Rome Part 2

The next day i slept quite late to recover from my early flight and a couple of little-sleep nights in a row. I awoke to a kitchen full of tasteless Italian bread (they don't use any salt!) and Nutella, jam, and orange juice. Italian Nutella is the best i've ever had, and it really is different in every country (the US is the only one that has high fructose corn syrup).

Many more folks had arrived at the house, the DJ was already going, and the yard was covered with Burners draped about in the sunshine. I happily joined them, and we talked and ate and i met new people all day.



Food appeared at random intervals, with no lack of vegetarian options after the fit we'd pitched the night before. Pesto pasta, cheese toast (again with the flavorless bread), fruit, potatoes... Katrin set up the lino cut table, and lots of people made prints. A station for making tomato sauce was set up out back, and everyone was gifted a bottle of homemade tomato sauce to take home (which the airline took away from me, tragically). The day was very pleasant and relaxing, and as night fell, things got more exciting, with the DJs picking up the pace and a heck of a dance party.



One of the funniest things all night was the scene in the kitchen. Apparently the cooks decided there were too many people going in and out, so they barricaded the doorway with a table and if you needed something you had to place an order. They were making homemade tagliatelli, so we weren't complaining. The effect was very theatrical, the dining room was packed with shouting, wildly gesticulating Italians, and the kitchen was occupied by shouting, cooking Italians. It was quite the scene.

Well, i finally went to bed around sunrise after an amazing night, slept until 3 PM and then 3 hours later hit the road to Rome with Katrin, her boyfriend, and 2 London-based ladies. We stopped to visit some new friends in Calvi d'Umbria, who are starting an art community and run an "agriturismo," which is like a bed-and-breakfast, but with olive trees. We had an adventure trying to find the out-of-the-way place in rural Italy in the dark, but we stopped and walked around the village, population 900, and had gelato, which i deemed the best ice cream i'd ever had. I'm partial to nocciola (hazelnut), and it tasted more like frozen nut butter than ice cream. The town was utterly charming, the agriturismo ideal, and the wine plentiful! It grew late as we talked Burning Man, art, and voodoo, so we left in search of dinner. Italians eat late, as is common in Europe, but not as late as Spaniards, so we counted ourselves lucky to find a pizza place open at 11 PM. And this was no drive-thru - we had a full meal, from bruschetta to (even more!) wine and sparkling water, pizza, dessert, coffee, and lemoncello. We were the last customers of the night, but they were not about to expect us to have anything less than a fabulous meal. Oh, darn!

We eventually made it to Rome, where we were staying with one of the people who had hosted the party in Alviano. I hit the hay immediately, for the next day was to be filled with sightseeing in a busy city...