If you are a Jazz lover, you should be here in Roccella Ionica, Italy. Every odd year, I get to pick the location that fellow Jazz lover, Kevin Bacon, and I travel too. Kevin and I met through his father, Ed Bacon. Ed and I worked closely with on many projects while he was Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Kevin and I were helping to organize the the Ed Bacon Foundation in 2004 and discovered a joint love of Jazz.
Kev and I kept in touch and would share photos and stories from different Jazz festivals. Last year, he invited me to Jazzfest in NOLA, where we had a blast. He even got on stage one night as a buzz flew around the room to who was on stage. After that, we agreed that I would choose the festival in odd years, and he would pick the even years. This year I decided to take him to one of my favorite festivals: The Roccella Jazz festival.
This year, we decided to spend the days touring Italy while recovering from the night before. Kevin does a great job of changing his look just enough to be able to stroll through unnoticed. Having been with him when he doesn’t do this, I really appreciate him trying to go undercover.
As we strolled through Roccella Ionica and nearby Crotone, we kept seeing red and white poles off in the distance. Not sure if these were from aggressive barbers or something more. Finally, Kev and I came across one up close and got quite a chuckle.
It turns out that these red and white poles were actually advertisements for a great italian soda, Chino!
