From Rome to New York parties for the new year

ROME – From Rome to New York, from Paris to London thousands of people in the square celebrated the arrival of 2001 with concerts, fireworks, toasts and firecrackers. Even entry into the third millennium has been greeted according to tradition. In Rome there were 3000 of them in Piazza del Quirinale to attend, together with the President of the Republic Carlo Azelio Ciampi, the concert of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma with music by Verdi. In 150 thousand, instead, at the Eur celebrated the new year with a concert by Patty Pravo. Christmas choirs and traditional songs for the fifty thousand that in St. Peter’s Square waited for midnight to listen to the Pope. To play and sing a group of priests of the Legionaries of Christ. John Paul II came out of his study window. The air a little tired, the Pope read his message and repeated, before and after the final blessing, his “happy new year”. Quoting the data from the situation room, Councilor Gianni Borgna emphasizes that 150,000 people danced and sang at the Eur, while 50,000 waited for 2001 at the Vatican and 12,000 listened to the classical music concert at the Quirinale. Moreover, the councilor says, about 200 thousand people, strictly on foot, celebrated in the streets of the historic center of the capital. And tens of thousands of Italians found themselves in the main squares of Milan, Verona, Bari, Bologna, Naples. In New York, almost half a million people, defying frost, celebrated the new year in Times Square, New York. Cassius Clay pressed the button of the gigantic crystal ball – two meters in diameter for 485 kilos in weight – that settled on the square at exactly midnight, according to a tradition dating back to 1907. In Berlin, instead, they were a million to enjoy a masterful show of fireworks. And also in London, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, scenes of joy and celebration with the most representative monuments lit up by fireworks and “barrels” set off in the streets.