Beach Trips, Wine Tasting and Pizzica

Buona sera, I held off on a post yesterday but now I have so much to say I’m afraid it’s going to be a monster one! Yesterday we spent the afternoon on the beach. It was beautiful, the sea was like bath water and the sun was bright but kind- no burns! We swam out to some ruins offshore and climbed on all fours up the algae covered rocks to perch on the remains of an the old unknown building as the water lapped at our toes.

Unfortunately when we got back to shore we heard that a jellyfish had stung one of the girls from our program! The poor thing had tentacle marks all up and down both of her legs. She was a trooper and headed back, while the rest of us sunbathed for the rest of the day rather than braving the waters again. A tikki-hut style bar down the beach had delicious sangrias and mojitos, and we sat back, sipped a few, and enjoyed the Italian sun. 

When we returned to our compound (I’m not sure what to call the school, courtyard, and attached apartments) a few of us chipped in to make pasta con aglio e oglio (garlic and olive oil) for dinner. With it we had some delicious local sparkling red wine, and of course we snacked on all the ingredients while we made it.

After dinner we all decided to head to the centro (downtown) to the wine festival that started that night. It was a very lucky coincidence we heard about it, the Niurumaru Festival was a citywide event. We purchased a small wine glass and ten vouchers for €10 and headed to the stalls, where for one voucher we could try any of the incredible local vintages. Two of our professors came with us for fun, and when my roommates and I ran into them during the night they gave us a bunch of their vouchers as well! Suffice to say it was a good night.

After semi-brutal morning of class made infinitely better by my professor, Paolo, who looks like an Italian Mr Bean, we napped until the evening. In case you’re interested our group was split into three classes with a placement test, so we only have 7-8 people per class, which is wonderful for speaking and practicing. During class Paolo told us about the local music and dancing, called pizzica or tarantela. Pizzica was born from a local problem with spiders. When one was bitten, it was believed that the folk dance could cure the victim. 

As evening fell we went up to the courtyard to see it changed by yellow, orange, and red lights, with little clay dishes of candles everywhere. There were tables full of local foods and we all stuffed ourselves and talked with the locals our teachers invited while we waited for our private pizzica concert to begin. When it did, I was breathless. The music is very rhythmic and energetic; the various dances are strange and beautiful. I fell in love immediately, although I had to be dragged to join in at the end when they taught us some of the moves! The dancers were so graceful and quick that I thought everyone would look foolish beside them but it ended up being wonderfully fun and freeing.  

I put a video of one of the dances here, if you're interested!

I’m still getting used to the schedule here, in which almost every decision is based on how hot it is. The locals rise early to do as much work as possible before noon or 1, and then everything shuts down until 5 or 6 in the evening. The streets are deserted and even the 24-hour grocery store clerks will give you the stink eye for interrupting their “break.” After 8 or 9pm the city comes alive, and everyone stays out in the streets until 2 or 3 in the morning. We went back to the second day of the wine festival, and it’s now 3:30am here and people are slowly trickling home. Tomorrow we’re taking a mini-cruise along the coast!