SHOPKEEPERS www.chicktrips.net/shopkeepers.htm

"Shopkeepers" --- Gail


		Shopkeepers...
		The shopkeepers are so friendly to stranieri (foreigners). In Montisi, Signora Ricci's narrow little store with hardly more than one-of-each on her dusty shelves (who needs more?!), also sold the freshest produce from her garden and bus tickets to Siena. When we bought her last ticket, she wrote a note on a scrap of paper for us to give the driver for more tickets. When we pantomimed "candle", she smiled and taught "candela!". One early evening we drove to the nearby village of Lucignano d'Asso to a little store to gather dinner supplies. Accordion music was wafting from the string-bead covered doorway. The old shopkeeper was serenading his sweetheart. We chose tomatoes, pasta, meloni, fresh prosciutto, wine from their own cellar, pecorino cheese, and Tuscan bread - "No, no, you want this one for bruschetta!" (in Italian, of course). Mama and Papa weighed and counted and totaled our purchase on a piece of paper, all the while smiling with encouragement at our feeble Italian. By the time we left with buona seras and grazies and ciaos all round, we wanted to hug them and kiss their cheeks. Southern women are like that, you know. These kind, gentle people tug at my heart. I think having to communicate in such a basic way makes us really look at each other, and appreciate what that person is doing for us. Something I think we have lost in our busy world. I miss them. Click to return to Tids & Bits