"Solstice is the longest day, summer is so far away"

June 21, 2018 - First day of summer

The title of this post is from the lyric version of "Summer Cold" on the new Frankie and the Pool Boys CD. Listen to it while you’re reading this on Bandcamp

We rolled out of the completely anonymous Hotel Ouvest Piacenza at 11. It was fine, but as I sit writing this less than 24 hours later, the details of the room escape me. On the road, we put Luca Valdambrini’s new reggae CD on the stereo. It’s fantastic, he’s a great singer and musician. He can play anything, from a Pink Floyd cover band to subbing with Tikiyaki 5-O. And it’s a good thing we love this record because it’s stuck in the car stereo.

The road to Ronca and the Jack the Ripper club passes through Monteforte. This is wine country. Last year when I was here, the other 3/4 of the TomorrowMen explored a castle, which I thought was the mountain fort. 

So, into Monteforte we went, looking first for lunch. Karen and has an uncanny knack for finding great restaurants, so even in hunger, we passed several smaller bars and found Il Convivo Trattoria, hidden down an alley behind a hotel. We barely made it by their 2pm closing time, but they took us in. It’s a linen table cloth place, and the air conditioning was on. The menu was a little fancier than touring bands usually go for, but was a welcome change. The first bite was was a taste of carpaccio. Karen ordered the lamb chops with spinach, cherries and peas. I had seared tuna on roasted veggies. Jon and Jono went for the tortellini with truffles and Abe had the duck ragu. Just a little more than we usually spend, but totally worth it. That’s what you find when you get off the beaten path a little. (For those wondering about the frequent restaurant content, I know I have several foodie readers who demand details.) (Serious surf music coverage starts with tomorrow’s posting at the Surfer Joe Festival.)

During lunch, I texted Danny to get some clarification about where the castle was, forgetting the 9 hour time difference. Luckily he must have gotten up early, and told us to head to the next town over, Soave. 

Clearly there’s a big difference between a fort and a castle! So the van gets parked and we trudge up the hill in the heat. The castle is totally worth the effort, and the higher we get the breeze gets stronger.

Parts of the castle date to the 10th century, with constant additions made until such places became obsolete with the introduction of canons to warfare, at which point, it went into a state of "ruinous disrepair". Efforts to fix it up began about 200 years ago, and it’s a wonder not to be missed now. They did clean out the pit filled 2 meters high with human bones. The rooms are decorated with centuries old furniture, armaments and frescos, most original. The view from the tower is spectacular, overlooking the walled city of Soave, and grape fields as far as the eye can see. Soave doesn’t seem like a tourist destination, it’s stuck between two major attractions, Verona (of Romeo and Juliette fame) and Venice (needing no introduction.) It’s one of the great things about touring, that we have time off in the middle of nowhere, going to places few travelers see.

After the castle, we tooled around Soave, looking for refreshment. The obvious answer is gelato. It’s clouding over slightly, maybe it’ll rain tonight: 

We drive through the fields to Jack the Ripper, and get the layout for the evening: soundcheck (Jack the Ripper), meal (hot dogs, fries, pasta) and one long set from 10:30 to 11:45. The mosquitos gnaw on us mercilessly. The is a real rural road house.

The set goes fine once we hit our groove. There’s a few equipment bugs to go along with carnivorous kind. We focus on songs we’ll be doing at Surfer Joe. There’ a good crowd, but nobody is dancing. Someone yells, "Why don’t you sing a song". Just like everywhere... And, true story, as "The Wet Season" begin, so does the rain. We get a couple more ones in before the grout between the tiles on the floor turn to little rivers.

Memo for the next year, bring a giant bug bite stick.