PART I

Each time that Ronnie and the boys are planning to come to Europe for a tour, I feel strained and stressed not only as a leader of the "Greek Wizards" Dio Fanclub but also as a simple devoted Dio fan, and each time the same question is torturing my mind : "Are they gonna visit Greece this time ? Will we be lucky enough to host a Dio gig again for the first time after 1993 ? Will we be able to see our idol in our country again?"

Although we have tried this year, acting as a Dio fanclub, to bring in contact a couple of Greek promoters with Ronnie's european agency, the result was unfortunately the same : Greece stayed outside Dio's european schedule once again ! This fact was on the one hand such a big disappointment for me (cause I knew that Ronnie wants to come to Greece and cause I was sure that he wouldn't regret it!) but on the other hand it made me decide something important: To visit another european country in order to watch a Dio show and try to meet the Man in person for the first time ! So after studying Ronnie's european tour dates for a while, I located the target city :

MILANO !

With the valuable help of Sophia (a distinguished member of our fanclub that accompanied me on this trip) we managed to book airplane seats and hotel (Milano was overbooked during that weekend due to an international fair), and thanx to Gabriele Dario Manzini (a great italian Dio fan from "We Rock" mailing list) we booked our concert tickets. And the most important : with the help of my good friend Ken Boyd I came in contact with the ladies (Annie and Patti) of the official Dio fanclub and arranged photo and after-show passes ! So, everything was ready !

In the morning of September 20th (day of the gig) the Greek Wizards got landed in Milano. After we checked in our hotel room, we went out for a walk at the city center. While admiring the momuments (Duomo) I was also looking for flyers and advertisements of the gig in the streets and on the walls !

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Time was running fast and the time of the gig was approaching. Back to the hotel for some short rest, then getting dressed (like proper dioheads) and straight to our meeting point with Gabriele, to drive us at the Alcatraz venue ! There were already many italian Dio fans gothered outside the venue as we arrived.

My heart started beating fast. I am heading to the ticket desk to ask for our passes. And there I got the first shock : our names were not on the list ! The ticket-guy was trying to calm me down. "Sir, you are not on the italian list, but wait till the woman with the american list comes. Your names should be probably on that list." I started feeling so stressed. I told Gabriele to go inside, while we would stay outside waiting for the american guest-list. We had to chase our chances. I went to buy a couple of KTD T-shirts in order to reduce my stress :) I returned to the ticket desk where there were also some other guys waiting for the second list. Among them I noticed an italian guy who was looking at me strangely. But I was enough stressed already to pay any attention to him. The list was still not coming and time was passing …..

Part II