After our frustration of the day before when we were desperately trying to confirm our hotel booking it was a delight to arrive at a very nice 4 star hotel in Milan. The 5 hour train trip had involved sharing a very full compartment with 5 other people and a cat (which had its own seat). We enjoyed a belated lunch at about 4pm and again we enjoyed the most perfect ravioli for Wendy and one of Richard’s favourites, risotto.
The purpose of this backtrack to Milan was to attend a Bruce Springsteen concert. We had seen and enjoyed Bruce in 1985 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Sadly we saw him again in 2003 at the SCG and we were very disappointed with the show mainly due to the poor sound quality at the venue. A little investigation before we left home led us to discover that Bruce would be touring Europe at the same time that we were in Europe and with some encouragement from a fellow Bruce fan (thanks Matt) we thought we could not pass up the opportunity to see him perform again, and bought the tickets online.
When we arrived at the huge Milan Soccer stadium the roof was open and the place was already packed. We were on the concourse, which was actually the pitch covered in hard plastic tiles. We sat and waited for about one and a half hours in the 30 degree heat until the show began at 8.50pm.
Unlike Sydney 2003 and much more like Sydney 1985 the old rocker and his wonderful E- Street Band were on fire. Really from the first song Bruce made it clear that the hot night would not ruin a great show. 29 songs later Bruce finally left the stage at about midnight. The show was a mixture of his new album, some classics and a number of requests from the crowd. For us and, and we think for the whole band, the night was made very special by the incredible Italian crowd. Their passion for the music, their singing (they knew every word to every song), their dancing, their shouting, their screaming and their energy were amazing. We have never been in such a large (about 80 000 people), animated and enthusiastic crowd.
The second last song of the night was the great hit from the 70’s about a boy who took a girl called Wendy on a long road trip – the song of course- Born to Run. While the crowd were mostly in their twenties there were a few of us (who are almost as old as Bruce) who remembered this hit with a great deal of nostalgia, but for us it was extra special as it has been the theme song of our whole adventure. (ie borntorun2008)
At the end of the concert we had a considerable walk back to the Metro (especially after we got a little lost) which we thought would take us back to our hotel. However when we arrived at the Metro station we found thousands of fans standing around looking lost and confused.The metro was closed! It seemed that the Metro system normally closes down at 11.30pm and inspite of the fact that about 50,000 fans were wanting to get home, the Italian transport system made no exemptions.
While most of the locals called friends or family to organise a lift, we had no other option but to consider ‘A Long Walk Home’ (coincidentally the name of one of the songs that had been performed earlier in the evening). As we struggled to read the very small print on the city map under a street light and try to plot a course back to the hotel we were approached by a fellow fan who asked if we would be so kind as to share our map and help him find the Central Station. It so happened that the station was close to our hotel so with our map and his slightly younger eyes we set off for an early morning walk ( it was now about 12.30am). We enjoyed the company of Keon from Belgium who was a much more dedicated fan than us… tonight’s concert had been the 47th Bruce concert that he had attended.
The walk involved winding our way through the backstreets of Milan and took about 2 hours. Finally we found a short cut that led us straight down a back street to our hotel , and, you will never believe it the street was – via Quadrio. We really had had a long walk home!
We got to bed about 2.30am to enjoy what was probably the best bed of our trip. However the pleasure was short lived because we needed to be up at 5.30am to catch the train back to France.
As they say you are only young once and a 58 year old rocker and a vibrant Italian crowd made us feel very young again (at least for a few hours anyway)!
PS For the first time, the photos are not ours. One comes with permission of Keon and the other is from a Bruce Springsteen website.
No comments:
Post a Comment