claudio, tetris, and fabrizio

quick note from the mediterranean front to say hi!

we've been having a right jolly ol' time on this italian tour... we started off with a HOUSE CONCERT (in Italy! I know! Crazy, right?) at the house of my friends Paola and Claudio. I met Claudio on a train about a year or two ago...he helped me get my guitar on board, we struck up a conversation, and we kept in touch via email, as happens in this crazy world. Long story short, Claudio and Paola organized a marvelous house concert (along with their fantastic cat, Gypsy) and in doing so kicked off our string of good fortune. Ever since then, our concerts have been going smashingly, well-attended by people who actually listen and even buy CDs! :)

After the house concert, I had a few radio interviews to do this week....nothing scarier than a live interview over the phone in another language. Next week we're going to be on Rai Radio 3, which is the Italian version of NPR... Manuel and I will be in the studio, doing an interview and a live set. Should be fun and terrifying all at once.

This weekend we went up to Trieste and Udine...far-east Italy. Trieste is practically in Slovenia...it used to be Slovenia, actually, and Austria and Germany too, I think. We played at the Tetris Palace, a very small club run by some ragazzi veramente in gamba. Translation: run by some folks who were really darn cool. They treated us so well and the audience applauded so much after every song that it seemed like a continual standing ovation. The only bummer was the weather - Trieste is right on the coast, and a bit of sunshine for the shutterbug in me would have been nice, but I'll survive.

Then on to Udine...we were playing at Faber Days, a songwriter festival in honor of Fabrizio de Andre, one of Italy's greatest songwriters (he's their Bob Dylan). We played at Teatro San Giorgio to an incredibly quiet and appreciative audience and had a magnificent time. I even (gulp) gathered up the courage to sing a de Andre song in Italian. Major terror. So many thanks to Marco Miconi for being a great host, and to Leonardo Ronzi for continuing to deliver us to great venues!

So this week: Montepulciano, Foiano, Roma, Roma on the radio, Milano, Torino, Cuneo, Asti....aaaahhhhh.....then Firenze, Perugia, Ancona, and the USA! Wow.
Lots and lots and lots of pasta-flavored love,
vanessa