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Un' avventura straordinaria

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Παρακάτω παρατίθενται τρία αποσπάσματα μεταφρασμένα στα Αγγλικά

Part i)

 Ignazio:

After the tour, we started thinking about the second album and in early 2013 we recorded ‘We Are Love’. 

If I remember correctly, in April our abum was released and in August we started our new tour in Vancouver, Canada. We will never forget that tour.

In September something happened that marked our relationship, united us even more, and made us realise that the three of us are stronger together ("noi tre siamo la forza").

Miami, the 24th of September, a night like many others: we decided to hang out with a group of friends and go to one of the most 'in' Italian restaurants in South Beach.

The night started very well, we were having a great time. The owner knew us well and had escorted us upstairs to the club on the upper floor of the building, where only members were allowed. There were about 50 people. We had dinner and, from that moment onwards, the only thing I can remember is collapsing on the couch and then waking up.

Piero:

We’ve all been through some bad, unhappy, sad moments, but I believe that day, that night in Miami was the worst night of my life. I remember every single detail and I will still remember them in a hundred years. 

We were in a famous place in Miami, it was part restaurant part nightclub, and at some point, after having danced a little, we were leaving to go to another club with some friends. I got into a cab with one of those friends, Ignazio went with another friend who had a red two-seater car. We all headed to the club, which was near the restaurant.

So we arrived, and we were waiting in front of the club.

First of all, we do not drink. Maybe a glass of wine with a meal, yeah, but always in moderation. But from time to time, we like to joke and pretend that we are drunk. That night, Ignazio was doing just that with me. He pretended to be on the phone, using his wallet as a phone.

I know him very well, and for a moment I thought he really was drunk, but the worst of it is that he was not actually drunk at all, and only much later did I realise it.

So, the taxi drops me in front of the disco. Ignazio and our friend were looking for a place to park, so I waited for them in front of the club to go in with them.

At that point, I saw our friend coming, but no Ignazio.

I asked: "Sorry, but where's Ignazio?"

"He caught a cab and went to the hotel"

"Oh, okay". But then I started wondering and suddenly it came to me, that flash of Ignazio pretending to talk on the phone using his wallet.

"Sorry," I insisted, "but did you actually see him getting into the cab, and telling the driver the address of the hotel?"

"No, I left him in front of my car."

And there began the nightmare. And what a nightmare it was.

I picked up the phone, waited for three minutes - the hotel was very close - and then called the reception.

I asked: "Excuse me, have you seen the guy from room 320 coming back?"

"No, I couldn’t say."

I called our friend, who at this point had already gone into the club, and told him "Take me to the hotel."

I got in the car and thought about warning Gianluca, who was still at the restaurant and was going to meet us at the second club. I was about to call him, but then I thought: "What if Ignazio is at the hotel?" Better to wait before starting to ring alarm bells.

I arrived at the hotel and asked again: "Have you seen the guy from room 320?"

"No, I don’t think so. I haven’t seen anyone here."

At 3:15 a.m. there’s not that many people passing through the hall of a hotel, so if among those few people Ignazio enters, you would notice it. He is not someone who would go unnoticed.

I said: "Sorry, could you give me the key to his room and let me in? Just to see if he’s asleep?"

"No, we’re not allowed to.”

"I’m sorry? We are in same group. You know perfectly well that he’s my colleague."

"No, unfortunately, it is our policy, we ‘re not allowed to.”

I asked and I begged, but nothing, he wouldn't give me the key.

I went up directly to Ignazio’s room, with our friend, and I knocked on the door.

"Igna? Igna? " We shouted. We knocked and shouted, but no one answered.

In that chaos, however, we could see from under the door that the light was on. "Ignazio is in the room!"

I could imagine him sleeping in bed, at least I hoped, I really hoped.

But then, I wondered again: "What if there is no one in the room and he’s in some corner of Miami, feeling ill?". So I said to my friend: "Let’s go back to that street and check all around there.” In the end, we didn’t check only around the club, but also all over Miami, back and forth, looking for Ignazio. But nothing. Three hours and no result. I felt an anguish that took my breath away.

At that point, I had to warn the others, starting with Gianluca.

Gianluca:

It was just before six.

My heart stopped.

I suspected that something had happened, because I had been waiting for Ignazio and Piero at the second club, but they hadn’t arrived. I thought they could have changed their minds, that they were tired, something like that. I never, ever, for a moment, thought it could be something so serious.

