DOMENICA MUSICALE - SANREMO 2017

Throughout this post, I shall be posting links rather than videos as there are no official clips, as yet, on youtube, presumably for copyright reasons.

Another Sanremo Festival has come and gone and I've already mentioned one of my favourite moments. Undoubtedly the most touching was the appearance, on the first evening, of representatives of Italy's emergency services and volunteers - including a wonderful labrador -  who had helped in recent disasters such as the 24th August earthquake and the Rigopiano avalanche. The rescuers deservedly got a standing ovation. 

I also enjoyed the appearance of a favourite man of mine, chef and MasterChef Italia judge Carlo Cracco last night. Goodness, Carlo scrubs up well! He had time to tell us that the dish he would choose for presenter Carlo Conti is a Tuscan ribollita and for co-presenter Maria De Filippi spaghetti with tomato sauce, "because it's every Italian's favorite dish." She, lucky girl, got a kiss from chef Carlo, before the other Carlo sent him back to the kitchen.

There couldn't have been a dry eye in the house last night when Zucchero sang a duet with a virtual Luciano Pavarotti and the press dubbed this performance "the real winner."  You can see this here from 01.38.00 mins.

I thought the best song in the whole competition was this one, which was knocked out on the fourth evening and I also liked this and this, both of which made it to the final evening. The winning song was this, ably performed by Francesco Gabbani and a monkey and I can say for it that it certainly cheered everybody up!

SABATO MUSICALE

Simply because I like it:

Zucchero - Voci

ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP - 19

Here is my pick of last week's Italy Magazine articles:

First of all, there are only 65 shopping days left until Christmas and a good place to head in order to solve those present problems would be the Oh bej, Oh bej! Christmas market in Milan.

Still with Christmas shopping, maybe the man in your life needs this and this CD is definitely going to be on my own wish list.  The most amazing news of the week from Italy was this surgical breakthrough  whilst a completely different kind of breakthrough occurred on Friday.  I liked the honest logic of this Northern League supporter and,  at the risk of losing my feminist credentials, I cannot help hoping that this film will soon be released outside France.

For my Patti Chiari column, I wrote in more detail about the Prickly Pear Festival at Militello and explained the linguistic confusion surrounding the term mostarda.

Happy reading.

PER LA DOTTORESSA DI SCICLI

The beautiful little town of Scicli, a 15-minute drive from Modica, is a community in shock following an horrific crime which took place there on Wednesday - Thursday night: A 53-year-old woman doctor was on duty in the town as that night's guardia medica [emergency doctor] and was alone in the old palazzo where the emergency surgery is located. The building has no video entry system. At around 8.30 pm two North African men arrived at the premises and asked for medicines, which the doctor gave them. The men left but in the early hours one of them returned and rang the doorbell. The doctor saw his silhouette through the glass door and only opened it a fraction in order to talk to him. The man then forced the door open, attacked the doctor violently, raped her and broke her leg. Before fleeing he took the 200 euros that she had in her handbag.

The doctor was admitted to hospital first in Scicli and then in Modica. She was discharged on Thursday evening.

We are all appalled in this normally safe Province of Ragusa as, indeed, are people all over Italy. The Imam of Scicli has called the attack "a crime against man and god" and I can only echo those words. On Wednesday 24th March there will be a torchlight procession in Scicli to show solidarity with the doctor and her family and to say "No" to every form of violence.

I would like to offer this in place of "sabato musicale" tonight. Dottoressa, siamo con Lei. We are with you.

Zucchero e Pavarotti - Va, pensiero