Party, Commie Style

It’s still August and the city hasn’t gone back to normal. Lots of stores are still shuttered closed, as their owners are still away on vacation, and there’s no line at the supermarket. For those of us who have seen the entire month pass here, it does seem a bit livelier. This week, the leftist coalition (Italy has a gazillion political parties, divided into two coalitions) is holding its festival just outside the city. It’s HUGE. Tents selling cars, furniture, plants, and regional food were filled by crowds of people. We entered a raffle – run by a tipsy, jolly Tuscan guy who looked like a young Santa Claus – to win 10 bottles of wine. No win, even though my roommate’s sister was randomly chosen from the crowd to do the drawing (this was indeed very random, since we didn’t even know that she was there).




These photos, though, are from the festival held by the Communist Party a few weeks ago. It was much smaller but equally happy. At times it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of party-based festivals like these (especially the Communist one) because I can’t imagine this ever happening in the States. I do remember when the Democratic Convention was held in Boston, the city repaved a lot of roads in Jamaica Plain. But that’s not quite the same thing.

Even the place mats are festive.


Other than work and yoga, there are basically two edible things that I live for these days in this empty city. One is a chocolate granita with whipped cream. Granita is sort of like shaved ice, sort of like a slurpee. It usually comes in fruit flavors, but about 20 meters from my house, there’s an all-natural, all-made-on-the-premises gelateria that makes my flavor. Aside from the gelato (which comes in creative flavors like rum-cream-vanilla-bean), and the homemade whipped cream (which is free), the granita is killer. It’s made with dark chocolate and they add a little bit of orange peel and cinnamon, which sounds strange, but makes it amazing. And I adore one of their employees, a punk girl with a half-shaved head who won my affection by remembering what I get and always giving me extra whipped cream. Massimo, meanwhile, gets along better with the guy who makes the ice cream in the back of the shop - this is good for me, because it means we always get updates on what flavors are being made and what's being added.



The other recently-discovered passion of my life is the caffe estivo (summer coffee) - pictured above. It’s an espresso with chocolate syrup and cold whipped milk on top. The cold milk whippers look like old fashioned milkshake-making contraptions (with the big metal cup). I want one!