The friends are taking care of the paraphenalia from their days at the theater. They muse on the past and the future.

Cioni and Vincenzo are having a rather inebriated conversation in the little swimming pool on the roof. In the house, the friends are proposing some strange ideas of using up some old hallucinogens that have sat there unused.

Andrea has a surprise for his housemates. Later, they party with a bunch of friends.

Marta and Andrea find themselves alone in his room, now empty, and they remember the time when they had been together. He tells her of his plans.

Andrea continues to be mistrustful of what Marta is intimating to him. She mentions a house she is borrowing ai Ronchi (in the Ronchis). This prompted us to want to find out where this place is and why she says it in the plural. Here (link to lesson) is what we found out.

Cioni is very suspicious about Marta's true intentions toward Andrea. The others begin talking about their past relations and aspirations.

At the party, tension is high among the friends. Harsh words are exchanged.

The party is over and it is time to clean up and pack up. Cioni seeks out Ilaria to talk about her situation.

The friends are getting ready to leave, but it's still summer and someone gets the bright idea of going to the beach in a friend's boat.

The friends are on the boat but they run out of gas. Who had the jerry can? Arguing ensues, but they are at sea...

Fiorella Mannoia sings her 1987 hit song about women. It's a recent live performance and the audience sings along with Mannoia.

Il formaggio (cheese) is rarely missing from an Italian kitchen. This video takes us to the mountains north of Bergamo where the Monaci family has kept the family cheese-making tradition going, beginning in the stable where the cows are taken care of during the colder months.

Lo stracchino is a soft, mild but flavorful cheese that's spreadable, and we find it in supermarkets all over Italy. But the kind Francesca's family produces in the mountains, with traditional tools, is on a whole other level. Why is this cheese called stracchino? There is a fascinating reason. Watch the video.

The fine white mold that forms on the cheese helps give it its characteristic flavor, but it is also painstakingly scraped off each round. Before the high-altitude pastures are ready for grazing, humans take advantage of the snow and the trails.

Here and there in the small villages of the valley, there are interesting frescos hearalding back to earlier times. Two local recipes are offered: stuffed curly cabbage leaves and Taragna polenta, a kind of cornmeal with the addition of buckwheat.