In the rear view mirror.
Catanzaro sucked ass.
In addition to the stress of poor organization, our hotel was near nothing but a beautifully long bridge to walk into town.
Our street shows were in Catanzaro Lido, which was a beach town like Huntington Beach, and the shows there were fun, but windy as hell... scary when you're on a trunk balanced on a pipe, on top of a tile topped bench, juggling torches... or standing on volunteers arms for a two high, juggling fire... or having a volunteer feed you fire... it was just really bad conditions.
One night I was spinning my broom like a staff and did a throw, only to have it thrown into my audience by a well timed gust.

On the stage it was worse. At times the wind threw dust so gritty it felt like Burning Man... so I wore my goggles. Pretty hairy to juggle pyrotechnics in, since the wind was gusty and dead on the stage.

I might have liked it more if I wasn't so hung ove so often from drinking away the stress of not having been paid yet...
My living expenses here are covered enough by my busking tips, but bills at home need to be paid... First they said it would go by direct depost, then they asked for a swift code to wire transfer the money faster since many of the 25 artists on the tour with me performing circus arts and break dancing are all overdrawn and bouncing checks at home while we work hot long days in Italy. GFF Events finally cut most of us checks today (mind you, not the certified checks we asked for, since our trust is running low) that we paid out of pocket this morning to DHL to friends in the states to deposit for us. I now understand why Dominique Jando, formerly the head of the Big Apple Circus and artistic director of the Circus Center in SF, CA warned me about doing business in Italy.
I have been given many promises, such as, "more often than not you'll eat with the crew for free or go to a restaurant we arrange deals with for discounted meals". We had a discounted restaurant in the first town. We've been taken to dinner, I believe, twice in 3 weeks. To me, more often than not is 4 days a week...
The financial issues have been very stressful, and we're getting different answers constantly, which finally culminated in a check to cover not only back pay but a few weeks into the future. No problem, I like that that, but what about covering the overdraft fees incurred by many of us for our bills stateside? Or at least paying the 36 euros it cost to send it via courier? GRRRRRR......
Thankfully, now we're in Brindisi, it's a lovely town and a nice hotel, I'm rooming with one of my favorite fellas on the tour and drying out a bit from drinking away my worries every night. I'll do a happy dance when I can send word that all checks I wrote before I left are good... And in the mean time, I think I need to go back to work on my tan...
Ciao, and bon fotuna...
MT