Monday, November 8, 2010

Day 5 Alessandria, Italy

October 26th

- I remember waking up at one point at night and I couldn't figure out why.  What I do remember was that I was extremely thirsty and hot.  Very hot.  I was sweating.  I fumbled around a bit, drank some water and I kicked off the covers.  I figured it was from all the drinking.  I rolled over and eventually dozed off again.  I remember waking up at another time and hearing someone getting up and fucking around with the light swithces.
- The next morning I woke up and headed downstairs for free breakfast.  Again, I am impressed by the standards in Europe.  The breakfast buffet was very nice.  A spread of cheeses and cold cuts, tomato and boccocini salad, eggs, bacon and sausage, fresh fruit, freshly cut melon, fruit salad, pastries, a selection of breads, buns, croissants, yoghourt, juices, coffee, mineral water. 
- At the table, I was talking about my interrupted sleep and realized that both Averil and Chris experienced that extremely hot temperature and slept poorly.  We all had a laugh because no one had made the effort to get up and open a window and instead were rolling around in bed suffering.  Chris woke up to fuck with the thermostat, but the thing was busted and/or he couldn't figure out how it worked. 
- Our gig was in the same town, so we had the day to wander around again.  It was a nice sunny day.  We faithfully waited for the bus and got into town.  Bobby had a map with him and saw that there was a Citadel or historic buildings close by.  The bridge that would take us directly over no longer existed, so we walked along the river, over a bridge and to the other side of the town.  After a bit of a walk, we got to this old military fort used in the 1800's.   There was no one around except for the repair crew that were working on the side of building.  We wandered around the old architecture and marveled and the chiseled bullet marks.   
-We decided to keep going in the same direction as before, hoping that there was another bridge but to no avail.   We were walking in something that was more or less a highway and we were getting farther and farther away from any accessibly to transportation for pedestrians.  We stopped at giant supermarket, kinda like Costco, and called some cabs. 
- We cabbed back downtown, and appropriately as an Italian, we decided we needed to eat and drink again.  We walked for a bit and found a fish store.  They had raw squid, prawns, clams and small fishes on display.  We discovered they fried it up right on the spot so we decided to get some and munched away.
- We meandered about the town and ended up at another wine store.  We eyed the varying prices of wines and wondered what the wines were like that sold for over 100 Euros.  We did a tasting for one wine while we browsed around.
- Eventually we met up with Silvatorre and went back to the hotel to get our gear for the show that evening.
- The venue was a cocktail bar and didn't look too likely as a place where people would go to see a show.  It was pretty swanky with this designer interior and all.  It turns out that they had to put a stage together and set up a PA system from scratch to make the show happen.  But that was a normal thing to happen as the bar was known for having bands or shows to happen. 
- We sound checked with the minimal equipment that they had.  I felt sorry for the few people that were seated in front of the stage as they finished up their meal.  We essentially blasted them away out of their seats; as soon as we started playing they got their coats and left.
- The bar fed us a unique supper that evening.  The first course was plate of pasta with cooked vegetables.  For the main course each person got a large hunk of soft and mild Ricotta cheese with a side of cooked peas with seasonings.  And bread.  It was strange to have mainly cheese as a meal.
- We puttered around for a while until show time. I was sipping the bitter and delicious cocktail called the Negrino.   It looked like there were going to be no people.  However, about 10 minutes before we started, it got packed.  Unfortunately there were still tables out in front of the stage, so although there were lots of people crowded around, they were about 30 feet away from us. 
- Despite sound issues, it was a good show.  When we returned to the hotel, we opened a bottle of wine we bought the other day and drank some more before going to bed. 

Delicious seafood

... yeah man, didn't you know the Italian virgin Mary was black?

The deserted Citadel

Dudes, I'm gonna freak out if this is where we are staying tonight

My empire has expanded even to Italy!

He may seem nonchalant, but he's just checkin' out the ladies...


... all we are missing are pig nipples

... of course my line of custom wine is doing very well too.

The venue in Alessandria

Um, did we just tape the banner to a glass vase?

Now that's second largest pine cone I've ever seen!

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