Vivo Per Lei

Vivo Per Lei ("I live for her" in Italian) performed by Andrea Bocelli and Judy Weiss, one of my favourite Italian songs. The lyrics are a little corny when translated, but otherwise it is a fine duet between two very good singers. For all the things that Italians are, they are very passionate and hot blooded people, and it shows in their songs.

Listening to this song reminds me of an Italian policewoman I once saw in Venice, directing traffic at a busy intersection. Immaculately coiffed, as all Italian women are, with bronzed skin, a full figure slightly suggestive under the perfectly fitting uniform and a voluminous crop of jet black hair topped off with red lipstick, she was a traffic stopping sight without being intentionally so. But the moment words came out of her mouth, the illusion was for me, instantly shattered. She had the speaking voice of an auntie in a fish market, coarse, loud and brash. And I was to find that this was the case for almost all the Italian women I met. They were as gorgeous as they were tempestuous.