Destination: Perugia

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At Perugia airport, we waited among a crowd of Brits for the Ryanair flight, and picked Beck up just after 11am. The flat proved to be very close to the festival venues, in a row of houses by a steep staircase and an aqueduct, with a terrace at the back, shaded by a walnut tree and vines. There was a small general food store in the piazza at the top of the steps and we stocked up with basics: milk, bread, fruit juices, bottled water. Later in the afternoon, we met Tom and Stacey, who arrived in the piazza by bus from the railway station.

After dinner in the Piazza IV Novembre, near a stage where an American R&B band was playing, we joined the passeggiata and strolled up to the garden by the Brufani hotel. A large and buoyant crowd had gathered to watch Rockin Dopsie Jnr singing soul covers with a New Orleans zydeco group. At midnight in the hotel, we were served cocktails while we watched a virtuoso set by the New York clarinettist and saxophonist Anat Cohen and her trio. Marcus Miller was at a nearby table, in his pork pie hat. In the lobby, Herbie Hancock was checking in. Even at 130 am, he acceded cheerfully to a request by an Italian fan to be photographed beside him.

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