The Italian summer is unique. If we had a picture of the afterlife we would probably all wish it was Italy in the summer. Everyone is happy, everything happens outside and the weather is nice 99,99% of the time. The food is even better in the summer, late at night there are still Italian children around and early morning starts la dolce vita again from the beginning. Ah, l'estate. We summarize the essence of the Italian summer for you in 5 songs.
1. Mail cielo è semper più blu – Rino Gaetano
It's been almost 50 years since Rino Gaetano wrote this song that by now every Italy lover knows (or should know, know your classics guys!). He cheered up the whole country at the time with the text 'the sky is always bluer', which was supposed to be an ode to the grind of life. No matter how bad things sometimes get, it always works out.
Gaetano's biggest hit takes us through the imperfect lives of the people and has become a true evergreen of Italian music. The song reminds us that we should always keep our heads up to the sky under which we are all the same.
2. Azzurro – Adriano Celentano
Attention Attention: Summer is in the country. Once the radio stations start playing Azzurro or you hear people whistling this tune in the street, you know summer is coming! The song was written especially for Adriano by Paolo Conte and is – as always – about love, loneliness and summer in the city.
That it is about loneliness is immediately apparent from the first sentence of the chorus: 'Blue, the afternoon is too blue and too long for me.' Or that's because Adriano doesn't like the heat and is looking forward to the appetizer or because he suffers from another sunstroke, we don't know. But the song is ideally suited to play hard and route to Italia!
3. La canzone del sole – Lucio Battisti
We don't have to tell you that many Italians have characteristic heads. The fact that the voices often are, is sometimes still new. Fortunately, we have Lucio Battisti there who can prove that directly. The song is about a friendship between the singer and a little girl with "blonde braids, blue eyes and red socks."
When the two meet again years later, they realize they've both grown and barely recognize each other. Lucio Battisti is known today for his compelling, catchy songs about love, vulnerability among men, loneliness and desire.
4. Gente di mare – Umberto Tozzi & Raf
Sometimes there are those songs that really don't need an introduction because you're afraid of confusing someone else's memory or interpretation. Sea people is such a number. Because everyone knows it, if not word for word, then the melody.
The song was the Italian entry of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1987. The ballad with tones of the blues describes the 'people of the sea'. People who feel connected to the sea and feel trapped in the city or on land. They leave things behind and do what they have to do, or above all: what they want to do.
The song may not have won the Eurovision Song Contest, but it has become a worldwide hit. The couplets are, especially if you don't speak Italian, barely sing along, but you can quickly sing along to the choruses. Delicious for a holiday on the way to your next pizza.
5. Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare) – Domenico Modugno
There is no color in the world that is so often sung about as the color blue. Not always positive, because blue usually stands for dejected, glum and dismal moods. It's not for nothing that we call the most depressing Monday of the year Blue Monday.
Fortunately, Domenico Modugno thought: that can be done differently with another ESF song: In the blue painted blue, better known as volare. It's not for nothing that we call the blue of the Puglian skies and seas 'Puglia blue'. The song is about the singer who as a metaphor 'flies in the blue'. An endless sky painted in blue.
It almost sounds like Domenico has had a little too much special grass or mushrooms. And that is true to a certain extent. Because the writer of the song was heavily intoxicated while writing the song. He saw himself flying in blue in two paintings by Chagall. Yes, and when you fly there you can't help but sing along happily with Flying.
The Italian summer in music
All over the world, but especially in Italy, music has a special place in society. Anyway, when you hear a song from the past, it always brings you back to a special memory or a very special moment. That's what music does. Such a song suddenly takes you back to a holiday from 10 years ago or to a children's party even longer back. Strange how it works, but it works.
The Italians have that feeling even stronger, it seems. That is also because there is always music. There is a suitable number for every situation. Hello Beautiful at a weekly market, Un bacio a mezzanotte to the live music late at night in the city and of course (!) Laura Pausini with Loneliness too fit and too bad.
The thoughts of the Italians go back again and again to the adventures of their childhood. The holidays on campsites by the sea or the seasonal festivals in the village. Put the above 5 songs in your playlist before you go on holiday and look for even more Italian squatters, turn up the car radio and your holiday is ready to start!
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