Claudio Baglioni’s return to the live stage will begin in Rome, where a familiar setting at Piazza di Siena is set to connect one of Italian music’s landmark gatherings with the final stretch of a career spanning more than five decades. Seven concerts, titled Che notte è questa! La partenza, are scheduled at Villa Borghese on 24, 25, 27, 28, 30 and 31 October, followed by 1 November.
The coach and the club
The project was presented at the Campidoglio with Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri and councillor Alessandro Onorato. For Baglioni, the choice of Piazza di Siena carries a precise personal and public significance: on 24 October 1982, the venue hosted Alé-oò, described as Italy’s first major live-music gathering, attended by 250,000 people.
Forty-four years later, he will return to the same place in the city where his story began. Baglioni has called himself a second-generation Roman and recalled performing across Rome, from stadiums to the balcony of his teenage home in Centocelle, as well as the Foro Italico, his university’s Aula Magna and the Vatican.
“Rome has given me a great deal,” he said, adding that performing there always brings a particular pressure because Roman audiences are demanding.
The October dates are intended as the departure point for a longer farewell arc rather than a simple revival. Baglioni will return to Rome on 23 October 2027 for Che notte è questa! Il ritorno, planned for the Imperial Forums. He said the musicians would reach the stage in chariots.
That 2027 show is designed to complete a circle in his relationship with the capital. Baglioni said it may not be his final concert altogether, but it will be the last live performance of this particular scale and character. Reflecting on reaching the age of 75, he said he was grateful to have been able to “play” for almost all of those years, noting that in several languages the same verb can mean both playing and performing music.
There was room, too, for lighter exchanges. Asked about serving as mayor for a day, Baglioni replied that it would still be preferable to returning as artistic director of the Sanremo Festival. On Roma’s approaching centenary, he ruled out writing another anthem for the club, saying there were already plenty in existence.
A return after an enforced pause
The new dates have a deeper weight after Baglioni’s recent health problems. He revealed that, while unwell a few months ago, he feared he might never be able to stand on a stage again.
What troubled him, he said, was the possibility that circumstance rather than his own decision could bring the journey to an end. That is why this return matters so much to him.
An enforced interruption had already led to the cancellation of several concerts. His GrandTour La Vita è adesso is now due to resume in summer 2027, before the Imperial Forums appointment brings this Roman chapter toward its intended conclusion.
