Stories Of...Syracusa

This morning after a stroll through a flea market at Piazza Santa Lucia, where I was greeted with the kindness of merchants who gave me free fruit, I stopped by a cafe for some Succa de Pesca. Succa means juice and pesca is a seasonal fruit that’s kind of a like a cross between a big apricot and a peach. 

In the table in front of me were four burly men and this little girl, about three. Their cologne collectively smelled like my uncle. One of the uncles was stirring his espresso, when it spilled out and dripped down the cup. The girl got a little mischievous glint in her eyes and cheekily extended her finger out to run her finger along the drip. The uncle play scared her and she broke into the most infectious laughter. They had a few back and forth’s of this game of espresso finger tag. 

They played the way me and my uncles played. The way I play with my little cousins. 

A kid’s first instinct. How do we grow to lose it?

Sidebar: What would a guy think if on a date I extended my finger out and dipped it into his beer. Would he think that was play? 
                                                      Anyways, I digress. 

I think you get to know a lot about a person by the way they play. I think dates should be over a game, not over a glass of beer. I know that sounds weird but really I think it’d be much more insightful than talking in a pub about the time you hitchhiked across the east coast. What about a scavenger hunt through the city? Or dancing in the park? Or getting on the tube and getting off at a random stop and seeing where it takes us? We do it with our friends. Why not with prospective lovers too? 

Anyhow, I’m done with my juice. Talk soon.


                                                                                                                                              Stories of Syracusa 
                                                                                                                                 Sunday, November 14, 2021