I’m editing a series of stories at the moment, written by an Italian. One of the stories features a Georgian, whom the author depicts as Italian-looking in his physical appearance (dark hair, olive skin) as well as his body language (waving his arms about when speaking).
This reminds me of a book by an American academic who’d bought a place in Cortona in Tuscany. She said she saw an Italian man talking in a phone booth (book was published in 1996, so no mobile phones then). He had to step out of the booth to continue his conversation because there wasn’t enough room in the booth for him to wave his arms about.
Jurek, a year below me at SOAS, told me this story about a tourist in Italy who was driving up to Milan, but got lost. He saw watermelon pickers working in a field by the road, so he walked up to one of them and asked, “Excuse me, can you tell me which direction is Milan?” The man, arms full of the huge melon he’d just picked, said to the tourist, “Here, hold this,” and passed over the melon into his arms. He then raised his arms, spread his hands out, and said, “How should I know?”
(Italy)
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