Every other Wednesday night I host s dinner at one of the local restaurants where we talk about what in the affairs of man is concerning us the most. It is not to argue; but to discuss. Usually nine people show up: Some Brits, a Frenchie or two, Americans, an occasional Italian, Dutch and so on. It is always interesting and informative. ‘Ukraine’. ‘Tariffs’, ‘Brexiy’, ‘NATO’, ‘Iran’…all the obvious topics. This coming week, however, I’ll bet we talk about something we have not had to talk about in the past: The Weather. We”ll see.  For weeks now, we have been suffering through temperatures in the high, high 90’s. 15 degrees above the normal averages. Everybody is bothered by it. Neighboring countries are on fire. It does not look like a passing thing.

I’m hereby asking my readers if they think the weather is an important topic. Is it too political?  Is ‘Climate Change’ a Hoax? Or is it just a Hoax in Washington D.C.? Is it too late to not “Drill Baby Drill”? Are you a Communist if you think people should be protected from Climate Change even if it is not a Hoax? I will report on this week’s conversation next week. If any of you have a thought on this, please send it to me. Thanks.

(The above picture was taken this week, during our town’s  charity dinner for the benefit of the people suffering in Gaza – another one of those ‘Topics’ of the day.)

“Va Pensiero”…(Think As You Go) -Verdi…sung the other night in our Piazza…Think about that.

Do you see that table? It is traveling down the ‘Borgo’, the cobble stoned street exiting our piazza. There are about twenty stores on the Borgo; Ceramics, art works, a bank, a Fruit & Vegetable Lady, those sorts of things. The other night there was a dinner, about 175 people attended. (Hardly any cost at all: $20 per) No reason for it other than to get together and have a dinner on the street under the night sky.The benches were not meant to be sat on as long as we did. The food was OK but nothing to write home about…the service was slow, but friendly (- several of the Borgo store people provided the service – they weren’t professional waiters or anything like that) The whole thing took way too long. But everybody can’t wait until we do it all again.

There were: Locals, Foreigners from many lands, young and old, Everybody seemed to be getting along; but I don’t speak any language other than mine so maybe I missed some things. You could buy lottery tickets and maybe win a prize…bottle of wine, discounts at local stores – those sorts of things…A group of five year olds drew the winning numbers out of a bag. They were too young to do the job and did not know what they were doing – even though they enjoyed whatever it was they were doing. I don’t think the lottery was fixed and it was more fun than it was confusing. I think we won something. just by coming.

• “Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” —Abraham Lincoln
• “Be simple enough to feel the true joy of life.” —Debasish Mridha

Or, totally unrelated:

• Don’t play a game where they can change the rules when you are just about to win. Just leave and let them play with themselves.  –Changing Zha

 

Al, Thanks for the coffee

 

 

 

 

See those tables down there under the night sky? This is a scene from a  birthday party given for one of the owners of the caffe shown in the background. To the right is a DJ who played ’til about midnight.  After dinner, everybody danced, including me. I did my Travolta/Pulp Fiction imitation. Nobody noticed. There were: Italians, Romanians, Albanians, Americans, Sri Lankans, Nigerians, French, Germans, Brits, young, old, infirm, hard working, ‘Well to do”, Religious, Agnostics, waiters and cooks. Everybody having a good time of it. Why isn’t it like this the world over? What ‘Special’ is going on here? I mean the birthday man was only 65 years old – it’s not like he was a hundred and ten, or won the Peace Prize or anything. It was just an excuse to have an extra good time. O.M.G. there is another party scheduled for tonight. This one is to celebrate the cooking of several of the local restaurants. Food will be served in the Piazza. There will be music, of course. Sometimes I think we are having too much of a good time…is it something in the local water? Or, is there too much Round-up in the waters back in the States which makes the  people back there not want to dance in the streets?

 

• “Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink. The years go by, as quickly as you wink. Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself,It’s later than you think.”               -recorded by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, 1949
• “If you’re not having fun, you are doing something wrong.” -Groucho Marx
• “When people wrong you, go after
  those people, because it is a
  good feeling and because other
  people will see you doing it..” -DJ.. Oops, this came from an alternate universe., or an AI meddler.

 

Do you see that building across the Piazza? The one with the dark rectangular window openings? That is a picture of the Locanda/the Albergo di Verrazzano…a Locanda is a place where one can stay overnight and where one can eat. This Locanda is perhaps the oldest in the world…been going since 1400, give or take. (Even older than the U.S.) Guests used to arrive on horseback. Today they come every which-away. A story: My wife and I had been living here, across from the Locanda for about 6 months…when she had a conversation with a woman two terraces over from ours. The woman said, “My sister owns the Locanda…and we know you have not eaten there…and we know it is probably because you are vegetarians…but if you go over and make a reservation, she will make you a special meal.” Of course we immediately ran over and made a reservation for the following night. Two days later, our terrace neighbor asked us how we liked the meal. Small town. Everybody here knows everything about everybody here. This is not a place to be if you are on the lam.

Of course if you eat at one restaurant all the other restaurants know you ate there, so you have to go to all the others to make up for your transgression. It can get complicated. I lived in NYC for a long time and nobody ever knew where I went or what I ate. It was good there; but I think I like it more here – even though the people here know more about what I am doing than I do.

• “The nice thing about living in a small town is that when you don’t know what you’re doing, someone else does.” -Immanuel Kant
• “A small town has as many eyes as a fly” -Sonya Hartnett
• “It’s the little things that smoothes people’s roads the most” -Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn

&nbsp