A Kiss (Un Bacio)

When my friend Wendy and I turned a certain age, we traveled to Italy to celebrate the milestone together.  Recently, Facebook posts of another friend traveling to the same cities we visited brought back fond memories of our birthday trip.  One encounter I experienced in particular makes me chuckle.  Our afternoon itinerary included taking a train down from Rapallo to Riomaggiore, the southern-most of the five villages comprising the Cinque Terre.   The plan, hike north to Monterosso del Mare, the northern-most town on the trail and take a train back in the evening.

After visiting three of the five villages I opted to leave the trail to take an earlier train back to Rapallo before sunset.  Unbeknownst to me at the time, economy trains in Italy are subject to cancellation quite regularly.  I waited patiently on the platform for an hour watching luxury trains speed past.  Growing anxious, I glanced at my schedule to confirm I was at the right station.  In the meantime, I noticed just a few paces away a sweet older gentleman watching me and inching closer simultaneously.

“A bella”, I heard him say as he approached to touch my cheek.  My friends and family know I love my personal space.  So, needless to say I was freaking out.  His eyes sparkled as he introduced himself in Italian.   Giuseppe, dear sweet Giuseppe who spoke not one word of English.  While ducking and dodging his romantic overtures, I came to learn he was a computer engineer from northern Italy outside Milan and that he was preparing for a business trip to New York.

Now how do I know all of this about Giuseppe?  While he spoke only Italian and I English and a bit of broken Spanish we spent three hours on the train platform communicating with one another, note there was a bit of animated hand gesturing (our version of sign language) tossed in the mix.  It was hilarious to listen to us hobble together enough of our shared languages to entertain one another and become fast friends as we waited for a train to stop.

Once we boarded the train, the overtures continued so I feigned to be asleep while he continued romancing me in Italian.  He became my prince in shining armor, saving me from the train conductor after it was determined that I held the wrong class of ticket for the particular car we occupied.  Boarding a luxury class car with an economy ticket merits jail time and a monetary penalty according to the fine print on the train schedule. He calmed down the conductor telling him I was his friend who meant no harm.

There was definitely lust on the mind of Giuseppe, because as I climbed down from the train in Rapallo, he grabbed my hand and insisted on un bacio (a kiss) before I left him.  Looking back on that experience I could not help but giggle and wonder if to an outsider the conversation between my new friend Giuseppe and I sounded much like a conversation between children babbling.  What I remember most was as he spoke Giuseppe often reached up to touch my cheek and utter una bella (pretty girl), such a sweet gesture in retrospect.