I’m loving this group.  Bambini Latini. They are from Puglia.

Christmas is just a week away.  I’ll go to Tuscany – Lucca, to be exact – to spend it with my cousins there.  Tomorrow I embrace friends in Rome.   I love seeing Rome all busy and decorated for Christmas.  It will be a real treat.

Yesterday I had my first lunch guest at my new home.  A girlfriend from tango.  It has been very cold lately, but we stayed warm in my heated kitchen while fennel and carrots roasted in the oven with a touch of cinnamon and we nibbled on my attempt at an artichoke frittata (the story of Tina Ferrari and the elusive perfect frittata is subject matter for another blog post), sipping a rose’ from Calabria.  Afterwards, we giggled our way through chocolate and oranges and then she was on her way.

She brought me stelle di Natale (poinsettias) and my apartment is now looking very homey and Christmasy.

This time of year I find myself listening to parts of Handel’s Messiah.  My stepmother used to sing in the Seattle Symphony Chorale, and every year at Christmastime I was blessed with the opportunity to hear (and see) them perform this musical masterpiece.

My two favorite pieces from Handel’s Messiah are the Hallelujah chorus (nothing gives me goosebumps like standing up along with the entire audience when Hallelujah begins), and the piece in the video below, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Tenebrae Choir.  For unto us a child is born…

Hearing this kind of makes me want to look for images on the internet of Seattle at Christmastime.

There are all kinds of Christmas tunes, both classical and modern, that get me in the mood.  If you celebrate Christmas, what music does the trick for you?

Mina is one of the most amazing Italian singers, in my opinion.   She’s unique.  Her voice tears you apart inside, in a good way.

This evening I was whisked away to a presentation on the lovely Mina, and we were shown various recordings of her throughout the important eras in her career.

The pleasant surprise of the evening (for me) was when they showed us a performance in which she sang a tango, Balada Para Mi Muerte, accompanied by Astor Piazzolla.  It moved me.  And I found it on youtube:

And here’s a song by Mina che mi da brividi (that gives me shivers).

It’s called Ancora, Ancora, Ancora:

Mercedes Sosa was the first Argentine singer I remember listening to, just before I started getting into Tango.  A friend, Helen, introduced me to her.

Even though the song below came out two years ago, the sound of it actually brings up memories of the year 2002, walking on the beach in the town of Senigallia (on the Adriatic coast in the Marche region of Italy), holding hands with a summer sweetheart I had met at a party with friends in Bologna a week earlier.  We had spent the evening chatting away from the people at the party, and before it was over he gave me his number and a kiss.  I saw him once more in Bologna before continuing with my travels.

I went to Slovenia to experience a new place, but he had invited me down to his family’s beach apartment and we had chemistry that I’d never experienced before, so… after some days exploring, eating and swimming in the charming seaside town of Piran, I took the bus over the Italian border into Trieste, and the train all the way down to Ancona, where he picked me up and drove me to Senigallia.  A bit wild, I know, but when it comes to matters of the heart, sometimes you just have to do it.

We spent several days eating seafood in restaurants, cooking at home, staying up late playing cards and drinking wine or grappa, and early in the evenings I let him lead me through the narrow streets of the town’s historic center, where we indulged in gelato and listened to live music in one of the piazzas.  There were thunderstorms in the night sometimes, and he would hold me and soothe me when I woke up in fright.  I spoke very little Italian at the time, and he spoke only some English, but somehow we managed to have long conversations.  When it was time for me to go back to Switzerland, where I was living, he drove me all the way to Bologna so I could catch my train.

We never saw each other again.  But it was perfect that way.  Life went on.  I have always looked back on that summer fondly – I was 24 and it was my first year living abroad.  It was the year I cut my hair short and rode on the back of a friend’s Vespa through Zurich at 4:00 in the morning.  I was independent and adventurous.  Seven years later, I guess I still am.

This is the song I heard today that brought it all back (even though it was released in ‘07).  Lovely accordion parts, don’t you think?  It has a breezy, beachy sound to it, at least for me.  I heard it today for the first time.

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Below you’ll find couple of songs that were playing a lot on the radio and Italian MTV that adventurous summer in 2002.

Notice the accordion sounds all of these songs have in common?

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Une Histoire D’Amour – Gabin. <–Click on the title to hear the song. It’s beautiful and worth it.  Really!

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Tu es Foutu – InGrid. (video below) – InGrid is an Italian singer, but this is sung in French.

Both of these songs make me feel like I’m on the Adriatic sea, enjoying my freedom.