Kansas Snapshots by Gloria Freeland - March 21, 2025

Our Italian-Irish-Asian-Amish-St. Patrick's celebration

Husband Art has been telling me for months to keep mid-March open. While I'm used to him surprising me, a cold with a bad cough had set in and I was worried I wouldn't be able to enjoy whatever he had planned.

But during the trip to his boyhood home in Wisconsin, I began to feel better. On the Thursday before St. Paddy's Day, he revealed the surprise: we would pick up our friend Jo in southwest Wisconsin and the three of us would go to Chicago to see Il Volo - a trio of young Italian singers we are fans of.

I was super excited! We had seen Gianluca, Piero, and Ignazio in person twice before - once in Minneapolis in March 2017 and once in Chicago in February 2020.

We arrived at Jo's early enough to help her treat her donkey Ivy and ram Lorenzo to a snack of apple slices. Dinner was a home-cooked pork loin, potatoes, and steamed snap peas, followed by brownies and ice cream. Conversation and wine completed what was a nice beginning to the adventure.

Friday was a sunny day, with temperatures peaking near 80 degrees. The five-hour drive to Chicago flew by.

We arrived at Hotel Arlo in downtown Chicago mid-afternoon - early enough to rest a bit and then enjoy supper at the hotel's "About Last Knife" restaurant. Jo ordered salad and salmon, Art opted for steak and fries, and I enjoyed onion soup and a side order of asparagus.

Shortly after 6, we walked the three blocks to the 3,600-seat Chicago Theatre - the same venue where we had seen the fellows in 2020. St. Patrick's Day revelers from young to old were everywhere. The demographic inside the theater was older, although there were a few young ones in the sold-out crowd. Dress ranged from women in cocktail dresses and men in suits to a few in shorts and tennis shoes.

While waiting for the doors to open, a woman next to us asked how we had heard of Il Volo. She said she and her husband had seen them while touring Italy. Art explained we had first seen them on a PBS special some years ago and this was our third live performance. They were from Naperville, about 30 miles away, but when she heard we were from Kansas, she said, "OK, you win. You ARE fans!"

Art often says if he's going to go through the hassle required to see a live performance, he wants good seats, so I wasn't surprised we were only 10 rows back and just to the right of center.

The curtain rose shortly after 8. A full orchestra greeted us - brass and woodwinds on the left, strings on the right, and a gap between which served to guide Gianluca, Ignazio, and Piero to the center of the stage. The crowd erupted like teenagers at an Elvis concert. When they quieted, Gianluca explained the world tour is to celebrate their 15 years together.

For the next two hours, we were treated to songs ranging from opera - "O Sole Mio" and "Nessun Dorma" - to pop - "I Did It My Way," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and "Hallelujah." There were no breaks and, as the evening progressed, the audience became ever-more enthusiastic, standing after every song, clapping, and shouting their approval. The music filled my heart, and the fact that the three men are good looking didn’t hurt!

It was a mighty happy group of theater goers who later filed out of the more-than-a-century-old landmark. Once back at the hotel, it took me a while to settle down.

In the morning, still basking in the glow of the previous evening, we had brunch on the hotel's sidewalk "patio." The St. Patrick's Day festivities were in full swing with people dressed in all shades of green and with green wigs, hats and necklaces passing by. Some of the men wore reddish beards. A fellow and his gal at the table next to us wore green. His shamrock-covered "Kiss Me! I'm Mexican!" T-shirt made me smile. When I kidded him about it, he asked, "Where’s my kiss?" Meanwhile, the local plumbers' union was adding vegetable dye to the Chicago River to turn it green - a six-decade tradition.

It took an hour and a half to pilot our car the 12 blocks to the expressway, but somehow we enjoyed being among so many people eager to celebrate. Jo remarked how great it was to see such a diverse group of people, all happy and ready to have fun together.

Once out of Chicago, the sunny and warm weather turned cloudy and cooler. Still, we enjoyed the scenery - bits of green in the fields appearing here and there, foretelling of spring’s arrival.

When we arrived at Jo's home, John and his dog Skip were there. J and J have been a couple for years now. John had taken care of Ivy and Lorenzo while we were away. For good measure, he had also washed the dishes and the windows in Jo's breezeway. What a guy!

He suggested we go to an Asian buffet in nearby Viroqua for supper and there were no dissenting votes.

As we pulled into the parking lot, a group of perhaps eight Amish adults and children were exiting a van. Their beliefs don’t allow them to drive a car, but they can ride. Their "English" driver remained with the vehicle while we joined the stampede to the buffet. Some members of a local track team had arrived earlier and were taking full advantage of the all-you-can-eat situation.

Night-time temperatures dropped to freezing, so Sunday morning was spent relaxing by the wood stove, chatting, watching the birds at Jo's feeders, drinking coffee, and snacking on pears, strawberries, blueberry muffins, bagels, and slices of my Friendship Bread.

Our Italian-Irish-Asian-Amish-St. Patrick's celebration had been a whirlwind one, but also one to remember!