PISTOIA
We left Florence by train for the short ride through the Tuscan countryside to the town of Pistoia. We had gotten reservations in a hotel quite near the piazza where the concert would take place, and we were even surprised that we got them because we had called three hotels previous to this one and they were all booked for the three nights of the concert. Later we found out why, but it was a comfortable room and the staff was great.
Pistoia is a city of about 86,000 with a long history of habitation back to the days of the Etruscans. Fortunately for us, all the town had been spruced up in the year 2000 for an anniversary celebration and the public buildings and churches were in incredible shape. Six hundred years of wear and tear did not even show on this town! The square in which we saw the three nights of concerts was a delight itself, surrounded as it was by stately buildings and towers. The food prices were not high at all and they did not seem to raise them even for tourists, of which the town was full before and after the concert. It is quite a posh place with an opera and performance season that would make me want to come back again to visit.
The first day of the show saw the young and hip invade the town, including, again, beggars who were quite forceful, and stoners and derelicts of every kind. There was an abundance of merchants in the streets at almost every hour, and the variety of wares they had to sell was geared toward the crowd. I noticed we were not by any means the oldest people at the concert, but there were certainly very few Americans as compared to Florence. We also noticed that almost everyone spoke English or appreciated our efforts at Italian (with our Sicilian accents!).
The three nights of concerts were great! We got to understand a little bit about the Italian blues scene and how the lines are blurred between rock, country, rockabilly and blues. When you have a lineup with BB King, Country Joe McDonald, and Jefferson Starship, you dont expect long-haired southern good ol boys playing tex-mex border music, but there they were, and all of it blues. The shows were sparsely attended so we had comfortable seats except for the Saturday night show, which included smokers on all four sides of us including a dwarf in a wheelchair on a ramp in front of us that kept lighting up a smelly stoogey and ALL the smoke blew back in my face. I have become so intolerant to smoke that I had dry heaves plus a bad case of nausea and a headache by the time BB King came on stage. My favorite acts were Eric Burdon (We gotta get out of this place/If its the last thing we ever do! was my Fredonia State theme song) and James Cotton, who had laryngitis, but could play a mean harmonica.
There had been changes made in the festival and heated discussions with townspeople and concessionaires over ticket prices and housing for itinerant merchants and schedules for setting up merchandise booths. Some combination of these folks set up an anti-blues protest which manifested itself in drum circles starting after the shows, which prevented us from sleeping till after 2 AM. The drums were of course positioned very near to our conveniently located hotel. So much for great hotel rooms.
Pistoia buildings and churches are just as gorgeous as Florence but not as big or as famous. We welcomed the chance to get to explore and get to know another town well and to meet some great people, especially our hotel clerk Samuela who is sending back Steves hat that he left in a café down the street. What a sweetie she was. There are good people everywhere in the world.
Pistoia is a city of about 86,000 with a long history of habitation back to the days of the Etruscans. Fortunately for us, all the town had been spruced up in the year 2000 for an anniversary celebration and the public buildings and churches were in incredible shape. Six hundred years of wear and tear did not even show on this town! The square in which we saw the three nights of concerts was a delight itself, surrounded as it was by stately buildings and towers. The food prices were not high at all and they did not seem to raise them even for tourists, of which the town was full before and after the concert. It is quite a posh place with an opera and performance season that would make me want to come back again to visit.
The first day of the show saw the young and hip invade the town, including, again, beggars who were quite forceful, and stoners and derelicts of every kind. There was an abundance of merchants in the streets at almost every hour, and the variety of wares they had to sell was geared toward the crowd. I noticed we were not by any means the oldest people at the concert, but there were certainly very few Americans as compared to Florence. We also noticed that almost everyone spoke English or appreciated our efforts at Italian (with our Sicilian accents!).
The three nights of concerts were great! We got to understand a little bit about the Italian blues scene and how the lines are blurred between rock, country, rockabilly and blues. When you have a lineup with BB King, Country Joe McDonald, and Jefferson Starship, you dont expect long-haired southern good ol boys playing tex-mex border music, but there they were, and all of it blues. The shows were sparsely attended so we had comfortable seats except for the Saturday night show, which included smokers on all four sides of us including a dwarf in a wheelchair on a ramp in front of us that kept lighting up a smelly stoogey and ALL the smoke blew back in my face. I have become so intolerant to smoke that I had dry heaves plus a bad case of nausea and a headache by the time BB King came on stage. My favorite acts were Eric Burdon (We gotta get out of this place/If its the last thing we ever do! was my Fredonia State theme song) and James Cotton, who had laryngitis, but could play a mean harmonica.
There had been changes made in the festival and heated discussions with townspeople and concessionaires over ticket prices and housing for itinerant merchants and schedules for setting up merchandise booths. Some combination of these folks set up an anti-blues protest which manifested itself in drum circles starting after the shows, which prevented us from sleeping till after 2 AM. The drums were of course positioned very near to our conveniently located hotel. So much for great hotel rooms.
Pistoia buildings and churches are just as gorgeous as Florence but not as big or as famous. We welcomed the chance to get to explore and get to know another town well and to meet some great people, especially our hotel clerk Samuela who is sending back Steves hat that he left in a café down the street. What a sweetie she was. There are good people everywhere in the world.
posted by Sicilian Mama at 8:51 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home