June 18 Cascata de Marmore and more Terni shopping

Back in Terni, I was on the hunt for a deck of Scopa cards, the Italian card game we played every night in the cabana of La Romita.  You go into a Tabac store and ask the man behind the counter for them. Around the corner from this interesting winking pope graffiti, I found two different versions, the Napolitano and the Piacetine, in a spotless Tabac. I bought them both, with James, who was super excited. Then we were free to wander down the lanes, and I showed James where we could stand under the music school's practice rooms, in the same lane as the L'aura shop, and listen to the musicians. A singer practiced arias as a bassist jammed to a jazz rhythm. Young people walked in and out with backpack guitar carriers and all kinds of velcroed cases. I vowed to pick up my flute (in its old-fashioned hard case) when I returned home.

Here's the main building of Terni, constructed after the town was flattened in WW2. It's an interesting manufacturing town of over 100K people, with old and new apartments outside of this large piazza. But, today we were off to visit the famous Cascata de Marmore, immortalized in Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage."

Hot. Hot. We were beyond hot once we found a place to park and walked to the entrance of the popular falls, the highest manmade waterfall in Europe. The Romans had a different way to "drain the swamp" back in 271 BCE, and Manius Curious Dentatus redirected waters that flooded annually to create this waterfall. I changed into my bathing suit and put on my coverup/nightgown/tablecloth dress. Not a great look with red-laced hiking boots, but I really wanted to get into the water. Edmund had flat-out said "No!" when I asked him about it, but I figured I would find a safe place for a dunk. Nope. Once I saw the force of the falls, water that's released for a certain amount of time daily, I headed up the path. Dawn and I wanted to go all the way to the top, but the stairs were creaky. We went to the first "Lovers' Lookout" and it was closed to a private party. The second lookout was lovely, but we heard there was no place to get into the water at the top. So, we went down a different way, saw some cool old caves carved by the water, and went to the true soaking area, a ledge where the mists and cascades of water drenched us. Incredibly cold water refreshed us, dotted our phones, frizzed our hair, yet we still managed to enjoy ourselves. 

Tonight, another workshop. I think I'll share "Elvis in Orvieto," a poem with potential.