One thing that I love about travel is the unexpected moments or sights that you encounter. Getting to Capri, as I previously explained, was a wild ride but it was exhilarating and set me up to embrace the peace that the island had to offer.

            Oahu, well most of the unexpected was strange sea snakes swimming underneath me, or liquid cheese penetrating the crust of nacho chips, but there were those amazing sea turtles on the other hand.

However, this time I want to bring up those musical moments that engulf your entire being and make you pay attention, even when you’re tired, in a crowded, slow train with 40 degree heat making sweat pour from places you didn’t know possible.

The Venetian concert by the canal

 

            Music, in any language and in any setting, can be the most intimate or uniting experience. If you pay attention when you travel, themes and recurring small events will reveal themselves and these little moments will become significant, maybe not then, but during your reflections months or years later.

 

          

Besides waking up to the sound of church bells every morning, which I loved, Venice was one of my first musical experiences in Italy. Along the canal an Italian woman rocked to American songs with a voice like Janis Joplin, despite the fact that she couldn’t speak any English she sounded great.
We dinned on the stone, a dinner that was a total of 12 euro for two, including bread, cheese, meat and rose wine. We dared the rising tide to touch our feet as the moon looked on in approval, we drank to Venice.

          

Vicenza Bible Fest.

Vicenza, the small and yet charming Italian town, was one of those moments where it really didn’t matter how you danced, it was just groovy that you moved! It was the Bible Festival and, despite my feelings towards organized religion, I joined in. There were many genres being showcased that night, but after a few campari spritzers, I only really remember reggae. It was such a surreal moment, not only because of the campari, but because we were dancing in a piazza surrounded by architecture designed by Andrea Palladio underneath the Italian moonlight. The beat being pounded against the cobblestone, and up into my legs, felt like the pulse of Italy. Does it get any better than that?

 

Vicenza Pizza where I dinned & danced

            Verona held another moment shared by many. Spur of the moment, we attended the opening opera show held at the Verona Amphitheatre/Colosseum which was built in 30 AD. It was my first time witnessing any opera in person and in the end I felt like Pretty Woman applauding filled with inspiration. The event was televised on Italian T.V. with people who, I am sure, are considered famous. There was a woman from Britain who was wonderful and she too was considered famous due to her appearance on the X Factor, I think. If you recognize her let me know who she is because her performances were gorgeous. Later in the year I heard the song I had been dying to hear again, unexpectedly, while sitting at dinner listening to Zappacosta at our local Minstrel’s restaurant. We also heard another song which I really suggest you listen to! Un amore cosi grande, unfortunately it wasn’t Andrea Bocelli singing.

 

The Verona Amphitheatre filling up

The most lovely song… if only I knew the name. Thanks Zappacosta!

    

The most intimate of my musical experiences was on a slow train back to Verona from Padua in the heat of hell. I had to make my way to the back of the train to find an available seat. I gestured to a seat taken by a skinny red packsack. The robust black woman sighed a deep breath and removed her bag. I sunk into the warm seat in exhaustion. She put her head phones into her ears and sang along. It was like a lullaby for my tired sweating body. I sighed deep and stared out the window watching the green and gold blurs go by to a calming throaty humming sound track, on random.

 

       There is nothing I recommend more, when you are traveling or just strolling in your own town or watching a meteor shower, to put your iPod on random and you’ll be surprised how relevant some of the songs are to your state of mind or your experiences. In doing so, you’re trip soundtrack is revealed.

The death of Carmen

Reading Suggestions for Venice:

Jan Morris’s Venice
Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice

Reading Suggestions for Padua:
Oscar Wilde’s Duchess of Padua
Edward Charles’s The Courtesan of Padua

Reading Suggestions for Vicenza:
A History of Painting in North Italy
Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time by Bruce Boucher

Reading Suggestions for Verona:
An Italian Education: The Further Adventures of an Expatriate in Verona by Tim Parks
The Master of Verona by David Blixt

Madama Butterfly Opera in Verona