I’m sorry to say that I have no photos for this entry so you’ll just have to be content with the pretty sunset photo I took the other day with Instagram. The subject matter must be documented just for the sake that it was a first experience for me.
We had a beautiful day at the beach and just finished stuffing our faces with a seafood bbq (like every other Saturday here) and I was more than content. As my understanding of Italian language has been improving, dinner conversations are a lot more interesting to me. This evening, Alessandro and his wife Silvia were visiting. I really like Alessandro – I find him absolutely hilarious. He is always confused about why I’m always giggling or laughing when he says something, and it’s hard to explain why. He is a very tall shaved head, serious type of man. While he is serious sometimes, he is actually a very sarcastic goofy type of person. I can’t quite pinpoint what it is about his mannerism that I find so funny, but he is entertaining nonetheless.
After sharing several bottles of wine, Corrado and I were having a pretty good time sharing some air guitar solos to some AC/DC. We also played “Guess this wine – grape, region, and vintage”. I was pretty proud of myself for being able to guess the grape (cabernet savagnion), but pretty dissapointed I wasn’t thinking outside the box. We all assumed it was an Italian wine. Turns out it was from Napa Valley. Silvia was right on the nose thinking it was more palpable for American tastes but thought it was a merlot.
It got pretty late into the night and I was ready for bed. However, Luigi and Corrado had other plans. They wanted to go to Mamamia, an italian disoteque (club) in Senigallia. I didn’t believe the guys it would be that busy by the time we got there. It was already 12:30 a.m. and Senigallia is a good 40 minutes away. Tonight wasn’t just any other Saturday night though, it was the opening night for a summer kick off. I found an article online that explains a bit more about the hype of the place (you’ll need Google chrome to automatically translate it for you). Essentially, it is one of the biggest/most famous night clubs in Italy. As far as the eastcoast goes, Mamamia is the place to be. I really didn’t want to go at all because I was not in a clubbing/potentially being harassed by douchebags mood. I just wanted to curl up and sleep. However, the idea of going out dancing with Corrado sounded like there would be many good stories to tell after. So I went.
This is where I nerd out for a minute so if you don’t care about tolling, don’t read this paragraph 🙂 Even though it was close to 1 in the morning, I still managed to nerd out a little when we used the toll booth. It was my first toll booth experience in Europe, and since my previous work was all about tolling, I was immediately intrigued. I know, I’m a dork. The toll gantry looked more like a border crossing. Corrado explained that there were some “express” lanes for those with electronic passes and he joked he was too poor for that. It seemed to me it was more of the fact that he hardly ever uses the autostrada. Just like the fact that I never used the 520 bridge so I didn’t sign up for a Good To Go! pass. It cost us roughly 1,60 euros to travel about 25 km (About $2 for 15 miles). Not so bad I guess. For those without electronic passes, you pull up to the gantry/booth and print a ticket (similar to parking garages), then when you get off the highway, you insert your ticket into the booth and pay. It seemed simple enough. It was all automatic, so no toll booth workers. But then again it was the middle of the night.
When we finally were nearing out destination, I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. Food trucks lining the street blocks away from the club and hordes of barely legal teenagers and young adults walking in the street. I felt like we were on greek row with the cast of The Jersey Shore. “Oh good lord help me and don’t let me punch anyone tonight…” is all I was thinking. We somehow lucked out on a relatively close parking spot and hopped out. Luigi, being the networking guru that he is knew the bouncer, so we bypassed the line to get in and went in.
This was the funny part. We walked into a big dark warehouse. It looked like anyother club you would see, just on a large scale. The dance floor wasn’t exactly hopping, and I was a little disappointed. I was wondering where all the people were. There were so many people outside, I only assumed there were more people inside. Corrado was on a mission though, and I followed suit. We went straight for the opposite side of the room and through the doors, where the real party was at. Suddenly the I realized the venue was a lot larger than I thought.
There were four other DJ/dancefloor areas outdoors. Each had it’s own thing. All Corrado wanted was the alternative/rock scene. When we came upon it, some Weezer was blasting. Once COrrado felt he confirmed his mission, he then set out for drinks. This proved to be much harder than we thought. While there were plenty of bars, most of them had run out of beer, so we had to keep looking. Finally, beer in hand, we headed to groove. Somehow along the way Luigi’s beer had an accident, which I found humorous given how long it took us to get it. But back t the dance floor we went. We were grooving to some great AC/DC, when we were rudely interupted by the DJ’s sudden switch to something metal. And then – all hell broke loose. Suddenly the dance floor became a giant mosh pit. I definitely wasn’t expecting that. Corrado was having a good time, but then, like at any other frat party, as soon as the metal comes on, SOME drunk person decides they want to pick a fight. So we moved to another dance floor, this one had more of a reggae/dub step sort of feel to it. I was groovin’ in my own world when some random girl pulled me into a picture with her and her friends. So somewhere…I’m in someone’s random photo. Haha.
I only had to fight off a couple creepy Italian guys, so overall it was an ok experience. Even though I wasn’t in a dancy mood, I’m glad I went because I shared some good memories with Luigi and Corrado. We ended the night with a moment at the beach in Senigallia. Corrado says next time we need to go swimming…I’ll definitely be up for that next time. So we arrived back at home just after 4 in the morning.
Italy must be making me old because I was beyond wiped.
