I have to say, I haven't been to Italy for a while. When I first arrived to Europe it was one of my favourite destinations. When I moved to Germany, this changed, until recently. In February 2020, I had the amazing opportunity to participate in a Workshop and Performance offered by CUS 2020.
To arrive there was a real Odyssey, I was trapped in the airport due to bad weather conditions, which meant having my flight cancelled more times than I can remember, having my luggage lost twice! and of course nights in hotels and unexpected extra costs. At some point the only thought in my head was, I want to go home! I did meet nice people in all of the airports, so now that I look back it was all part of the adventure after all ,and I am so glad I didn't give up.
After 48 hours journey, I arrived to this quite odd place, not at all the romantic Italy I am used to. I still had a bus to take to finally arrive at my final destination, but there was no bus station! Somehow I managed to communicate in a mix of Spanish and Italian, someone told me where to get my bus ticket. I entered a small Tobacco shop which seemed to be the hot spot for the locals. I got my ticket and I couldn't resist to the smell of Italian coffee! I checked the time and yes, I still had some minutes left. OMG already the taste of this cappuccino was worth the whole trouble I went trough.
Beautiful place hidden in the mountains.
I was the only passenger in the bus. The bus ride took 40 minutes, during the ride, I wondered where on earth I was heading to. When the lady bus driver told me we had arrived, and I got off the bus, I was speechless. The people from the residency where already expecting me, but I did had to take a few seconds to assimilate what I was looking at. A kind of fortress on top of the mountains. I looked at the map, and there was a church, and some other touristic places, but no theatre! I walked and found a nice old man who gave me directions. Cause I had no internet, of course.
And then from then on I felt so immensely happy. The artists guiding the workshop, the people organising everything and the artists participating in the workshop where so nice, everybody was open to learning and sharing. Everyday came with new experiences, a lot of information and challenges and in between delicious Italian fresh food! It was just a 6 day workshop, for me 5. I will keep very nice memories of the whole experience in my heart, and the people, I am sure what we built there was just the beginning of something special which at the moment and after one month I still can't describe.