One interesting feature of this historical part of town is the square I live in. Called Piazza Sedile del Campo, featuring one of the oldest fountains in this fountain town it is known by locals as the Largo Campo and has many lives depending on the time of day. You would have to visit to believe me but it is really a square that never sleeps (and I guess the inhabitants just get used to it). It's impossible to start the description with a sortt wake-up hour so I chose this very moment to explain the 24hour syndrome.
You are probaly beginning to understand that I am a litlte obsessed with 24hours :-) So, no need to step out on the balcony to know what's going on tonight as the folkloric music has been melodiously flowing through the open windows for a few hours. There is a local even in town "La Fiera del Crocifisso" (The Crucifix, which until this year I thought was held before Easter but maybe the general elections prevented that!) So there is a festive feel and all the small alleys and squares are lined with wooden stall selling fresh bakeries, slices of salami or handicrafts. The local dancers with their musica popolare have been livening things for the passers-by.In an hour when the family "passegiata" trickles away the youth will come out to play. The first set are aged 12 to 18 and they hang around til their parents have finshed their pizzas in one of the pavement pizzerias. The next shift are older and stree wise or "furbo" as they say round here. Around midnight some seedy bars and snazzy underground techno discos buried under thousands of years of Roman stone open there doors and all of a sudden the street vibration changes beat. The buzz of voices and chatter resembles a bee hive hit by boomerang. By 4 am you'd think the noise would have died down, indeed it does but to be replaced with a new type of frenzy. The early hours of the morning (4am to 6am) are the worst, or is it just becuase one is trying to snatch onto silence and cling onto sleep? When the bar and restaurant shutters come down and the kitchen skivvies hop on their vespas the rush of air can be felt three flights up.
Next of course, are refuse collectors intent in the personal war against the snug pillow huggers. This job uses dark age tools, the sort of brooms the witch in Hansel and Gretel would have used. Beer bootles and glass containers have been banned in most Italian cities (drinks by law must be poured into plastic beakers after midnight unless drink is consumed indoors) but not here so the road sweepers I reckon have their own version of "Ten green bottles" a sort of hokey-squash match that rings new notes! Last week the square was turned into a film set. What amazed me most it that it only took a couple of hours to make it look over 300 years old for a film set in Naples in the 17th century "Assunta Spina" Oh well, I'll tell you about the baker's opening and the scrumptious wafts of fresh bread tomorrow...Its way past my passeggiata time!
