The form and function of Italy
Dear -,
Today I ate creamy risotto and salty shellfish in the tiny coastal town of Terracina. We had no idea until we arrived that there was no public transportation available! After a long day of traveling from Rome we were flustered to find we had no way to get to the town center for dinner. The owner of our hotel tried to convey to us that in the morning we could get a cab but we were determined to take in our new city at night- the next day we would leave on an early ferry. The hotel owner’s mother, patiently waiting on translation of our predicament, picked up the phone and dialed, speaking in short italian phrases while smiling politely at the two strangers in front of her. She hung up the phone and said to us, Pepe will take you! What a phrase! A local retired policeman became our impromptu cabbie for the evening. We immediately bonded over our shared love of old American Italian crooners, singing Sinatra and Dean Martin together (him wonderfully and me struggling to keep up). After dinner, I held my breath as he drove in too tiny of a car up the winding and narrow one lane road headed back to our hotel. Headlights hitting walls before we could see the turn ahead of us. As he slowly climbed the Z shaped terrain he peered at me from the side of his eye, “You want to take picture?”. I looked back at my travel companion waiting for her immediate disapproval and when I found none I tentatively muttered, “Yes?”. I knew what he was really asking on that late Saturday evening, do you want to go on an adventure? And did we!
Yours Always, K
