Andrea Bocelli Concert, Tuscany

WOO!  Last weekend was so awesome!  I signed up for a solo trip to see the great Andrea Bocelli in concert in a tiny village in Tuscany called Lajatico.  The village is the hometown of Andrea and once a year they open up a natural amphitheater in the rolling hills outside town.  It's called the Teatro del Silenzio, the Theater of Silence, because if the music stops for a moment, all you hear is the natural silence of the area.  No cars, no airplanes, no highways... Just crickets and the occasional owl.  It's profound.

I'll keep this short.  Basically, I had the time of my life and will never, ever forget it.  Andrea is amazing.  The other performers in the show were fascinating and talented and I learned a lot of names I will need to remember because they will all feature in my favorites.  Towards the end of the show I called D on the mobile and had him listen in, and now he really regrets not being there.  I sobbed like a baby, and everybody else in the audience did too.  I'll put some links to some tunes on YouTube of the music featured so you can listen in while you view the pictures.

"Quizas, Quizas, Quizas" - Maybe, maybe, maybe (Spanish) Video

 Our hotel was in a small Tuscan town called Colle di Val d'Elsa.  It has a medieval center up on a high hill and this is the piazza at the bottom, just by our hotel doors.

 Since D wasn't interested in this trip, I did it solo... But on every solo trip, you're never really alone!  That's when you make the most new friends!  I met three lovely ladies who "adopted" me as their fourth.  G, H, and S were so much fun and just an absolute riot to be with.  Stuff like this is why I LOVE traveling "alone"!

This is the four of us, all dolled-up for the concert on Saturday evening.

 My neighbors B and T came too!  Funny, we should have carpooled if we'd known each other were going!  :)

 Rolling Tuscan countryside on the 3-hr. ride to the concert.

 I wasn't a fan of Florence, I'll admit it.  I'm fine never going back there.  I ignorantly assumed the rest of Tuscany was just like Florence and wasn't interested in seeing it... But I was wrong!  I've learned that you can't judge a region from it's major sights - every locale is different and sometimes radically so.  Florence is very Renaissance.  Michelangelo's David, Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio, etc.  The rest of Tuscany thus far seems very NOT Renaissance and actually very medieval, which is super awesome and I'm fascinated with it!  And I'll never get tired of seeing these clean rolling hillsides covered in cyprus and rocky gorges!  It's starkly beautiful.  I can't believe I get to see this!

"Partiro Con Te" - Andrea Bocelli Video

 SHEEP!  This right here is where that delicious pecorino romano cheese comes from, folks.  Drizzle it with a little honey and see how good it is!

 We passed through Volterra quickly on our way (and I must go back!).  Volterra is the home of the Volturi, the clan of vampires featured in the Twilight series of books and movies.  While the movie wasn't filmed here (it was actually filmed a few towns over), this is supposed to be the place.  Interestingly enough, Volterra actually has a rather creepy history and would totally be the place for vampires!

 Castle on the hill.

 I really just liked this street name.  Here we are getting close to the theater.  We just entered Lajatico, Toscana!

 So close!

"Nessun Dorma" - Andrea Bocelli Video

 WOOOOO!  Made it!  You can see the theater is literally set in the middle of nowhere.  When Andrea was deciding on a location, he wanted a natural amphitheater - a hillside shaped like a bowl that naturally amplified sound - and modeled it after the ancient Greek and Roman amphitheaters.

 B and me!

 Behind the stage were two huge 4-story-tall human figures.  The stage is set around a pond (behind the orchestra and in front of the man statue) so every time the music stopped you could hear bullfrogs and peepers.

 The great British performer Lindsay Kemp.  Now in his seventies, he's been performing since his childhood and has perfected the art of ventriloquism.  During this scene, it appeared that a woman (a soprano) was singing off-stage and he was moving to the music.  Turns out it was him throwing his voice the entire time and singing the song without moving his lips in any way.  My mind was totally blown!!!

 The Ukrainian violinist, Anastasiya Petryshak.

 On the big screen - Andrea singing with the Italian soprano, Simona Molinari.

 I'm in awe of this man!

The finale!  I cried like a baby!

After the concert (ended at 1:00 am) we got back to the hotel around 4:00 am and went to bed.  I was up by 6:30 to eat a quick breakfast (remember that pecorino romano and honey??) and then I walked around the medieval part of the town.  Later that day we stopped in Orvieto, which will come in a later entry!

The concert program.