NATURAL vs ARTIFICIAL- NATURALE contro ARTIFICIALE: 1 - 0

9/4 Giorno n°3, day 3. From Livramento

we jump on the other side of the border,   in the city of Rivera Uruguay (with our tour guide  Vera from Corticeira's Tour). A real jump into something completely different, but at the same time so familiar. A huge poster of a perfume with Julia Robert's face on a modern, rather ugly building it's the first contrast I notice. I look back at Livramento and back again to Rivera : yes, We are in a different country, you can tell it. Few steps later we are surrounded by concrete: a super mega 5 star hotel, a Casino. We walk up to a steep street and a rather impressive poster of Jesus startle me

. Never seen one as big as this one. Here we are, on a beautiful high ground, were a guy is playing guitar admiring the panorama

: Rivera e Livramento are in a valley surrounded by hills. It reminds of an Italian scenario...Romantic...Then we penetrate in the town. Everything looks tidy, clean, polished. And very European. Mmhhh....The town hall is just a gigantic boring modern building

. Definitely different between the colonial one in Livramento. And the main praca (piazza/square) too is just opposite of the Livramento one: this one looks like a piazza you could find in the city of Treviso or something like that. Nothing crumbling yes, but I feel like it's missing some humanity. Livramento's is wilder, a bit decadent but greener and organic, if you know what I mean. There is something I very much like of Rivera, though: THE CHEESE STREET

, so deliciously smelly! I cannot wait to go back there and treat me for a slice of queijo (formaggio/cheese)!
Ta (ok/va bene), now it's the time to be interviewed by a Brazilian radio: lot of fun! Dottor Merda (Dottor Poo), my trustworthy adventure-mate and mascot of our Company from last Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, is the star of the show as usual

! (But, why the conductor says me "Oh you are lucky, you can use Spanish to reply"..mmmhh I'm Italian, therefore.....ah, nevermind). 
You know, I am really enjoying communicating with Brazilian people who don't speak any English: I speak my native language, so do they. And we pretty much understand each other. Don't take me wrong, but from time to time it's great to forget about English! So, sometimes being Italian it's an advantage. 
Afternoon truly exiting: Flav asks us to reflect about what we saw and chose an image, the strongest image that represents the relationship between the two city , borders and contrasts. We all agree that the open market is the one. The two cities markets are specular, they face each others, representing the strong contrast I tried to explain in my previous posts. We decide to have a walk through both, focusing on experiencing them with the help of all of our senses. Livramento's one: lively, untidy, organic, colourful, loud, smelly, real, illegal, defenseless

 . Rivera's: Grey, cold, boring, tidy, narrow, odourless, legal, full of fences

.  
We decided, we should commit ourselves to find the beauty in Rivera too. Hard work, but we'll succeed!