Caffeina

Apparently, when the school opened a decade ago, Viterbo was a cultural wasteland. There was little in the way of entertainment and virtually no night life. All that has changed. There is an amazing amount going on for a city of 60,000 people. There are bars, dance halls and regular concerts all year round. There is more going on in a single month here than all year in our hometown of Springfield, despite it being approximately half the size. There has been something going on every day since we returned from our Norway cruise almost a month ago. First there was the medieval festival, with parades, activities and people in costume dress wandering around every night. The day that ended, Caffeina began and ran through last night. This coincided with the Tuscia Film Festival. The day before that had the chance to end, the Tuscia Opera Festival began, which is slated to run until mid-August. Then we take a couple of weeks off (at least I think they do) before the month long Santa Rosa Festival which begins on September 1. Contrast that with a pancake breakfast and 6 weeks of repetitiously driving through the Bright Nights of Forest Park coupled with an entertainment district in Springfield where little seems to happen except knifings and shooting and you can see the contrast.

Caffeina (pronounced cah-fey-een-ah, amazing how the Italians can turn 2 syllables into 4) was a 16 day festival comprised of dozens of readings, tastings, concerts and activities.

The daily schedule began between 6and 7 PM and usually included 30-40 events scattered across 23 venues predominantly in San Pellegrino, the medieval quarter.

Below is a shot of a typical stage set up in an out of the way piazza. Essentially every palce which could have a stage had one.

Roads into the area were closed, parking was restricted and the entire area was turned into a pedestrian way. Unfortunately, in spite of the wealth of opportunities, Amy and I didn’t participate in much. There is only some much rapid fire Italian we can deal with as authors read from their work and presenters expound on the finer points of some obscure topic.