Umbria Jazz

My new friend George (guitarist) and I

Rockin' Dopsie and The Zydeco Twisters!

Umbria Jazz. This phrase includes two of the only words that can be understood by natives and tourists alike. These two words are all you need to say in the town of Perugia, in fact probably the entire Umbria region for that matter, and whichever way you pronounce it, every single person will know what you are talking about. Perfetto!

Umbria Jazz is a ten-day international music festival that was founded in 1973. It is known to be one of the most coveted and important events in Europe every summer. The festival features a jam-packed program of concertos or concerts, daily beginning at noon and ending at 1:30 am. This summer, the festival took place from 8 - 17 luglio (July 8^th to July 17^th) and certainly did not fail to impress.

The major jazz artists that attended the festival included Prince, Liza Minnelli, Santana, B.B, King, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Marcus Miller, and Sergio Mendes to name a few. For those artists, you needed to purchase a ticket (biglietti) to see their show, which ranged from 18 to 75 Euros depending on the artist. In an effort to save money, my friends and I attended only the concerti grati (free concerts) which were equally appeasing. Over the course of the ten day event, we were able to watch The Beale Street R&B Band from Memphis with special guest Toni Green, Funk Off, Rockin’ Dopsie & The Zydeco Twisters, Chick Rodgers featuring Foundaction, East Park Reggae Collective from London, the Perugia Jazz Orchestra, Dwiki Dharmawan World Peace Band and the Saint Louis Jazz Big Band.

My favorite performance came from a bunch of guys from New Orleans, Louisiana…Rockin’ Dopsie & The Zydeco Twisters. We went to watch their midnight show the last five days of the festival and each night the crowd grew larger and larger. The Perugians and tourists alike all loved this group mainly because of the lead singer Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. His performance was over the top, complete with splits, flips, twists, turns, jumping in to the crowd and audience participation to the max. Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. also plays a washboard as he sings, which only complements the intensity of this true southern music. Having never heard of zydeco music before I did a little research on it to share with all of you. Apparently, the word zydeco derives from the French word les haricots and when translated means string beans. Rumor has it that farmers in the south must have played music during the harvesting of the bean crop and the pronunciation of les haricots somehow turned into zydeco. The music itself is a combination of and derives from Cajun/Acadian music, Afro-Caribbean beats, blues and funk music. However one defines it, zydeco music is truly a showstopper with its big band, washboard player and loud accordion. This is also something that I plan on discovering more about once back in The States.

My five-day love affair with Rockin’ Dopsie and The Zydeco Twisters derived a few days prior when I was walking home from their show. En route to my dorm, I bumped into the lead guitarist and told him what a great show they put on. Once he recognized that I was a "true American" and spoke English, my new friend George invited me to the Elf Pub to have a drink with him and listen to a young Perugian jazz group. Since that night I have officially become a "groupie"…mi piace la musica zydeco!

Lago Trasimeno

During one of our weekend excursions, Christine and two of our students, Cherice and Natalia ventured off to explore what Lago Trasimeno had to offer a few sun deprived Americans. Having taken the train from Perugia to the lake, once we arrived at our stop, Passignano sul Trasimeno (also coined “The Pearl of Trasimeno”), we set out to find the rumored beach we had heard so much about.

Lago Trasimeno’s claim to fame is that it is the largest lake on the Italian peninsula, and fortunately for us, was only about a 30-minute train ride away from Perugia. There are eight towns and three islands all connected to and encompassing the lake; Castiglione del Lago, Panicale, Paciano, Citta della Pieve, Magione, Passagnano sul Trasimeno, Piegaro, Tuoro sul Trasimeno, Isola Maggiore, Isola Minore and Isola Polvese. Aside from a beautiful view, our location at Passagnano sul Trasimeno also has some tourist attractions including seven famous monuments. These monuments include several churches, a fortress, a villa and a hill and are named La Rocca, Pieve San Cristoforo, San Bernardino, Santuario Della Madonna dei Miracoli, Villa Romana, Villa del Pischiello and Madonna dell’Oliveto.

Though seemingly beautiful from afar, my fellow sun-deprived friends and I were uninterested in the historical side of Passagnano sul Trasimeno and had far more important objectives. We needed to find the sun, a spot to lay our towels down, apply some sun block and soak up all of the Vitamin D and endorphins we could obtain for the afternoon. After about a twenty-minute search, we stumbled across Suazo Beach, with a patch of beach chairs, umbrellas and imported sand. It was perfect and just what we needed to end our “girls weekend”.

