COLLISIONI A NOVELLO: A Collision of Rock n' Roll

“I am going to miss you!”, Manu said as we hugged goodbye after our “Full Immersion” bonding weekend. Friday night was spent partying with Spanish Food and Rosè, and our excuse to hang out together Saturday was to go see an artsy music festival called Collisioni in a small Langhe town called Novello.  Organized by local artists, this Collision rock and roll weekend has become an internationally recognized event.

Last year during this time I couldn’t attend because of the friends and relatives swarming in for our June 5th wedding. This year everything just seemed to fit into place as we peered across the valley to La Morra, site of our newly acquired property! It was a bright limpid day. We immediately found a blossoming cherry tree on the way and saw butterflies everywhere (a personal lucky omen). The whole weekend we were amazingly in sync with Manu and Luca (our future architect). Things just felt right!

Friday night we missed Caparezza but I was still excited to hear one of the greatest American authors of all time Paul Auster speak in front of the crowd. I bought another one of his books, Sunset Park, just in case I could catch him for an autograph. Well instead of waiting it out, the Italians were getting hungry and I succumbed by going to the EATALY food tent and getting one of the best farinatas I have ever tasted!

Not only were there alternative bands, authors, and actors but there was also the Italian legendary singer Ligabue. Even if I am not a fan, I think it is pretty awesome that such a famous Italian was showing up to a tiny town like Novello, all for free. We heard his new doc movie was pretty good so we stood to there watching it on the big screen and waited anxiously for his appearance. Well…we painfully waited while listening to his heart-wrenching song “niente paura” on repeat for a half an hour until he finally came out. We were so sick of that song that almost as soon as he walked on stage we rushed out of there to explore the other piazzas where we found great bands!

One band that particularly caught my interest was the folksy Sans Papier. We absolutely rocked out to Roy Paci at 1:30 am for the grand finale too. It was a mix of bongos, trumpets and electronic music. It was a fantastic night and carried over to Sunday when we cancelled winery visits to just hang out in the sun and eat lunch outside with these same friends all day long. To conclude the post, I highly suggest you A) come to Collisioni in Novello B) Come to this quaint town on a normal day C) Listen to Roy Paci and Sans Papier and D) Eat Farinata!