Saving the best for last....

Why, you may be asking yourself, do we have a picture of a mattress as the focal point when we are writing about our last evening in Lucca? And if you were to know that these were taken on a Friday night at 9pm, might you be even more curious? Allow me to introduce what was one of our most "interesting" and "educational" times spent in Italy thus far.

It all started when Louise had emailed us a day or two prior to our visit, saying she had committed the 4 of us to an evening at the local school for what she understood to be a "mattress exhibit" that would benefit her local walking group/club. Her neighbor said a certain number of people needed to show up and Louise promised her there would be four of us attending. Rachel and I easily related to Louise's comment in the email that she "thinks" it's some sort of exhibit but given her Italian and what gets lost in translation, half the time you don't really know what you've gotten yourself into. Til you're there, of course. Now THAT we could relate to...

At 9pm after a delicious home cooked meal, we all walked over to the school for what we had been calling the "mattress festival." We could see a big spread of food and drinks in the lobby and fortunately we weren't at all hungry (because all the food apparently was for later). We were ushered into a classroom (maybe 12 x 12') that had about 40 chairs and almost that many local people from the village already there waiting. There were a couple of sleepy kids with their parents, numerous older men sitting close in front, a contingent of older women in skirts, scarves and woolen jackets looking slightly irritated but present in the row behind us,

and in the front of the room on a wooden platform was, behold, THE Mattress.
And about 15 minutes later THE "exhibitor" (or as we quickly figured out, THE salesman) entered.

For the next 90+ minutes, (yes, really!) the salesman showed us all the marvelous features of the mattress featured above, the frame, and its innovative construction and the crowd-despite the hour and what was later revealed to be an exorbitant price- never once acted impatient or impolite. They knew what Rachel and I didn't, that the good turnout meant a 5oo euro donation to their club and they'd put up with whatever they had to for their cause. So with the locals bantering back and forth, the salesman talking so fast trying to get through his spiel- complete with anatomy charts and requests for volunteers, the goodnatured teasing of the "lucky" volunteer/fellow neighbor/good sport bed-tester (see what appears to be a dead man in the picture below)

and the coup de grace: a cell phone ringing in the middle of this people-packed room, its owner answering and having a 3 minute conversation at full voice as if none of us were there. (Even the salesman just stopped and stared at her until she hung up). She, of the Harley Motorcycle couple, probably had a friend waiting at the local bar... and post phone call, off she and the boyfriend went, stepping over the crowd, noisily exiting (see bighaired couple 2 pictures above). As Rachel so aptly put it, it was like an Italian version of "Northern Exposure" (substitute Italy for Alaska and maybe Wasilla for Partigliano, and you have the idea...). What a night! And yes, at almost 11pm we were rewarded by a stopover at the potluck table and boy were we happy to see all that wine!

And finally... We had such a good time with Louise and Dom and look forward to having them see our neck of the woods in the Spring. If you want to get an even better description of our time with them (mattress festival and more!) or if you're in the market for a home in Italy (theirs is for sale) check out Louise's blog http://abbastanzabuono.blogspot.com She is a wonderful writer and has excellent descriptions of their daily life in Italy as well as pictures and descriptions of their various trips to neighboring areas. Highly recommended- a 5*****blog!