New Friends - Little Old Italian Ladies!

by Leslie

I think my favorite thing about being here so far is meeting the natives. They are everything they appear to be in the movies - warm, hospitable, friendly.... sometimes a little cautious at first. But it is true, if someone they know makes the introduction, they accept you right away. ( I recommend Letters to Juliet to get a feel for the people. We saw it the other night at a theatre that shows American movies with Italian sub-titles.)

Monday morning I had the pleasure of meeting some of the anziana of Fiesole - these are the little old ladies of our community. They meet every morning in the Tabacchi. This is a little store that gets its name because it sells cigarettes, but it also sells caffe and morning biscuits and has a few little tables set up inside where the anziana can sit and chat and play lotto while they have their caffe. My friend, Tina (who is American and has befriended our family,) invited me to go with her and of course I jumped at the chance to meet these adorable women. The place is only about 200 yards up the street from our house.

So, I met Pina, Lucia, Margarita, Patricia, and Giovanna. They were dressed up and ready to meet the day. They were warm and asked me questions and were kind enough to speak slowly! Not one of them speaks a word of English, so this was very good for my Italian language growth. Pina showed me pictures of her now deceased husband and son. Lucia and I realized that she and Grace have the same birthday. Giovanna didn't win anything on lotto....

Later that day we got on the bus down in the city, and who was on there but sweet Lucia. She recognized me right away and was so thrilled to meet Mark and the girls. She very patiently conversed with me all the way up the hill. We talked about what we were making for dinner, how many siblings we had, how long we would be staying in Fiesole.... So much fun!!

On Wednesday morning Mark and I had a meeting at the bank to see if we could use an Italian bank to help reduce the outrageous fees that we are getting from Bank of America to use OUR money (that’s another story!!) and after the appointment we stopped in for coffee at the tabacchi. Of course, a couple of the ladies were in there along with a new one named Franca. I had to catch the bus for language school, but Mark was staying for a few minutes. The best part was when Franca and Lucia were arguing over who was going to pay for Mark’s cappuccino!! He was a big hit!

The girls and I think that we should go up to the tabacchi every morning and get caffe and chat with these ladies. Probably the best EVER way to learn the language. Praying that God will give us grace with the language and opportunities to share the love of Jesus with the ladies. I am thinking maybe “Maddalena” as a Christmas gift will be just the ticket!!