Wednesday, May 12, 2010

WALKING THE LINE


An elderly lady who lives along the road here is in the habit of flinging her arms around me every time she sees me, as if I am some long-lost relative who has returned with a fortune.  She then remarks upon my pale skin and light eyes and proceeds to ask all sorts of personal questions which I avoid answering by changing the subject.  She doesn't mean to offend;  she is just interested. Today I saw her as I was crossing a busy road and, besides the usual bear-hug and interrogation - right in the middle of the road - I got a lecture because I hadn't walked exactly on the zebra crossing lines.  "You'll get run over!" she kept exclaiming mid-hug, quite oblivious to the fact that we were both likely to flattened by a motorist losing his pazienza while we were holding up the traffic.  Inside every Italianised Brit there's a daring British jaywalker so she did not reform me.

My own pazienza ran out when I saw that, in one of my favourite haunts, the Edicolè bar, they still haven't ordered in any gelati

"It seems early in the season to us", said a waiter.  "It might rain or be windy." 

When have wind and rain ever put off a gelato-lover? Sometimes I think this seasonal eating can be taken too far....

I took my custom further along the via Sacro Cuore





and reminded myself that I'm in Sicily, where  I can stand in the sun near a traditional drystone wall and exquisite roses:


14 comments:

CherryPie said...

That last picture is lovely and you look so elegant :-)

Ellee Seymour said...

Hey, you look terrific. I raided the freezer and tucked into a tub of Cadbury's Flake ice cream yesterday, it was so delicious.

Gledwood said...

That woman just sounds Italian to me...

Is Italia one of those places where it's considered a crime not to cross exactly on the marked crossing?

Rowena said...

Count me in for thinking that they do take seasonal eating too far. It was 22°C in Salento, warm enough to not have to wear a jacket, and the gelateria said that they didn't have any granita because it wasn't the season. WHAT??? You'd think that everything had to be melting to the ground before they even dared to contemplate granita.

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

I understand about seasons.. but your not exactly in the UK ha ha ha

I love your photo Pat :-)

Whispering Walls said...

Bella! Any rose ice cream?

LindyLouMac said...

Sunshine, ice-cream, boh! Cold, windy, unsettled ,rain, thunder, here need I say more.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Very kind of you to say so, Cherie. You too, Ellee. You can get Cadbury's Flake ice cream now? OMG! I must come over! Hi, Gleds. Yes, it is. But no one obeys the rules here. Hi, Rowena. Yes, you have to melt before they get the granita out! Hi, Anne. No, not exactly! Ciao, WW. No, I've not seen any. Hi, LindyLouMac. Sending you some Sicily sun herewith...

Gledwood said...

your ice cream looks like psychedelic bacon and eggs in the tiny picture on the Followers page

J. M. P. said...

We always do that in my country too, we don't eat any ice cream until it is too hot and we are melting. Too bad for us! :D

Nerys said...

Still no gelato? I'm really surprised!! Though I suppose in Milan the gelato comes out earlier to cater to the tourists... The bit about crossing the road made me laugh, stripes or not don't make a blind bit of difference here!!

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, Gleds. I must have a look. Hi, fullet. I want ice cream, even when the weather is freezing! Hi, Nerys. Only the one bar that won't stock it yet. Crazy!

James Higham said...

How's the temperature at the moment?

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

29 - 30C, James.

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