The start of the tour was pretty intense! After a complicated journey to Chicago, the shows ended up going really well, with great crowds (including a sold out show at the Hothouse). Our friend and On Thursday we were picked up in the middle of the night (4.30 a.m.!) to get back to the airport and we flew to Toronto, where we had never been before. We played Small World Festival, a great event featuring the likes of Natasha Atlas (also at the Chicago World Music Fest) and Ravi Shankar. The crowd was a little puzzled at first (but then Lady Jessica got on stage coming from behind the audience, which she crossed playing the pipes and wearing the traditional tabarro, which is a long black mantle used in Northern Italy until the times of my grandfather, was a pretty unusual view for the people there), but then they got the idea and danced with us to the end of the show. And there were no less than two TV stations covering the show, with interview and highlights from the performance. I am doing more interviews than on any previous US tours, in fact.
Next to Seattle, one of our favorite cities in the US, and the weather was great (as is well known, Fiamma Fumana bring the sun with them). On Friday we had a session and a dance with a bunch of little kids at the Queen Anne Community Center (they had a lot of fun trying out Jessica's pipes), then our friend Pietro Cortesi (he runs a great restaurant with Emilia Romagna cuisine in Seattle, called Osteria della Spiga: check it out if you are around, it is worth it) took us to Ballard for an evening out. On Saturday we played the Seattle Center for Festa Italiana, a big event staged by the Italian community in Seattle. Although FF were probably not what some Italian Americans expected to hear (especially the older generation!) it was a nice encounter with these not-so-distant cousins.
Now we are back to Canada. We flew to Calgary, and now we are driving to Banff, one of our favourite places in North America!
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