I got back from giving my talk on Hippy Envy in Italy on Tuesday night but things have been a bit hectic. Sally is doing the PR for Helen Mirren’s upcoming autobiography so I’ve been doing a bit more child care than normal. Not that I’m complaining. Daisy is at a fun age at the moment and is always saying things that make me laugh. She’s got a pretty good sense of humour for someone only 33 months old.
Anyway, my talk went well. As you can see from the picture above, the setting was amazing – high in a castle in a beautiful hill top town. When night fell a full blood run moon rose making it even more magical. You’ve got to give credit to the Italians. They always do things in style.
I followed Rory Maclean, who has just written a book about the Hippy Trail called Magic Bus. And Patrick Marnham who wrote about his adventures on the trail back in 1973 in Road to Kathmandu. First up there was an opening question that established that Hippy Envy was one of the reasons I did the trip that become The Wrong Way Home. I think the organiser, Claudio Visentin, needed to justify the expense of flying me over and putting me up in a flash hotel. Then I was allowed to do what I usually do – tell stories about my adventures.
I dusted off an old favourite – my search for Willie Bob, the saddhu who lifted rocks with his old feller. It got laughs in the right places so the translator must have found the right Italian word for ‘freakishly stretched penis’. She sat in a booth to the side of me, her translations transmitted to the wireless headphones those who couldn’t understand English were wearing. She also translated what was being said in Italian into English so I was able to enjoy the other speakers there that night.
The whole evening was choreographed. A woman dressed as a hippy chick acted as the narrator, wandering through the crowd threading all the disparate elements into a single story. Being an Italian event, she was glamorous, of course, and had that deep dramatic voice Italian women have. She also had a disdainful air about her, which wasn’t really in keeping with the vibe of the evening, but was rather allluring none the less. That’s a photo of her below. (Thanks to Michele Ferrari for permission to use his pics btw)
All in all it was a brilliant few days. I’m not sure that I justified the expense of getting me there, but the students asked me a few questions, I got meet some cool people and eat some good food. Result.
Â
Â
