Heeeere's Gianni

As I said before, I've met and chatted with more people downtown in just a few weeks than in years of living in the suburbs. It helps that I'm walking with a dog that makes people smile. Many stop and coo over him. This morning, I was stopped by a little Italian man who lives around the corner.

"Hey, I've seen you before, I know your dog!"

Next thing you know, we're having a grand old chat about life in Canada, and in Montreal in particular. He's from Bari, Italy.

"You know it?" No. "Well, the best pizza comes from there. And from Napoli. Bari and Napoli, we make the best pizza. And focaccia. You want good focaccia, you go to Bari. Focaccia alla barese. It don't get better than that."

I ask if I can snap his photo. "Sure, you can, beautiful woman. You a beautiful woman, you can take my picture. You married?"

Oh oh. But I think (hope) he's just being inquisitive and this isn't a pick-up line.

Yes, happily, yes, yes, very happy, yes. I ask him if he's married.

"Oh yes. But no children. So that's why I travel, everywhere, all the time. You got to live. Everybody, they don't live. They work, to buy all these things, but they don't live. Me? I live."

He smacks me on the arm as I walk away.

"I like you! I see you again!"

Ciao, Gianni.

A few blocks later, Buddy and I find ourselves in some kind of soccer game for an insurance company and he's made another new friend.

 Life in the city.

It is not boring.