Light Off Limits- The Osteria of emotions
was the sign posted on the door to the city hall of Asolo. Curious about the event, I walked in with my daughter Marina where we bought our tickets based on the menu we preferred. We went for the tasting menu, with salamis and cheeses, some bread, some micro-brewed beer and digestive.
Daisy led us up the stairs to the waiting room, ushered us into the pitch black room and quickly closed the door behind us.
“Hi, I’m Dario, a strong voice says. I stick out my hand toward the voice and it gets shook. “I’m Andrea”, says a voice with a lilting “r” , and… “I’m Antonella”, a soft and gentle voice. I am really bad with names; I have to write everything down, but here I can’t; I’ll just have to remember.
Dario, Antonella and Andrea are blind, and will be serving us our dinner tonight. The event, planned by Tiflosystem is to raise awareness for the blind, and to offer the sighted a glimpse into their special world. Tiflosystem is a company that creates technology for the disabled and the brainchild of Davide Cervellin, who lost his sight at the age of sixteen. Cervellin is also an accredited journalist and author of two books as well as a member of numerous Italian and European advisory boards for the blind and handicapped.
We are led to our table by Giusy, who has a sweet voice and wonderfully supple hands. She shows us our chairs and explains how the table is laid out: A rectangle with place for six. There are four of you, two in front of each other. This is Marisa and Ido. “Hello, we say”. Conversation focuses on Ido’s glow in the dark watch. Ido says it’s hard to talk when you don’t know who you’re talking to. I find it kind of relaxing and feel more talkative than usual. Our dinner arrives and we are careful to place our glasses in a precise spot so they don’t spill. I start with my fork and taste a piece of salami, then a piece of cheese, in my fingers. After a piece of bread, I grab another piece of salami but I forego the fork. (Who’s looking anyway). Marina doesn’t want to eat because she doesn’t see what she’s eating. As I finish my meal and ask Giusy a few questions:
What do you do for a living? “I work in a bank in the administrative office; I love to help put at these events, it’s always lots of fun”. What kind of reaction do the guests have? “First of all, they are very familiar, they don’t use the formal “you” form ( in Italian) in the dark. They have fun, touching and bumping in to each other. We have a helper tonight, Sabrina, she’s just 8 years old and started out for fun, but she’s gotten used to the dark and moves around like we do. She’s great”!
The other two helpers are sighted and wear an infrared light on their head that allows them to see us but we can’t see them. After our meal we chatted with Andrea, a physiotherapist , as is Francesco. Dario works as a telehone operator, but al so teaches computer science to the blind. Antonella lives at home but one day wants to have her own apartment. Her parents are pretty protective of her, but she usually gets what she wants. Antonella is the only one with a seeing eye dog. Andrea tells me he is fine with his white cane. We talk about the train station and the rubber guides for the blind in the floor . “ So much money is wasted. We don’t think they consulted any blind people when they installed these things”.
After about a half hour in the dark, the lack of stimulation is relaxing. I wonder why I keep my eyes open, since there is nothing to see. It’s fun to concentrate on peoples voices, and the feel of their hands. I hear bells and ask Guisy to tell me where they are coming from . “Come with me”, and she leads me to a court jester. He was in the piazza for a pageant and is decked out in a velvet costume, which Giusy invites me to touch with its padded points and bells.
As we get up to leave, we decide it’s better to wait for some assistance, and Giusy is there in an instant, as she gently leads us to the door.
Davide Cervellin’s next adventure may be a culinary one. He knows about the restaurants served by the blind in Berlin and Zurich and would like to create one in Italy. Based on the turnout at the event in Asolo, he might be on to a good thing. Hey Davide, let me know—I’m ready for another blind date when you are.
Our blind waiters explain the placing of objects using a clock analogy, so that you can act in the dark. The spoons are found at twelve o'clock.
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