We were traveling in Italy recently and what really made our trip memorable are the encounters with Italian grandmas. I just crossed a busy road in Rome . A grandma right next to me sprinted across and came back with my baby’s missing shoe. I hadn’t even noticed and she thought it would be easer to run twice than try to communicate with me through our language barrier.
Another time, I was looking Fontana de Travis and wandered in the name of looking at this and that. Out came a grandma from a small café and she at once knew I was lost.She took me by the hand and asked where I was heading for.Then she led me to the fountain and three minutes later, I was standing in front of the masterpiece.
On the last day of our trip, we were in the local metro train and a very old grandma got on.The train was full and many of us offered our seats to her. She accepted my offer and a couple of stops later. I found myself sitting again, right next to her.We chatted, she in Italy and me in English. When she learnt my husband and I wereheading for Tivoli, she took out her return tickets for the expensive inter-city bus and put them into my hand.
I’ve lost count of the grandmas who played with our baby as if he was their own.But the warmth of all those grandmas is very hard to forget.