Italy cont'd

A whole lot of the adventures of my Italy trip have been outlined very nicely on MsThang's site...please visit her for some of the other details.

One thing she didn't mention, when we went back to Rome ot see the Vatican City - we had a hard time finding the place at first,m then decided to stop and eat. We went to this little Pizzeria. I had this mushroom pizza and she had this pizza with tons of peppers on it - like red and yellow bell peppers - I'mnot sure what they are actually called. Anyway, that's not really part of the story....

So - I got a Coca Cola light (Diet Coke) in a can, and poured part of it in this little plastic cup. We were sitting and talking and having a jolly old time, this really old, really poor looking lady comes in, and walks to the counter behind us. I didn't notice her much, just noticed she had on a really dirty light blue coat.

Next thing I know, I look down, and I see this really dirty fingernail attached to this really old dirty wrinkled hand, and then I saw the blue coat that wrapped her arm, the hand was reaching slowly in front of me. I looked to my right, and there she stood. The lady in blue. She said somehting in a low husky voice - Italian, I'm sure - I couldn't make it out. As she reached for my small plastic cup. I stared in shock, mouth half open - eyebrows raised.

I heard from behind an almost shout "No!", it shook me out of my daze - and I turned further to the right and saw the clerk coming toward her - reaching out to stop her drinking my Coca Cola light. I said "It's okay" as she perched her lips on my glass, and drank like she had been walking in the desert for days, no stopping to take a breath, or evn to swallow, she tilted her head back, and continued tilting till it was gone....then she licked the last drop out of the cup (ok, no she didn't, I added the lickign part) she sat the cup back down, never looking at me, and turned and slowly walked out the door - she was gone...

I tuirned to look at MsThang - we stared at each other for a brief second, then both busted out in laughter. We wondered what the lady had said, and why she was so thirsty - we made up fun stories - coure we'll never know what her story was.....