Spoleto

Last weekend my coworker Christine and I had a “girls weekend” with two of our students on the trip, Cherice and Natalia. It was Cherica and Natalias’ very first “girls weekend” and we wanted to make it worth their while. Working at and Italian school in the states tends to come inhandy when traveling through Italy. We have been very fortunate to have various connections to events throughout the country. A parent of La Scuola and former Italian

ballerina was able to get us tickets to see a modern/ contemporary dance show in a small town called Spoleto. Spoleto is about an hour and a half away from Perugia by TrenItalia and is most famous for it’s summer music festival; Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds). The festival occurs each year from June through July and we were able to take part in the last day of the festival. Festival dei Due Mondi celebrates the arts from opera, dance and music, to paintings, drawing and sculpture. The show we had tickets to was located inside Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti, the largest theatre in Umbria housing 800 seats. We were seated in a box, which though very unique, did not provide for easy viewing pleasure. We spent most of the show moving around the couple seated in front of us to get a better view. After the show was over we had a long time before our train back to Perugia and while walking through the ancient town, enjoyed a Gelato and an Aperitivo at the local Enoteca or wine bar. For those of you who may not know what an aperitivo is, I can first begin to explain it as true Italian experience and one of my favorites at that. An aperitivo is literally supposed to be a pre-dinner drink and many restaurants and bars all throughout Italy have aperitivo from about 7 to 9 every evening. For approximately 6 Euros, you can buy yourself a cocktail and a free snack comes alongside it. Some bars serve up chips and nuts while others provide a plate overflowing with fresh foccacia breads or other goods baked onsite that day. There are also traditional Italian beverages that can be sipped during an aperitivo such as Campari, Martini, and Aperol. My palate isn’t as sophisticated for these palate-cleansing drinks, so I usually play it safe with vino rosso o bianco. All in all, aperitivo is a classier version of happy hour, one that should be frequented more in The States.

Vita di Perugia

Organic Market

Palazzo Dei Priori

Arriving safe and sound in Perugia on July 2^nd, my coworkers, students and I settled in to the Foresteria San Franesco on Via A. Pascoli…which can also be defined as a true college dormitory. Though it’s been quite some time since I’ve shared a bathroom and had a roommate, it has been a reminiscent experience of life in the Ledges dorm at Quinnipiac. Once we all unpacked and got comfortable we set out to do some exploring and of course, eating.

The city of Perugia doesn’t have the striking antiquities Rome encompasses but is still a beautiful, quaint town set in the "cuore verde d’italia” (green heart of Italy) in the Umbria region. A new fact I learned this past week is that Italia is divided into twenty regions and Umbria is in the central part of Italy. The city of Perugia is fairly small and is known to be a city of art, history, monuments and culture of Etruscan and Roman decent. The center of the city (or centro) is best known for Palazzo Dei Priori and it’s Fontana Maggiore. Once the sun goes down and the candles are lit, the city center is filled with people both young and old dressed in their best, strutting their stuff down Corso Vannucci with the main goal of eating, drinking and living la dolce vita.

During our first week, we went to the Univerista per Stranieri Perugia to take an Italian language entrance exam. Much to my amazement I placed into an intermediate Italian language class after a written and oral exam. However, after two days in the class I soon realized there’s a lot of Italian that I still do not know and I switched into the level below. Having learned all of my Italian knowledge studying abroad in Rome, I seem to have kept it hidden in the back of my brain for the past four years. I quickly discovered that ho capito anche ascolto piu parlo…I can understand and listen more than I can speak. Since the entirety of each class is only spoken in Italian, I’m going to take a walk on the wild side and guess that I’ll be speaking it in no time.

Ciao! Ciao!

Welcome back! After a brief school year hiatus, I have decided to start writing once again. Last summer I was blessed with one of the most amazing experiences of my life volunteering in South Africa, and this summer I have been awarded another exciting adventure. For those of you who may not know, this past school year I worked at La Scuola d’Italia in New York City. La Scuola is the only Italian bilingual school in North America and proves to be the home for many elite Italian children. As per request of the Italian education system, they would like all of La Scuola d’Italia English teachers to also become fluent in Italian. La Scuola has been kind enough to provide me with this new journey and is sending me to learn Italian for the month of July. Today begins this new adventure, and I will be traveling to Perugia in order to better my Italian language skills. Hopefully I will come home with a little more than Perugina chocolates.