June 15th: Azzurra and Luciano

June 14th, Sunday


Not more than two hours after I wrote that last entry, I got my answer in the form of three young local people.

I walked with a friend to the gelateria, to get a snack and ask Carlo what there is to do around here on a Saturday night. There was a young couple there that happened to overhear the conversation, and put in their two cents as well. The girl's name is Azzurra - one word for "blue" in Italian - and her boyfriend is Luciano; they are 22 and 23 respectively. Azzurra was very helpful and let me know in a very nice way that there is absolutely nothing fun to do in the town of Arezzo... but, if we wanted to wait until next weekend, we could take a group bus from the "Information for Youth" building down the street when it makes its weekly run to the discoteca in the next town over. We decided to keep this in mind.

Carlo listened to this conversation for a few minutes, but then decided to refer me to Daniele -- his younger friend who's at the gelateria often -- since we were closer in age. He called his cell, which was pretty embarassing because he insisted that I talk, and it's incredibly difficult to understand anyone speak a foreign language if you aren't standing right in front of them watching their lips move. So I gave up and handed the phone back to him.
Side note -- recently I learned that most Italians have more than one cell phone. At least one for work and one for friends, and sometimes another, although I'm not sure what you could possibly need a third for. (A guy in the gelateria joked that it's for married guys with a girlfriend on the side.)
Anyway, Carlo got Daniele (who was apparently sitting at home doing nothing) to come over to the gelateria and help us out. We were talking for a while when three other Oberlin students came in wanting to buy wine for their apartment. Turns out Azzurra's dad owns a restaurant that sells wine, located two streets over from the gelateria, and her brother was working there at the time and could get them a discount. So we all made the trek over to the restaurant, then after agreeing to meet up with Azzurra, Luciano, and Daniele later that night, the two groups went our separate ways.

We reconvened at Mr. Bloom, a favorite local bar of Oberlin students, where we hung out with the three Italians for several hours. At one point, while hanging around outside, a middle-aged scraggly-looking woman sauntered past nursing a beer, and the three started discreetly laughing and making fun... evidently she's the sort of town crazy of Arezzo. During a conversation with her a few minutes later, I started to get the picture. She told me she's a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen, and really wants to visit Tennessee. (uh... that wasn't initially intended to be a punchline.)

So, in the end I was super happy to get to meet some people closer to my age that aren't sketchballs. Azzurra is very sweet, and said that they go to Mr. Bloom's often. (As this is the hangout spot for Oberlin kids about every other night, chances are we'll probably run into them again.) Her boyfriend, while shy at first, was also a pretty nice guy, and fun. When I made a comment to Azzurra about his gauged ear, he promptly stuck an unlit cigarette through the hole and made a weird noise. Charming.

Another side note -- All the Italians I've met have been chain smokers. Like... seriously, everyone here smokes cigarettes, all the time. I knew this was the case, but didn't realize the extent until now.... anyway...

Daniele I've known for a while, since we're both in and out of Carlo's gelateria often. He's a huge fan of Green Day, and has "Basket Case" as his ringtone. Although he's pretty good with elementary English, it's still hilarious to watch him sing along.... After making plans to get lunch with him the following day, we all went home. It was 4 a.m.

A lot happened yesterday too, but my wrists are cramping up from typing. More in a bit....

Ciao,
-Allie