Italy 2012: Day 5. Hooligan Chat

We spent most of day 5 watching the forklift handlers pack our crates onto the truck. Time Machine and I didn't have to, but since She Jimmy did, we went with for solidarity. We completed our work in Mantova well ahead of schedule.

In other news, my foot spent the day growing larger and looking like a piece of meat:

Later in the day we went back to Tiratappi. Here's an image of my first baccala:

and the dessert. That's ricotta with pistachios and candied orange, with bittersweet chocolate dribbled all over it. Oh man.

Then we went to the outdoor bar at the piazza next door. First I bought this completely excellent light up Donald Duck from an alleged deaf person for 3 Euros. 

Then our desire to know more about a song that was playing over the sound system that sounded like an Italian version of "Iron Man" led us to a long conversation with local hooligans. They were a mixed group of boys and girls. Super tipsy, tired of Mantova, very funny. One young man had the winning combination of the best English skills and the most annoying personality. Again our Time Machine was the source of unwanted female attention. This was ironic as his girlfriend had broken up with him via letter, as he was getting on the plane to Italy.

On this particular evening, one of the young Mantovani started trying to play footsie with him, as her boyfriend stood nearby. She Jimmy intervened by switching seats with TM. I was apparently too old to notice, or working too hard to diffuse situations that were likely to erupt with the super amped annoying kid on my side of the table. 

At one point the Mantovani took possession of my notebook and left us a poem constructed of snippets of song titles, and the annoying kid taught us a dirty toast, which is also now in the book. This blurry photo sort of sums it up. Annoying kid is on the left. The woman at the back of the photo who looks like a zaftig Louise Brooks seemed really intense. She was the one person I wanted to speak with who I didn't get the chance to. Bet she has a story.

So ends Day 5.