every morning I wake up at 7am, and the water in the toilet is so chilly that a gout of pee steam envelopes me, which is less lovely than you would think…but today is beautiful and no goddamned rain at least, and we are headed to carnivale in Poggio for the day! A long wounded hour in the car with Romano race car driving has christiane a mite billious, but we round the bend past an abandoned hermitage and suddenly…people! The first real aggregation of people since leaving Rome. Even young ones. The costume du jour seems to swing between renaissance goth and oh holy Jesus, though there was an enormous group dressed as dalmations; disposable painter coveralls with spray painted black spots and socks sewed onto the ears. Some were even in a band that played mandolin Kiss covers. I buy a tie with a monster sewed onto it. We eat ice cream, wine served in plastic water bottles and porchetta sandwiches. I have decided (after some wine) that I shall document the event by inserting my lense into the nostrils of the best dressed passerbys. There is a giant combustible puppet with a hairy ass, but we leave before it’s fate seals. My favorite moment was looking up at an apartment window with the faces of 2-3 Italian grans pressed against it like ficus leaves, looking down aghast upon the throng of the merry. And an Italian who looked just like a dusky stephen fry. And a drunken old man dressed as a clown hitting people in the face with confetti. We return in time for a wonderful barbecue and rest contented and thoroughly full in every respect.
