Pavarotti Revisited
Arriving at Piazza Navona, a day after my previously rain soaked visit, I meander up to the top of the Piazza that I did not visit yesterday. I found a fantastic Gelateria called ‘Tre Fontaine’ whose ‘cono al chocolate’ gelato was just like eating a soft and fluffy chocolate mousse. So creamy, moussey (surprisingly) and smooth as silk. How do these people make such divinely fattening treats taste SOOOO good?
As dedicated to my ice cream as I was, I was then distracted by the hum of opera music ever so distant but audible enough to make it out. It’s Puccini’s NESSUN DORMA made famous by Pavarotti, amongst others. Maybe it’s coming from one of the unashamedly overpriced restaurants that abound the Piazza?
Not sure. Must find out.
My mission should I choose to accept
Wow, imagine if there was live opera in one of these restaurants, what a great experience to stumble upon, touristy or not, I would even pay the €8 – €12 they were charging for a GLASS of wine just to listen to this wonderful and dreamy music that transports you to another world where your imagination allows your innermost ideas to become a reality, even if it’s just for a moment and only in your head.
I search and search a few restaurants to no avail. Then I realise the music is coming from the centre of the Piazza. Even better. A Free concert, although there was no staging or anything that would resemble a public concert anywhere in sight. Hmm. So I continue around to the other side of the third fountain and stop dead in my tracks at what I see, and I can’t help but manage a great smile. And when I look around, everyone else is smiling as well, and to my relief, all for the right reasons.
No, it was not Paul Potts or Susan Boyle, it was in fact an elderly gentleman who has seen better days, sitting on the fountain holding fence and leaning ever so slightly but necessarily on the black marble link in btn the iron seats, wearing what could be described as his nearly best outfit, odd socks and all, and ironically topped off with a ‘Lotteria Nazionale’ embroided cap. At his feet is a small CD player, an amplifier, and a microphone that perhaps, thankfully, does not seem to work. He is miming the words to some of the world’s greatest and well known opera’s, gesturing as best he can with limited movement to the more dramatic parts and perhaps (like me) imagining he himself is Pavarotti, giving a wonderful public concert. I sit on the same set of seats just around from him to listen and watch.
He is thoroughly enjoying himself and delights every single person watching and listening, especially those who walk by and realise with a shock that the music is coming from him. Every person I see cannot help but smile or have a good natured giggle as they go past him, some popping a coin in his other upturned hat as they pass. Tour group after tour group go past with the same reaction each time, all appreciating the ambience this gentleman is creating and giving each and every one of us here in this world famous Piazza, memories to last a lifetime and creating a lovely little story for all and sundry to tell their friends when they return to their homelands.
Whilst school groups or young adolescents laugh or mock him, especially when the CD gets a little stuck, those of us with an appreciation of anything can see this gentleman for what he is worth, a lover of opera (he knew every word of every song) and an entertainer, and maybe when other things in life pass on with age, some people are left with their great loves in life. And this, certainly, seems to be his.
Who is he?
I’m not sure what to name this wonderful little story of my entertaining man in Piazza Navona. I could go for something really original and follow in the footsteps of great artists who name their great works of art obviously boring things like ‘girl with a vase’, ‘Portrait of a man’ or in this case, ‘senile old man in Piazza’, But for the delight this gentleman has given me and every other tourist and local alike for the past 45 minutes or so I think he deserves the title ‘Pavarotti Revisited’.
And so after a while, I applaud with enthusiasm and throw him a bob to thank him for my genuine entertainment, and then, just as I start to leave, aaaahhh, a song from one of my favourites ‘La Traviata’.
Sing my friend sing. You have absolutely made my day.
Grazie e Bravo!
Travel is the best.
