Serendipitous Discoveries - Perugia, Italy

This photo is courtesy of Tripadvisor 

The fans came in all shapes and sizes – pink, white, black and yellow; old couples with bent backs, feet tapping out the rhythm; young families with toddlers running around and babies in prams. There were designer-clad yuppies rubbing shoulders with hippies and Rastafarians. It seems that jazz is quite the unifier. While people milled about, paused to rest on benches under trees with ice cold watermelon or on the stone steps of the cathedral, slice of pizza in hand, the music played on. Two stages were set up at either end of the town and free concerts played from lunch time to well past midnight. In between, musicians busked on street corners, and played in the restaurants and cafes.

Clowns juggled and made balloon animals to entertain children, an artist decorated the sidewalk with chalk, his mural depicting the many roads which led to the music, and vendors sold arts and crafts on tables set up along the main road. Shops stayed open till late into the night, the music lending a festive air to the shopping sprees.

We had happened upon the festival while trying to book hotels on our travels around Italy. Puzzled by how full it was in Perugia, we investigated and discovered that we were looking for accommodation during the annual Umbria Jazz Festival.  During the ten-day festival, musicians like Al Jarreau, Erykah Badu and Esperanza Spalding were performing along with Sting and Rita Marley. We were heading in the right direction!

Perugia is a medieval town in the Umbria region of Italy (“the gentler version of Tuscany”, it has been described). Etruscan ruins date back more than 2 000 years. The hilly town is surrounded by the old city wall. Narrow cobble-stoned streets weave through buildings so close they seem to lean over and reach out to each other, shutting out the harsh midday sun and providing a welcome relief.  Tiny old shops which have seen generations of owners and customers still do business, their walls pock-marked with history.

The Umbria Jazz festival has been running since 1973 and attracts followers from all over the world. We were unable to get tickets for the grand finale with Sting but that night when we returned to our room and flung the widows open wide to let the night air in, the strains of “An Englishman in New York” floated up the hill and into our room.

Perugia had been a serendipitous experience which stimulated all our senses. The 40^th anniversary of the festival seems like a good excuse for another visit!

Healing Memories of District Six

“The first time I took your mother out on a date we went to the Avalon bioscope, to the 4.00pm show to see “Trapeze” with Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollabrigida. Your mother was only allowed to go to the afternoon show. It was 1958. Chut Frieslaar was the manager of the bioscope.” The words poured out of my father’s mouth as we sat down to tea. We had just been to the District Six Museum and clearly many memories had been stirred.

My dad is a man of few words but as we walked around, he became more and more animated as he recognised people and places – the barber shop where he had his hair cut, his old school and his standard five teacher, and the public wash house. “You could find anything you wanted in Hanover Street, except petrol,” he said. “There was no garage, but everything else was there.”

On one of the walls was a recipe for “oumens onder die kombers” (which literally means old person under the blanket), which my grandmother used to make.  It is a traditional cabbage and meatball recipe – the cabbage is wrapped around the meatball, like a blanket. Alongside were recipes for other dishes from my childhood - tomato bredie (a lamb and tomato stew), bobotie (a spicy meatloaf) and skaapkop (sheep’s head).

I walked around with my book and pen on hand. I had wanted to capture these memories for a while now.  My dad had grown up in District Six and my grandmother had lived there well into the 70s. So we spent much time in Hanover Street – the house doctor, the barber, my uncle’s tailor shop, and the restaurant which sold the best samoosas and curry and roti, were all there.

It was almost as much of a journey for me as it was for him and I feel so blessed to have had the benefit of some of the stories. Before we left, my dad proudly signed the ex-residents’ book.