Tornata

Eccomi tornata a Reggio. The fountain, apparently not frozen, greets us with its energetic splashes of water. The Via Emilia bustles with people on their passeggiata, and the crepe guy with the erratic schedule is in Piazza del Monte. Oviesse still closes on Thursday afternoons, and Conad on Tuesday afternoons. Pan' comune is still oddly dry and crusty on the outside but fluffy on the inside, and in the cute restaurant on Via Roma with all the old-ish guys who seem to know each other, they offer us Lambrusco and I am happy to see it again. (Not because I'm obsessed with swilling Lambrusco or something, but just because it's so emblematic of this place.)

The cobblestones still snatch at my heels and they still empty the recycling bin of vetro at five in the morning with the street cleaners following close behind. Market day clogs the piazze with stalls and people. The nebbia blankets the countryside around us, though I'm proud to report that I still remember how to get to Nearby Village all on my own, nebbia and darkness notwithstanding. The blue car with its pseudo-automatic transmission still has trouble switching gears.

Speaking of which, in Nearby Village, my students have all grown about a foot each, and are fairly jumping up and down with excitment to show me their new hamster and update me on their class gossip (they're eleven).

"Allontanarsi dalla linea gialla," is still my favorite thing to hear at the train station, though I'll admit to not being able to name all the stops on the Ancona regionale anymore.

My little babysitting charge nearly leaps off the stairs at me when I pick her up from school.

"Just normal cheese," she responds when I ask her what kind she wants on her gnocchi, "grana." Obviously, says her good-natured roll of the eyes. I smile.

"Aspetta un attimo, che I need to give la Cri a hug!" the secretary interrupts her phone conversation when I walk into the school, "oh, ma questa volta non ti lasciamo piu' andare."

"Ma sei tornata?" a group of old students exclaim.

Si, son' tornata. Is there a smiley-face icon here somewhere?