Nicchio contrada

July 31, 2010

My roommate Silvia, Silvia’s Peruvian friend, and I all decided to go out and dance tonight. Because it is hard to find an actual discoteca or club in which to dance in Siena, we did not bother to dress “chic” but rather put on cute but simple dresses or shorts and a T. Naturally, we spent much time deciding exactly how to wear our various outfits and how to do our hair, make up, etc. We are girls after all. I wore a white dress that I usually only wear to the pool it is somewhat see-through  I put my black shirt on over it and black leggings on underneath—needless to say I looked cute, comfortable, and fashionable by Italian standards.

           

Well, after a quick stop at the pub to grab a drink we were ready to party. We walked through the simple doors of the Nicchio commune, through the rather un-imposing hallway, and into Nicchio’s hidden garden around midnight. Every contrada has its own enormous giardino, hidden behind on of the many medieval walkways that are the streets of Siena. These walkways appear no different than the others: apartments, bars, pasticerias, doors of all shapes and sizes. If, however, you venture through the proper door and continue through the peculiar hallway and gathering room, you will suddenly find yourself over-looking an immense space full of trees, grass, chairs, tables—all the necessities for a party.

The music was blaring, lights flashing, hundreds of people standing around drinking, smoking, talking, dancing—the prefect party. We stood on the terrace of the garden admiring the scene and searching the crowd for familiar faces. We spotted some of my friends from the program in the middle of the dance floor, arms up, huge smiles, jumping, bumping, dancing away. It took us a few minutes just to get to them because we had to push and shove our way from one end of the party to the other. Naturally, as soon as we had a place we started to dance. The second I hear music I just have to dance to it. I feel like I should quote “Hairspray” because honestly “something inside of me makes me move when I hear that groove…” and you know the rest.

We danced happily as a group for some time, and then naturally, being attractive young women, Italian men came over to dance with us. Now there are two important things to know about Italian guys and dancing: 1) dancing, to them, is an open invitation to almost anything else—and if you are American they are way more likely to try to take advantage of you 2) they really do not know how to dance! And to add to these two unappealing attributes, almost every Italian is short!

A not so ugly Italian guy started dancing with me so, naturally, I was being wary and careful, ignoring the hand signals to turn and face him. The biggest problem with this guy was not that he would probably try to kiss me. No. It was that he reeked of vomit, and regardless, would still probably try to kiss me. I managed to escape the clutches of plaid covered, vomit man. I used some of my rather skilled dancing techniques to twirl and twist away and put a good three or four people between him and me. Silvia, Patty, and I did our best to avoid him, and yet he kept popping up the rest of the night.

I did, however, find myself dancing with the only Italian guy was an exception to rule number one. In fact, he managed to elude rule number two as well. He is the only Italian to this date that I have seen who really knows how to dance. This guy was dancing like Channing Tatum in Step Up!!!! But, as I said before, all Italians are short. So, though you have a beautiful image of Channing Tatum in your head, you need to shrink him, and probably make him a little more human, and vuala, you have Marcelo. He had on a black tank and jean shorts and he knew what he was doing.

I decided that 1) to escape vomit man, who had once again appeared to dance, reek and all, behind me, and 2) because I was not passing up such an opportunity to dance with someone so skilled, to make it know to Channing Tatum’s twin that I was interested. So naturally I started with the stare—you know, the catch the eyes for three seconds, no more, no less, stare—followed by the sweet smile, easy laugh, and genuine interest (thank you Cosmo). It worked. He smiled back and I danced on over. I was not about to pass up the opportunity to dance with a guy who had more in his arsenal than the “sway to the music” step. We danced all night. It most certainly made up for the general lack of good dancing venues in Siena.

            Ok, correction, he is not nearly as cute as Channing Tatum—can anyone ever really be?—however, he danced and dressed like him (and I had been watching Step Up earlier so Channing was on my mind). He actually has the facial structure more similar to that of Tom Cruise, who to me is not as handsome as Channing. Oh, and he is actually not Italian which would explain why he was an exception to the rules! So, mostly, he is not at all what I though he was… So instead of being Channing Tatum’s short Italian twin, he is more like Tom Cruise’s short Romanian cousin who dances like Channing Tatum.