SFTR: Surprised in Rome

Not on my list of plans: stumbling my way into a life-changing concert

The following Story From The Road (SFTR) is a vignette from my recently-released second book, Dear Fellow Dreamer. I formally began writing this book on a “boat journey” back to the United States at the end of 2023.

Truth be told, though, I’d been figuratively writing it for years. This bright book articulates what I navigated in order to wake up and take chances to create a life of my own. And what all of us dreamers need to remember to stay awake and risking for our dreams. Rome will always have a special place in my heart and life since I can emphatically say that experiences like the following represent just one time I felt God redirecting my life from comfortable tech worker/professional financial coach to the author/writer I am now.

Enjoy, and if you haven’t yet picked up your copy of the book, you can get it here. This vignette is included on p.138 for those of you who already have the book.

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The day in Rome started with a triumph. I figured out the metro. And with some running to catch the right train, I was even on time to my scheduled tour of the Colosseum and Palatine Hill.

After the tour, a new friend and I explored our way to the San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains) basilica and the Jewish Quarter where he knew he could get a halal meal. Over pizza and Fanta, we talked about family, faith, dating, and careers, then went our separate ways. I wandered the city with awe, looked for and acquired pastries, then headed back toward my hotel.

Realizing I needed to make a quick stop at the pharmacy for conditioner meant I returned to my hotel from a different direction than usual. Which meant I saw a banner I would otherwise have missed advertising “Three Tenors’ Concert Tonight.”¹ This concert was being held in what I’d misjudged to be a nondescript cathedral directly across the street from my hotel. Little did I know this cathedral is known for their amazing acoustics, something I personally discovered and had confirmed by a friend who knows these sorts of things.

The concert started in a mere ten minutes, so I whirled into my hotel, bought a ticket on my phone, brushed my teeth, put my hair up in a rare ponytail, and off I dashed.

The musical cast consisted of just a string quartet, a pianist, and—shocker—three tenors in tuxedos. The audience was I’d guess one hundred and twenty people, and we were collectively transported by the entire experience. For me, it felt like the whole evening had been orchestrated just for me, like this was why I’d come to Rome.

My own rapture, though, didn’t stop me from getting a kick out of the woman next to me. She wore large, thick-rimmed glasses and an oversized fur coat, and her presence was as big as I remember her hair being. For much of the concert, she was on her knees on the prayer bench, clutching her hands together, almost sobbing during some of the numbers that had delicate tears rolling down my own cheeks.

Note for Substack readers: If the following doesn’t make you just swoon, I am not sure what to do with you…

As the concert progressed, though, I noticed her travel companion’s patience wearing thin. For all I know, these women were only loosely acquainted, and her more demure companion didn’t seem to appreciate the more flamboyant woman’s commentary. When all three tenors appeared and started singing together, she helpfully and loudly informed her companion and everyone else: “This one they’re all singing together.”

When I was planning Europe, I did not have any part of that day on my list. I certainly didn’t have “life-changing opera concert at cathedral” on the radar. And even if I had tried to make all of the parts and pieces happen, I couldn’t have orchestrated such a perfect day and evening. Magic really does happen when we least expect it. But leaving what’s comfortable, being up for adventure, and making ourselves more available for it is a good start. True in travels and true in our figurative travels through life.

Isn’t life cool, and aren’t people interesting? See you in the next one…

1. Embarrassingly, I thought these were “THE Three Tenors,” not appreciating that they stopped singing together in 2003. For today, we won’t talk about whether this was exploitive marketing or not.