Spontaneity in Italy
Italy is a land of spontaneity. In 1990 my wife and I went to
Italy for the World Cup. We had some time between games and
went down to Sicily for a short visit. We went to my
grandmother's hometown, a small place outside of Siracusa called
Solarino. I told her that I would go and take a few pictures
for her (she lives in San Diego now), not thinking that I had
any relatives left in town. Upon arriving in the Solarino's
piazza I asked a policeman where I could find the street where
my grandmother used to live. He hadn't heard of it so he asked
some bystanders. They hadn't heard of it either. One of them
said, "Hey, let's go talk to my mother, she knows everything
about this town". So off we went. Well, as it turns out, I was
third cousins with one of the bystanders, and an in-law of the
other. Pretty soon they were marching us all over town,
introducing us to various distant relatives and family friends.
It was an incredible experience. I felt like I was in a movie,
witnessing the whole thing. We stayed an extra week and every
night different family and friends took us out for gelato during
the evening's passiagato (stroll on the piazza).
On the same trip we had just left Torino after a soccer game.
There was no available lodging in Torino so we thought we'd take
a train to a town that was about an hour outside of Torino.
Well this town had no available lodging either. It was about
midnight and my wife was beginning to feel sick. About that
time a French horse jockey, obviously drunk, said he would help
us. We figured, what the heck. Within minutes two friends of
his drove up and he explains our predicament to them. They then
drove us all over town looking for a place. After about an hour
they gave up and invited us to stay at their house, a beautiful
villa in the countryside. They served us breakfast the next day
and took us to the train station.
--Steve
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