“Bellissimo!” Cries a halfdrunk Roman when the sky breaks into pieces and all but our two tables run inside for shelters. “6 Mesi! 6 Mesi!” Yes, six months, he tells us, it’s been six months since it last rained like this. He is very happy and his friend who’s taking shelter is summoned to come sit with us.
They talk to us like we’re native Italians, I’m just as happy, not one person here apart from Cristina speaks actual Italian to me.. No, I lie, there is one more.
Today, Gaby came to my work so we could go out for lunch. We went to the little bar across the street, I drink my coffee there every morning and have lunch there as often as not. So we eat our panini, and sip our acqua. Gaby had herself uno panino al tonno e pomodori, and me, I’m not sure, but I think it was uno panino caldo al prosciutto e mozzarella, yes, it was quite good, a little bun with mozzarella and some kind of smoked ham which was then toasted for my eating pleasure. After the meal I had a caffè, since that’s just awesome here.
So, after you eat/drink you have to go to the cassa to pay.
It’s quite an ordeal for me, usually, because frankly, I’m scared to speak up.
Today however I went: Due panini, un….caffè, e uhm… due acque…liscia (not sure if that’s correct but whatever).
And this woman, who is there everyday, seeing me stumble, brightens up, laughs and shouts: “BRAVA!”
So that was definitely one of the greatest moments this week 
And yay it rains! The two guys who joined us were both kind of drunk, and were very happy with the fact that we were Dutch but could understand Italian. Oh and one of them had a dog, called Breadcrumb, so awesome.
Anyway, so they’re talking about politics and Amsterdam and crap like that and I just sit there and nod and so does Gaby mostly, and then out of nowhere, this Italian guy who has never met me before starts badmouthing the Pope!
Well I’ve never..! But really though, what the hell?! He’s talking about how bad it is to have a German Pope, and that the former Pope was so much better and really quite like a superhero. Then he says the weirdest thing… He says something about him touching small children… I was just sitting there like: ‘o_o
I mean geez, I thought Italians were like the uber-Catholics, purebred and stuff! So yes, after that we decided to somewhat exit stage right.
So I went: “Mi dispiace molto, ma dobbiamo andare.” I shake his hand and go “Piacere. Ciao!” So yay, I kind of did some Italian right, I think, I’m not sure, at least he understood…
