Josh and Audrey’s old roomate, Vera, invited Lawren and me to a meeting of Scala Colore. Its a colletivo of designers and artists who’ve been meeting for the last three years, Verona cats around our age or younger. They do projects funded through the city; public shows, art events, printed matter, workshops. Currently, they’re organizing a Verona submission to the 2008 Turin Art Festival, which will be held in June.

Really a cool group. At last, some Verona hipsters! We’ve been in and through various scenes since coming here- Le Dame Dei Cani (the Dog Ladies), the Rough Boys of La Carega (Charlie, Ugo, Fede, and Lucca), the Eastern European scene of Rosa’s family, even the expat Americani (Josh, Stephen, and Driscoll P.), but we have yet to hang with a big group of young artsy fartsies like these, with their beer, butts, and unshaven jaws. At one point during the meeting, several of them peel off in a group, returning ten minutes later twinkle-eyed and a notch more loquacious. Let me be clear- the Scala Colore members are working, or else they’re deep into school. They’re serious. We’ve seen their samples and they are pretty slick, pretty talented- could be a great opportunity, working with them.

The meeting is raucous and fun, if hard for us to follow at times. Everyone’s in full slang mode, talking all at once, slinging jokes back and forth. There are two Fedes’, a guy who describes himself as ‘il buffone‘ (‘the fool’), a cool chick named Elisabetta with whom we strike up a chat, and a soft-spoken fellow named Mirko who claims to want to buy something of mine after I give him my cards- we’ll see about that. Lawren and I have to introduce ourselves to the whole group in Italian- che paura!

It’s been said of Italians but I’ll say it again; they love to talk, love the sound of their own language. As a result, a discussion requiring one hour will easily take two and a half.