At the time when Piero called, I was already in bed. Not for long, but I was in bed. I never, for a moment, thought that Piero was joking when he spoke, because it was something too serious and Piero is not the type to joke with things like that.

I just said "I’ll wait for you dowstairs", I dressed myself and I went down to the hotel lobby. You cannot imagine what crossed my mind in those few minutes that I was waiting for Piero. It was the first time in four years that we didn’t know where one of us was. It was a horrible feeling.

Part ii)

Piero:

At that point, along with Gianluca, we decided to wake up Barbara.

"Barbara, we can’t find Ignazio", we said.

It was 6:30am in the morning. We'd had no news of him for more than three hours.

Barbara said: "Is this a joke?"

"No, we can’t find him."

We were worried about Ignazio, but Barbara also had another problem to manage at that point: at 9:50am that morning, we had to catch a plane to New York, because in a couple of days, we were doing a concert at Radio City Music Hall. And not just any concert: it was all sold out, all of our parents were on their way to New York, as were our legal representatives and everyone who worked with us, Michele - it was the most important concert of the tour.

"However" I told her, "from underneath the door we can see that the light's on. Maybe he’s asleep in bed, but they wouldn’t give us the key to the room."

First thing that Barbara did: she got up, got dressed and went running to find a way to open that door. She practically threatened the receptionist and by 3:20am she was heading towards Ignazio’s room escorted by a hotel security guard. He opened the door. Ignazio wasn’t there: the world just came crashing down.

My blood froze.

At that point, Barbara called Michele in New York: "Michele, we have a problem: we can’t find Ignazio."

"Is this a joke?"

From there, Michele mobilised everybody that he could thing of: he called all of his friends in Miami, every one. Also, Michele now had to decide whether or not to cancel the concert, and if so, how to do it. I could barely think, my only fear, my only thought, was that we couldn’t find Ignazio.

Meanwhile, as well as Barbara, we also called Flavio, another friend of ours from Miami - and he arrived on his motorbike. Let me just say in advance that Barbara has a phobia about motorbikes and she had never got on one in her life. But that day she did. They went to the police station to ask whether the police had arrested a young man wearing a green sweater. And she also then went to the hospitals, asking if any ambulance had brought in a young man in a green sweater 

We turned Miami inside out.

And me, I just didn't know what to do.

Gianluca:

Piero and I were taking turns in front of the hotel, checking every cab that arrived. Each and every time one arrived, we were hoping to see Ignazio coming out of it.

Piero:

For every single cab that arrived, we were saying a prayer to heaven that it was him.

Ignazio:

A policeman woke me up the next morning. I was lying on a lawn along the main avenue of South Beach. The policeman was telling me that if I didn't get up, they would arrest me.

At 9:50am on that day, 25th of September, we were supposed to be on a flight to New York, and on the 27th we were going to have the most important concert of the tour at Radio City Music Hall, a concert which had already been sold out for weeks, with six thousand people.

As I got up, I realised that everything was gone: my phone, wallet, jacket. Everything had been stolen. What was I going to do? And more importantly, what time was it? Something was telling me that I was late. So I just started running.

"But where are you going to?" I asked myself at some point. I stopped to see where I was. I found myself between 7th and 8th Avenue, just opposite the restaurant. Our hotel was on 19th Avenue.

I definitely had to hurry up. So I started running again, but there was still a big problem – I don’t know what time it was. I stopped and ask a man, who answered me: "It's 9:50, man."

My first thought? "Il Volo!" I knew that we had a plane to catch...

So I started running again, but this time like Bolt in the Olympics, but soon I realised that the hotel was just too far away. A cab, I needed a cab.

I looked down the street and exactly then, in the opposite lane, there was one passing by. I rushed wildly across, without even checking if any cars were coming. Fortunately there weren’t any, on that extremely busy avenue in Miami, at that exact moment there wasn’t any cars - let's call it luck?

Anyhow, I managed to catch the cab. Driving it, it was an African-American lady, and I asked her to take me to the hotel. In fact, I don't even know how I remembered the name of the hotel!

Piero:

It was now 9:30am. We had already missed the plane and we still hadn’t found Ignazio yet.

