Ain’t No Party like a Secret Party!

Saturday night had to have been one of my best nights out in Ferrara thus far! 

Over a month ago I was invited to a “Secret Party” on Facebook which explained that on this date and this time there would a huge party held at and unknown venue. Now being a little skeptical It did sound a little fishy but I thought you never know it may turn out to be real. When I spoke to a friend of mine about it, he told me he was DJing at this “Secret Party” and gave me a vague indication of where it was going to be held. 

Over the following weeks there were various speculations made about where it may be held - including someone saying they would be using an empty supermarket. 

Two days before the event they put up on the Facebook group that it was taking place in a 
airfield not far from the large shopping centre at the southern end of the city.

The brilliant way of keeping details on a strictly need to know basis and everyone being held in suspense meant that by the time saturday night came everyone was eager with insane amounts of anticipation.

Saturday night
we cycled in convey to the venue. I have genuinely never seen so many bikes heading in one direction before. Surprisingly there was no police presence in or around the area as there most certainly would have been in Britain. We locked our bikes securely in the shopping centre and walked down a long and winding dirt track in the dark to the airfield.

The place itself was basically a field with a couple of beer tents and a club house which belonged to the airfield. There were bouncers who were checking bags for alcohol and drugs. My friend Ashley tried to sneak his bag full of beer in with him but failed, however unlike in Britain the bouncers were happy enough for us to sit around outside and drink until we wanted to come in. 

We watched the first DJ set in amongst a huge crowd of people, at least 500 people. the atmosphere was incredible, everyone was enjoying themselves high on life (or just high). There were also a few fire jugglers at the edge of the field performing insane tricks. 

When It was time for our friends to go up and do their set, we rushed to the front to get a good position. The music at the front was so loud that I has taken me two days to get my normal hearing back. There was also this small wire fence in front of us to stop us getting too near the scaffolding of the DJ booth and speaker - to be honest it didn’t help - It was as useful as chicken wire to keep in an angry tiger. There were guys standing there stopping people jumping over said fence, but mainly they were just chilling out enjoying the music and pouring the crowd mouthfuls of gin and rum which had been unsold by the bar. There were also two guys who had water pistols, or should I say alcohol pistols, shooting shots into the mouths of the crowd - unfortunately one of the guys had really bad aim and instead I received an eyeful of Gin, which stung massively. I was not surprised the next day to find my hair and face sticky with alcohol.

Our friends did a great job, the music they played was so good. Unfortunately the crowd had depleted a bit by the time they started as the wind had really caught up seeming to signal the arrival of the foreseen storm. Luckily the rain held off for the entire gig, a good thing too since there was zero shelter. 

We cycled home stopping for a piadine on the way and made it home just in time before the rain came plummeting down.

Mantova, Palio and Rain

Ciao tutti! This week has been pretty packed since I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'M LEAVING ITALY IN LESS THAN 2 MONTHS! So I'm trying to pack in as much as I can before I have to leave. We had another bank holiday on 1st May for Festa di Lavoro, equivalent to labour day. Unfortunately I hadn't realised that this meant University was closed on the monday as well as the tuesday this week, so I turned up for an 8:30am lecture which wasn't on. To celebrate the occasion there were musical performances in the centre and by the Duomo. I arrived in time to hear the most beautiful male operatic voice, but since there was such a big crowd all I could see were the accompanying children's choir. However my friend Anna went round to take a look at the singer and it wasn't a man at all but a 13 year old boy! Absolutely blown away. We stayed a bit longer and watch one of the old girls do a solo. She sang "Distratto" which was sung by the winner of 2011 X-Factor Italia Francesca Michelin (video posted below). I now absolutely love this song, and the girl I saw singing it was probably no more than 15 and had such a great voice. 

