Too much craziness going on in the world, so perhaps readers will forgive me for taking a lighter tone this week. I came across the article below on Italian songs via a travel website (Select Italy Tours). The angle it took intrigued me: Top Ten Songs dedicated to specific cities or regions of Italy—Rome, Venice, Sardinia, etc. O Sole Mio is obviously the most well-known. The others may surprise you.

Along with brief summaries of the songs, there are links to video presentations of them, such as Luciano Pavarotti interpreting the above-mentioned Neapolitan classic. It’s too bad there wasn’t more room in the introductions. O Sole Mio, for instance, was originally attributed to Eduardo di Capua who, while touring in 1898 with a band in Odessa (yes, that Odessa—this is what I mean by craziness), was depressed by the dreary skies of the Black Sea and longed for his Neapolitan sun.