(from an email-Aug 2002)

So yesterday Magda and I were trucking around…..At this particular moment in time we were not even lost, which is in our books a pretty good thing. We were over in this area called “Campo di Fiori” which is a place where a lot of backpackers and locals sit and hang out in the square. So we were walking around…probably looking for a place to eat…..just because that is what we always seem to be doing. In the square over they were setting up this stage. We figured it must be for the jazz festival that is going on in Rome that we had seen signs for earlier. So we sit and wait to see what is going on. We wanted to ask someone what time the concert started but we were too embarrassed, as our skills in Italian are quite lacking. So we sat around for about thirty mins before we finally asked someone when they thought the concert started. The guy we ended up asking turned out to be from the US and had no idea. We sat around for about another thirty mins and then we decided to leave. As we were walking away we noticed a sign that actually had the timetable outlined….at it started at 6:30…which was only 40 mins away so we went for a walk. Did I mention Romans have absolutely no concept of time? To make a long story short the “concert” did not start until about 8:00….Here is the best part though. Now that the concert had finally started Magda and I started talking to this couple that were backpackers…the jazz festival? Not a jazz festival…apparently we were at a political rally for the communist party. Yep, those communist sure know how to party! We stayed to listen to the music but after that this guy started making a speech and working the crowd into a frenzie…so we took off. Still we thought it was pretty funny that the Polish girl and the Chinese girl would happen to wander into a communist party function….That’s my story and I am sticking to it.