There was meant to be a couple of bands playing and a DJ set that evening in the main square, however I have now learnt that slightest drip of rain will caused any outdoor event to be immediately cancelled without notice. Therefore the rain at 4pm meant that the event at 8pm was cancelled, LAME! Luckily we had a good evening of aperitivo, gin&tonics and free shots. Me and Ellie also found an English styled bar called Molo round the corner from Maracaibo, and they serve Magners! First bar in Italy I've seen to sell cider, happy days!

Wednesday evening we went to watch the sbandieratori - flag throwers - practise for the big medieval competition at the end of May called the Palio. For those Hilary Duff fans out there, It reminded me of the military drill competition in the film "Cadet Kelly" but with flags instead of rifles. There was also drumming and trumpet playing accompanying them. It was so crazy to watch them, sometimes they had 3 or 4 flags at a time catching it in the leg and then throwing it back in the air. I cannot wait to see the actual competition if the practising was anything to go by.

Sbandieratori da San Giorgio

 

Here's a video of one of the teams practising in the square.

Thursday we went to Piazza Ariostea for ... a spanish tradition of bringing a couple of bottles and heading to the square to all drink together. I was a little unprepared so I had some of my friend’s wine called “la Sangue di Giuda” - yes that’s right the blood of Judas. Whats more it tasted lovely!

Mantova

On saturday I spent the day in Mantova with Kirsty and Alex. My housemate Grazia recommended it saying that If she could live anywhere in Italy that wasn’t on the coast she would choose Mantova, and I can completely understand why. It’s a lovely city, similar to Ferrara in terms of size and architecture, with three lakes surrounding the northern part of the city.

We visited the Palazzo Ducale which was well worth the small sum we had to pay to go in. We spent around an hour and half wandering around the lavish rooms of the Gonzaga palace. I particularly liked la Camera di Zodiaca with it’s beautiful ceiling painted with a motif of all the zodiac signs, the Sala dei fiumi which had these ornate alcoves at either end of the room which seem to be made out of shells and such (much more impressive than my description) and la Camera degli Sposi which have the most well preserved freschi (make sure you spot the court dwarf!) . The gardens were also particularly lovely especially at this time of year.

We also tried the traditional torta sbrisolana of Mantova which is a kind of nutty biscuity cake, so good with a cappuccino! We also tried some farinata di ceci, a kind of flat pancake made with chickpeas and fried. It’s traditionally made in the Liguria region but it was pretty good here too!

We went for a wander around Piazza Virgiliana which was constructed during the french occupation in 1797, and walked along the bank of the lake(s).

We went into three of the churches in Mantova. The Rotonda di San Lorenzo was quite special considering it was the oldest (built in the 11th century) and one of only a handful of rotunda - round - churches in Europe, another being St Chad’s in Shrewsbury. (I will have to visit when I get back home). 

Then we visited the Duomo next to the Palazzo Ducale which was on the small side considering it was a cathedral. What I loved most was the fact that they happened to be getting ready for a wedding and I think the fact that people still use such a cathedral for weddings, christenings, funerals and so on makes the whole place even more beautiful.

Relic of Christ's blood

Finally we saw the Basilica di Sant’Andrea, commissioned by the Gonzaga’s as they didn’t believe the Duomo was grand enough to house the relic of Christ’s blood. Admittedly the basilica is impressive, although it’s grandeur was marred slightly by the scaffolding inside, however I think that I preferred the other two churches to this one.

Palio Procession

So I said I saw them the teams practising for the Palio on wednesday, Saturday night it all kicked off with a huge procession. Each team marched out of the Duomo and towards their respective areas of the city. There are 8 teams in the Palio in Ferrara; 4 teams inside the city walls, San Benedetto (white-light blue), Santa Maria in Vado (yellow-violet), San Paolo (white-black), Santo Spirito (yellow-green), and 4 villages outside the walls, San Giacomo (yellow-blue), San Giorgio (yellow-red), San Giovanni (red-blue) and San Luca (red-green). I managed to get a few photos but my camera doesn’t work too well in the dark.
My team for my area is San Maria in Vado so I shall be cheering them on during the Palio.