Mandolin Vacation In Italy!!!

[Mandolin Mick]

Hey Guys!

My wife & I are planning one of our vacations for next year ... the birthplace of the mandolin; Italy!

We plan on visiting many of the main places like Rome, Pisa, Tuscany, Venice, etc.

I play a lot of Italian style mandolin and am wanting to know ... where do we go to hear live mandolin music (restaurants, cafes, etc.), mandolin shops, mandolin historical sites, etc., ?

All advice & experiences welcome!!!

[Aran]

Hi Mick,

I was over there myself and loved going around the shops and workshops of Napoli...

Check out the post below for pics and chat about my experience.


http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...o-Naples-Italy

[Mandolin Mick]

Hey Aran!

Thanx for the pix! Love those Neopolitans on the wall!

[journeybear]

where do we go to hear live mandolin music (restaurants, cafes, etc.), mandolin shops, mandolin historical sites, etc., ?

Casa Guillermo Kilpatrickino! And the classic gondola ride with mandolino accompanimento in Venice.

Well, maybe ...

[Mandolin Mick]

journeybear-

Tell you what, when we're in Venice, they better find a mandolino player for the gondola, or give one to me!

[journeybear]

I hope they still have those. I also they haven’t been replaced by motor launches with disco radio.

[grassrootphilosopher]

As you are a bluegrass guy too, don´t miss out on anything connected to Red Wine. They are an exquisite group of musicians and fine people. They are friends with Bononia Grass who also play good bluegrass. Both are located in northern Italy. Corrado Giacomel has his shop in Genoa where the pesto genovese originates. In order to see what´s going on bluegrass and mandolin-wise in Italy you could use the European Bluegrass Blog as referrence. There´s also a calender function on the EBMA´s website.

Have fun.

[Aran]

Second Red Wine.... They rock!!!

Had the pleasure of catching their shows and picking with them when they were in Ireland....

[Mandolin Mick]

grassrootphilosopher-

Thanx for all the tips and sites!!!

[Marcus Kaufman]

The best place overall for live (traditional) music in Northern Italy is Venice (I have spent no time in the south). You can see classical music in small concert halls and almost every small piazza has street musicians. Many of the street musicians in Venice are university music students and are quite good. Others, like the ubiquitous accordionists are only so-so (most of them in fact are from Eastern Europe and do not speak or sing in Italian). The main piazza in Florence also has excellent street musicians and they own and defend their real-estate. The last time I was there a Russian soprano with violin accompaniment drew crowds of over a hundred people. She sang beautiful operatic stuff and was there again in the same spot when I came back some months later. Florence also has one of the better acoustic music shops with many mandolins by local makers. Just ask some young guys in the piazza "Dove il negozio strumento acustico?" and they will point the way. Venice also has a good, small store near the Rialto Bridge. Many churches in Italy that are no longer used for religious services are now concert venues. In Rome, for example, you can find some great (usually free) music just by checking the posters at the many small churches in the tourist areas. Hotels usually can direct you to such concerts and/or get you tickets.

Here is the big insider tip: My number one all time favorite venue for what I expect you are hoping for is in Verona, which is an easy train ride from Venice and a fantastic little city with plenty to see and do but with not so many tourists. I haven't found much of interest in club venues in Europe. Loud, techno and rap would describe most of it. Italy is no different. Most of the nightclubs feature jazz, rock and techno, not traditional stuff. In all my trips to Italy (my company has a factory there so I go quite often) I was always hoping to stumble upon a nice neighborhood bar, full of happy local people, playing guitars, violins and mandolins, drinking red wine from a big cask behind the bar, speaking Italian that I could understand, singing all the Neapolitan songs and arias that I knew and delighted that an American had dropped by that could sing and play. I found that place in Verona. It is a bar near the big Catholic Cathedral (Duomo di Verona) and almost every night the locals get together and play music. The soloists (singers) get to call the song and they usually have their own little books with lyrics. Everybody else knows their part and they begin and end together and then laugh and drink more wine. Verona is filled with many small streets that have ambiguous names. Your best bet is to get into the neighborhood to the East of the cathedral and just start asking people for that bar where the locals sing and play traditional music. I have lost and found this place several times using just this tactic. I hope you find it and that you have a great trip!

[journeybear]

That place (in Verona) sounds great. Reminds me of the coffeehouses in the 60s - people just hanging out, entertaining each other and themselves and whoever else might be there. Wish there were more places like that still. Sounds like it would be impossible to have a bad time there!

I still want to know, though: do they still have hand-poled gondolas with mandolinists in Venice? Was that a Hollywood-promoted myth? I see a lot of home videos on youtube with accordions, not mandolins.







I saw Venice turn blue
Before my very eyes
I saw Venice turn blue
The moment love died.

I walked by the canals
Or through some little square
And echoes of her words
Pursue me everywhere.

Now my Venice is blue
As the mandolins play
The song she used to sing
Before love slipped away.

With the lovers hand in hand,
The gondolas go by
I wish that I could weep
But all my tears are dry.

etc etc etc ...

[Marcus Kaufman]

The "e-ticket gondola ride in Venice is a vocalist plus an accordionist who will serenade a number of boats at once. I think they like this combo for the bigger sound. For my money the gondola ride at night is the most romantic. BTW, keep an eye on the Gondoliers at lunchtime and follow them to the good local restaurants. Also the water taxis (vaporetto) are as much fun as the Gondolas. You can get a day pass and ride them all over the place.