FRIDAY NIGHT WITH FRIENDS

Last night’s event was an unexpected surprise…always the best kind. When Art walked down to the farmacia to fill his prescriptions, he stopped by the comune to ask if we could have our photos back from the recent photo contest. We’d been meaning to ask someone, either at the comune, or perhaps or neighbor Adamo, who was in charge of the event, but, as usual, time kept slipping away.

Art was told “No”, we couldn’t have our photos back…as listed in the rules. Guess we didn’t read that far, but oh well. Then the mayor’s secretary said “But you CAN buy a calendar with all the photos on it! There’s a function tonight at the big hall next to the comune!” Okay, cool!

And so at nine o’clock we walked through the drizzle and the fog up to the comune and were surprised at what we found. Of course there were less than ten people there, but that wasn’t’ the surprise…after all, for a function that starts at nine o’clock in Italy, it was amazing that anyone was there at all. What we did see were tables filled with handmade dolls! The dolls were all of cloth and stuffing, what we’d call a rag doll in the states, apparently called a pigotta here in Italy.

The dolls had been lovingly made by the women of San Venanzo and by the school children in nearby Ripavella. It was quite easy to tell the difference: the dolls with beautifully embroidered facial features and detailed clothes had been made by the women, but most of the dolls made by the schoolchildren had faces that were drawn on. Either way ALL the dolls were adorable. The dolls were being sold (“adopted”) with the benefits going to UNICEF. Each doll came with his or her own identity card, showing where he or she had come from.









Additionally the calendars were for sale, and now I guess we can say that our photos have been published! What a nice souvenir this will be of our time in San Venanzo, and what wonderful gifts they’ll make!

Around ten o’clock everyone started to gather in the inner hall. A screen had been set up, and I wasn’t sure what was gong on. We’d expected to see the local bank, Disclav Epic Catto perform, but that didn’t appear to be happening. Hmmm..the poster had promised the band, so what happened?

I wrote about this band back in August when they appeared at the medieval festa in Rotecastello. They also played at the festivities for the photo contest in October, and at that time they announced the arrival of their first CD and invited everyone to a concert in Perugia to celebrate.

After Adamo introduced the band and told us a little about them, he introduced the film we’d be seeing…a video made of that night in Perugia, at the Il Pavone theater.  And so, that was our Friday night, just a simple get together with friends and neighbors, helping the world and each other, sharing talents, enjoying the season.