“The healthy being craves an occasional wildness, a jolt from normality, a sharpening of the edge of appetite, his own little festival of Saturnalia, a brief excursion from his way of life.”
Robert Morrison MacIver (sociologist, 1882-1970)
Over the last thirty years, the Baccanale festival in Campagnano di Roma has provided a yearly ritual of “occasional wildness” for the healthy founders of the ICBIE, Roy and Pietro, and this year was no exception, with a big group of ICBIE friends enjoying artichokes, sausages and wine in the fresh country air. Monica, Roberto, Paolo, Consuelo, Guido and Damiano came up from Rome, as representatives of ICBIE Europa; Steve flew in from Limburg to represent Lahn Artists; Júlio and Thais from Salvador arrived after their travels through northern Europe; Lars from AOSR rode his bike over from Anguillara and our old friends Paige, Grant and Branca joined in the fun, too.
Surprisingly, the revelry continued even as we got down to pressing ICBIE business, in preparation for a busy sequence of upcoming events. Paolo got out his pandeiro and Guido started to play his cuica, forcing the girls to get up and dance a bit of samba.
Saturnalia in December may have been great for the ancients, but after being corrupted by Bahia, we definitely prefer our Baccanale in the balmy springtime.
