A night and day in Firenze

Today I woke up with my brain in tiny little pieces all over the inside of my skull, blasted to bits by the berzerker fun I had last night at Amore. I learned a new word in Europe, "bomba," which when said while indicating one's mouth (like you're eating your fingers) is basically universal slang on this continent for disco biscuits. The venue for this event was a huge concrete parking lot at the back of a bunch of warehouses, with large scaffolding stages and booths for water and other goods. I arrived pretty early, on the scale of things, since most other people didn't start showing up until 1 AM.

It amazes me how intimate and friendly people are here, especially guys. I had tons of guys coming up and taking pictures with me, hugging me, giving me high fives, not because they were interested in me sexually, but because they liked my outfit, or the way I danced, or the fact that I was American. I know it wasn't just that lots of people were fucked up, because this was going on before many people even started showing up.

I saw Sasha play, but was constantly drawn away by the intense awesomeness of Magda's set. Lori was right, that bitch is hot shit. She had my ass on the floor and slaving to her beats for almost all of the three hours she was playing. I ran around like a crazy person, crowing at the night, showing off some capoeira moves I'd been practicing in the apartment, and taking the occasional moment to lay on the concrete and let the cool stone soak in and chase away some of the Roman humidity.

It was while I was taking just such a moment that two girls approached me who were sitting some distance away. One was wearing a festa mask, and the other was wearing pants and a shirt made out of a lot of shirts with images from the Peanuts comic strip on it. They started commenting on my attire in Italian, saying that we stuck out together, since I was wearing my Kick-Ass-and-Cut-Hair capri pants, Oakley boots and vest, and my new MP gloves. I told them I was American, and they decided to take me under their eaves and lead me about with gusto. Gaia (real name), the one who had the mask, spoke a little English, so with prompts from her for definitions of words I didn't know, we managed to spend the entire night conversing in Italian. I'm sure that for her it was very similar to talking to a 10 year old with a learning disorder, but she bore through it politely.

In one night I managed to converse more in Italian than I think I have in the last year, and by sunrise when they offered to give me a ride home, I was prattling away about Human Traffic, Carl Cox (who they informed me is playing in Rome next Friday), and a volley of other incidental subjects. It felt great. We exchanged emails and numbers, and she told me she actually lives fairly close to where I live. I have finally made my first Italian friends. At a rave. And then there were glowsticks.

It was funny how at moments I felt like the first white men in America, we would exchange cultural gifts, me teaching them how to do a basic pop-and-lock maneuver and them breaking down the best way to score at a party in Rome, or going back and forth helping each other with lingual techniques.

All and all it was an amazing night, and I got a free ride home out of it.

I slept until about 1, then woke up with the intention of doing Vatican city. After reviewing the status of my brain, energy level, and emotional disposition, I opted to go plot out the free wifi's in the city instead. Failing that, because all of the free wifi's suck, I followed a sudden urge to go to Firenze. Erin offered to let me crash in her apartment while her and her roomates were on an excursion, and I hopped on a Eurostar and met up with her for some of the best pasta in truffle oil I've ever had.

Tomorrow is shopping, then back to Rome. I got to catch a glimpse of all the vendors packing away their wares as I arrived, and I know I'm going to have a REALLY hard time not going apeshit on goods.

MMMmmmmm... delicious apeshit goods.

Now, I think, it's time for gellato.

I'll upload pictures and videos from last night, maybe tonight, maybe Monday.

Cuddles.

-Sean