MI AMI

While hanging out with my cousin on Thursday, he told me he was planning to attend a music festival in Milan for the next two nights and asked if I wanted to come along too. I wanted to say yes right away but decided to do the Italian thing and say vediamo ("we'll see"), also because I wasn't 100% sure--I haven't been seeking much social stimuli lately (you can tell since I refer to it as "stimuli") and didn't know how I'd feel the next day.

I ended up deciding to go on Friday afternoon after he sent me a link to the festival's website. I scanned through the pages, listened to a few songs, and quickly realized that MI AMI ("Love Me") was set to be an awesome event. How else would I have ever heard of and be able to attend an Italian indie-rock festival? Thank Jove for my cousin! (Do you like how I changed it up from my standard "Zeus" to "Jove"? Better to go festively Roman since it relates more to my time in Italy!)

The website also mentioned polpette (meatballs) in their food section:

MAI MANGIATO LE POLPETTE AD UN FESTIVAL? 

E’ strano che nessuno ci abbia pensato prima. Te le divori in un colpo solo, non hai bisogno di coltello e forchetta, dopo torni ai concerti. Fast food ma con una personalità tutta sua. Tutta roba italiana, chiaro. 

Which translates as:

YOU'VE NEVER EATEN MEATBALLS AT A FESTIVAL?

It's strange that no one has ever thought of it before. You devour them all at once, don't need a knife and fork, and then return to the concerts. Fast food but with a personality all its own. All Italian stuff, clearly.

This greatly amused me, more than I think it should have. 

I didn't end up getting to eat the famous polpette, though my cousin and his friend did. My aunt had rushed to cook me a delicious dinner of pasta con funghi (pasta with mushroom sauce) and saltimbocca alla romana (my favourite Italian meat dish comprising of veal, prosciutto crudo, sage, and cheese) so I was full. If you're curious, there were around 8 different types of meatballs (even vegetarian ones). They were all precooked already and upon ordering, they would heat them up in a microwave for you. I was told they were quite delicious but not hot enough.

The festival was held at the Idroscalo di Milano, a huge basin or dam of sorts near Milan Linate airport that was originally conceived by Mussolini as the future of air transport. He had envisioned the rise in the use of hydroplanes. Holy baseless expensive project, Batman! Now it is used as a sports and music venue as the body of water is surrounded by a huge park. It was my first time there and I can see its appeal, though the ground was still muddy in lots of parts given the week of sporadic rainfall we've been getting.

We heard the following Italian bands:

• Le luci della centrale elettrica ("The Lights of the Power Plant") 
• Massimo volume ("Maximum Volume")
• Boom da Bash (either onomatopoeic or "Boom by Bash"--you choose). This is an Italian reggae group from the region of Puglia, where burrata is from!

Le luci della centrale elettrica, captured by my broken camera

Unfortunately Uzi, my mom's old point-and-shoot digital camera that I brought with me for nightlife and video use, has been malfunctioning as of late. The photos I take with him either are overexposed, have white stripes across them, or end up in negative colours such as the one you see above. It made for a cool effect in this case but on other occasions the pictures have looked pretty freaky.

You may be wondering about Italian reggae music. I didn't know it existed until the car ride over to the concert. My cousin is an americanophile and also happens to love reggae music (while I am a europhile who also happens to love opera). All in all, I wasn't too enthused about it, especially when midway through the night he told his friend and I that we were going to close the evening with some dancing to the Italian-reggae stylings of Boom da Bash. She and I were reluctant; however, I must admit that it ended up being the funnest part of the festival even though I didn't understand anything other than the occasional singing of "murda" (I think?). I wasn't alone either--most Italians wouldn't understand since their songs are in the Pugliese dialect. This was my favourite song of theirs.

You should also know that almost everyone was smoking since it was outdoors in a park. By the end of the night I felt like I had been a sponge for cigarette smells. On the upside, at least it didn't rain.

Today's word of the day is none other than polpette.