As the sun sets and the day slowly comes to an end, Viterbo prepares to take a break before coming back to a completely different life. In the evening families fill the center streets, walking their dogs and stoping at cafes for relaxing aperitivos with friends.
I honestly expected this tradition to come to an end as we progressed into colder fall nights, but to my surprise I still see the same amount of people going about their evening business, perhaps with just a few more layers of clothing on. The cold doesn’t stop the locals from getting out of the house and socializing!
Beyond the evening period, around 9:00pm Viterbo’s night life is born. Around the walls of the city you may just be fooled, because it is quite and everything is closed. However, in the center where the bars are located, the party is just starting.
Prior to my arrival I was aware that Europeans liked to go out late, but I was a bit shocked my first weekend when we all stood up from the bar around 1:30am, and the Italians preceded to a club. Don’t all clubs close at 2:00am?
The answer is no! Most of them don’t even begin to fill up until around midnight, earliest. It took some getting use to, but I no longer rather crawl into my bed just as things are getting good in the center. The trick is to take full advantage of pausa pranzo and sleep for as long as you can, collecting as much energy as possible to help get you through the long night. Oh, did I forget to mention this is isn’t just on weekends?
A popular night for clubbing is actually Wednesday night. Smack dab in the middle of the week. Maybe this is the Italian way of motivating it’s students to push through until the weekend, but for myself it has just made 8:30am class on Thursday mornings all the more dreadful.
Its not difficult to spot the American students at any nightlife event. Whether we are at a small bar or overpacked club, there is a spot light over our heads we just cant seem to get rid of. Perhaps this is due to the fact that we are typically louder than the locals (and I thought Italians were suppose to be the loud ones), or due to our different styles in both behavior and apparel, what ever it may be there is no doubt that we are the outcasts.
Also, this “spot light” tends to shine a little brighter over the female American students. We almost become a sort of attraction for the locals, especially for the men, who I’m assuming rarely come in contact with humans of the opposite sex willing to respond to their questions and laugh at their jokes. Cultural differences in night life scenes are almost clearly visible, since the way we party is a lot more wild and short lived, where as in Viterbo everything is slowed down and dragged out through the night.
Typically we start with a few drinks at a bar known as Book Bar, however I am not entirely sure this is the actual name of the bar. We then precede to other bars in the general area, just to switch up our surroundings and make sure we’ve greeted all of our friends. We later fill up the clubs, such as Milk and Subway.No not milk like the dairy product, and no not subway like the sandwich place, but actual clubs with a wide variety of music, disco lights, and even VIP sections. At these clubs we the USAC students often get discounts which is nice considering that we are young adults with other financial responsibilities now.
Over all I must say that for such a small city, Viterbo has plenty of great options for all of its night owls.
Hey there reader! My name is Mina Marjanovic and I am a second year college student, majoring in journalism and public relations at Chico State University in California. I was born in Serbia and have lived in the U.S from the tender age of four. On my free time I enjoy traveling as well as writing and taking photographs. A lot of my most recent pictures can be viewed on my blog at minam96.vsco.co. Currently I am studying abroad in Viterbo, Italy, where I hope to expand my knowledge and gain memorable experiences.