I was desperate. I didn’t know whether to pray or what to think anymore: maybe someone had kidnapped him, killed him, threatened him. Even when you don’t want them to, the worst things start crossing your mind.

Barbara arrived back from the hospitals and the police station with no news about Ignazio.

So I jumped onto the bike with Flavio. What could I do now? This time I started looking in every alley of Miami. The club was on the 16th Avenue, the hotel on the 19th, so three blocks away, it was close. I was asking every homeless person that I met: "Sorry, but have you seen guy in a green sweater?".

"One dollar." I heard that answer so many times.

And as I was riding around looking, Gianluca was waiting outside the hotel, watching all the cabs that were arriving, hoping to see Ignazio get out of one of them. Meanwhile, Barbara was glued to the phone for so long that she no longer knew who else to call.

In New York, all their hopes were already gone.

Ignazio:

Upon arriving at the hotel, I could see Barbara and Gianluca from the cab. They were sitting on a bench, as if they were waiting for someone.

So I got out of the cab and asked them: "Sorry, do you have any dollars to pay for the cab?"

They both looked up at the same time and ...

Part iii)

Gianluca:

... I burst into tears, I started screaming. It was as if someone had taken this weight off me - that had been crushing me and keeping me from breathing.

Ignazio:

Barbara paid for the taxi and then called Michele - who I later realised, in the midst of all the worrying, had also been trying to find a way to resolve all of the problems related to an possible cancellation of the New York concert.

My Mamma Caterina, who had arrived in America, was already aware of what was going on, because I hadn’t been answering the phone - she had heard all of the details from Gaetano and Eleonora, Piero’s father and Gianluca’s mother.

Piero:

While I was out riding on the motorbike with Flavio, at Lincoln Road, my phone rang: it was 10:30am.

Gianluca shouted: "He arrived! He’s here! He’s here!"

I screamed to release all of the anguish that I had been holding inside me. And I started crying. You know how it is, when you're riding a motorbike, drowning in your own tears? It was like that! And I was punching Flavio - punches of happiness.

We arrived at the hotel and I saw Ignazio in front of the reception, wearing that blessed green sweater. He had gone out the night before wearing a blue jacket - which had been stolen, along with his wallet and phone.

So what did I do next? I called my mother. Because Ignazio was definitely not right - you could see he had been given something. She told me to make him drink lots of water and to give him spoonfuls of honey. 

So there was Ignazio lying on a bed, and me with a tablespoon - you know, like when you give cough syrup to your son? - feeding him honey, making him take as much as he could swallow.

It was so sad and it's very hard to talk about ...

Ignazio:

The boys accompanied me to the room and helped me to take a shower. It was only when I saw myself in the mirror, that I realised I was covered in bruises - there were also scratches on my face and body, a few bumps here and there, and I was actually limping a bit too.

Both of the boys, along with Barbara, had spent all night running around Miami, from 3:30am until 10am - in cabs, on motorbikes, in several hospitals and police stations - looking for me. While all the time, I was sleeping outdoors on somebody's lawn.

That night, I was beaten up. I was hit all over. But I was not drunk. I had just accepted a drink that must have been drugged, without noticing it. And you know what? Now, anytime I go to a pub or a club, I always ask for closed bottled drinks - and I always open them myself.

What makes me angriest about that night is not being able to remember anything. It's as if someone has cut off a piece of a polaroid film, and then just attached a future piece.

It’s not nice - not having the ability to remember something.

In the end Barbara managed to rearrange the flight, and we left later on that day. Upon arriving at the hotel, waiting outside for us were our parents - with shiny eyes - eager to hug us all. Shortly afterwards, my father also arrived - he had been held up in London and, poor him, he had spent the entire flight from London to New York not knowing whether or not they had found me.

In the end, it’s the result that counts - and I can say that this whole experience really made us grow up - and it also made us love each other even more.

That concert at Radio City Music Hall was one of the most beautiful we ever did. And we sang better than ever - maybe because we had just felt what it would mean to lose everything at a moment's notice.

After that, there were three more concerts before the American tour ended. But by then, the Latin tour was already knocking on the door. The first date of the Latin American tour was in Guadalajara, Mexico, on the day that I turned 19 - the 4th of October of 2013.

Επιμέλεια - Παρουσίαση: Έλενα Πεσιρίδου

Πηγές: Il Volo - English Translations   , http://www.ilvolo.mus.br/