Gounot and Schubert in the Bar

Yesterday something strange happened: After half a day fighting with the Italian bureaucrazy I return to bar next to the university for a coffee. While sipping this elixier of life, another man enters, he looks completely normal, I would have classified him as blue-collar.

In Austria the barman and the client would discuss football, the weather, skiing, whatever. What happens here – and what made me nearly fall from my seat – the two start chatting about the last concert in this or that church, about the quality of the singers, about what they themselves have sung, about the difference between Gounot’s and Schubert’s Ave Maria, and in between the sing – and I must say they sung very well – various parts from the two different Ave Marias.

Impressive life at the bar in Italy, isn’t it?