Lionel Richie – Terme di Caracalla

Take Lionel Richie, and add him to one of the most incredible locations for a concert and you are in for a very special evening!  The above photo was taken from my second row seat… (And in front of me was a little standing area).  Last night’s concert was part of Lionel Richie’s ALL THE HITS World Tour, and although I would have liked him to sing for another hour, he certainly included many of his greatest hits  going back decades, from his time with the Commodores to the present day. Penny Lover, Say You Say Me, Hello, All Night Long, Endless Love and also We Are The World, the famine relief song he co-wrote in 1985 with Michael Jackson, to name a few.   I surprised myself remembering all the words and sang along with Lionel (and the rest of the audience) from the beginning of the concert to his very quick farewell and exit from stage at the end of the concert.

The Terme di Caracalla were the second largest Roman public baths built between AD 212 and 217.  The baths were free and open to the public, and remained in use until the 6th century. The Caracalla baths, within a series of buildings was more a leisure centre than just a series of baths. The baths consisted of a central frigidarium  (cold room) a double pool tepidarium (medium), and a caldarium (hot room). There were also two gyms where wrestling and boxing were practiced. One end of the bath building contained a swimming pool which was roofless with bronze mirrors overhead, intended to direct sunlight into the pool area. There were also two libraries located on the east and west sides of the bath complex.

Today, the central part of the bath complex is the summer home of the Rome Opera Company  and is also a concert venue. This was the first time I had visited the Caracalla Baths but I will definitely return during the day and do the full touristy tour.

Back quickly to the man of the evening…. Lionel Richie celebrated his 67th birthday this June!  WOW!  He is one sexy 67 yr old!!!  He has sex appeal oozing from every pore, as he inadvertently (or maybe not) seduces the (female) audience with the way he sings, moves, dances, talks and just IS on stage.  There was an announcement at the beginning of the concert that photography was strictly forbidden…. but I noticed that didn’t stop anybody. I decided that I had to grab at least one sneaky photo of Lionel Richie considering I was so lucky to be so close to him.  (please note slightly blurry picture provided).

 

I sang and danced and couldn’t believe it when the concert came to an end… surely there was more? Mr. Richie did come back for one encore singing All Night Long then quickly said goodbye and ran off the stage so quickly that many of us believed it was just another brief goodbye before he’d come back and sing some more. The entrance on stage of the roadies made it clear the concert was indeed over, as everything was quickly being dismantled in precision speed ready to be loaded up for the next concert which is tomorrow night (July 16th) in Germany!

Thank You Lionel for the fabulous evening, but mostly THANK YOU Alberto for being so wonderful as to buy the tickets as soon as they were advertised and for spoiling me!  (yet again)!