One day, while I was still just a boy, I was going to the home of a school friend and when I passed by the door of the Cathedral, some men who spoke strangely were going inside. I was very surprised because I only half understood them, and I asked my friend:
What are they saying?
Its Portuguese, couldnt you tell? he answered.
And I became curious about that language that was so similar to ours. My interest led me to study it, and over time I managed to master it so well that, as I can verify from my trips to Portugal, not even the Portuguese notice any accent in my voice when I talk to them.
I started studying Italian at the same academy where I learned English and I was fortunate enough to have a beautiful teacher from Florence, who in addition to teaching us how to speak, also made us fall in love with Mia cara Italia, or My beloved Italy, as she called it.
She taught us with so much warmth, that when she told us bits of its history, it seemed that we were experiencing it for ourselves, we were going through those streets.
I remember the day she told us about Venice, her words immediately transported me into a gondola, and I could feel it moving through the calm waters of its canals, to the point that I could almost hear the gondolier singing a barcarolle.
We were exploring those narrow nameless streets, as she told us:
I dont know how they can know their way around.
Then we reached St. Marks Square, the water level almost reaching the wooden walkway where we all walked in single file, careful not to fall, so as not to get wet. They are spread out across the square so people can cross on the day of the Acua Alta, as they call it, and walk around without getting their feet wet when the high tide floods the entire square.
She taught us these things, as she told us about them, with pictures that she had and that way we could learn words that she made us repeat until we were pronouncing them correctly.
When she told us about the Tower of Pisa, and she told us that it was leaning, my image of it was so real that I asked the teacher:
And when it falls, then what?
No, its been like that for many, many years, and it seems to be safe, it wont topple, she said, laughing at my idea.
Then she showed us the picture, I was even more surprised and I thought, I have to go see this one someday, its not enough to only see her image, I didnt believe her when she said it wasnt going to topple.
And thats how she told us things about each of the important cities of Italy, and this made us talk in a natural way about each of the places, because the whole class was in Italian.
She wouldnt let us say a single word that wasnt in Italian, and she made us ask her about everything she was saying, to see if we were learning properly and we loosened up with the language and understood everything. She encouraged us to go to her country, she said it was the most beautiful place in the world.
She showed us many images, especially of her beloved Florence. She told us where she used to play when she was a little girl, the place where she was born, the squares that were close to where she lived. It made us fall in love with those places that seemed so dream-like to us.
She told us about events that occurred in the Middle Ages when the city was very important, and those buildings that had those two-colored bricks caught our attention.
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Now, here in this station, when the guard asked me if he could help me in his peculiar small-town Italian, I could understand his words and answer him in a way that he would understand me too.
I dont know where I am, I said a little embarrassed.
That happens to many folk, dont worry. People get a surprise having gotten on in Rome and turning up here, almost getting their feet wet, he replied with a smile. This train has always been used by the people of Rome to get to the sea.
I couldnt help but smile, knowing that the same thing had happened to others calmed me down.
He was the one who told me that the inhabitants of Rome had always come here to these beaches since ancient times, and that these days they also used this train to come and sunbathe and cool off if the weather permitted it.
Its very comfortable, so they dont have to drive or worry about finding a place to park, and that way its cheaper, they just have to pay for this ticket and then to get onto the beach.
Onto the beach? I asked somewhat taken aback, thinking that I had misunderstood.
Yes, dont you know? You have to pay to get onto the beach here, he told me emphatically.
Paying to bathe? I said in surprise, but deep down I thought it was a joke.
No, you pay to get onto the beach. If you dont want to bathe in the sea, thats up to you. You can also just lie down to sunbathe, or sit down to eat a sandwich. Each person can decide what they want to do, the man said very seriously.
I was a little hesitant. It hadnt been a joke on his part. Paying to get onto the beach, Id never heard of such a thing.
Well, the important thing is that now I knew where I was. Then I asked him at what time I could return.
He informed me that the subway trains ran at all hours of the day and that it was very punctual, because as it was the first station on the line, punctuality was the most important thing for them. If they lost even a few seconds, little by little, as there were so many stations, they would arrive in Rome very late.
The phone rang inside that office and the guard said goodbye and off he went with a brisk step to answer it.
When I was alone again looking in that direction, I saw the station bathrooms, where I decided to go. I went in and the first thing I did was freshen up my face, I needed to wake up.
I knew I was not asleep, but the cool water was good for me. Having calmed down, I left and headed confidently into town. I had to find somewhere to eat, and I had to drink something because my stomach had started to grumble very loudly, since, alongside some other things, I had neglected it.
I crossed several streets and found nothing. I couldnt seem to find anywhere where I could buy some bread at the very least.
Suddenly I saw the water, the sea, there in the distance. I had forgotten it was there and I lost my hunger, at least momentarily, and I went toward it to get a better look. How could the sea be there? I still didnt get it. I just kept remembering that Id taken the subway in Rome.
Since I couldnt ask anyone because the whole place was empty, I opted to sit there for a while on the beach. It was full of dark pebbles, and almost entirely covered with everything that the sea brings in after a stormy day, logs, the occasional rag, heaps of seaweed, all dragged in by the sea.
Looking absent-mindedly over all of this, I got to thinking once more about what I was doing, about how my life had taken me, or rather, my curiosity had taken me, into such a strange situation, sitting there in that lonely place, in an unknown corner of Italy, hungry and not knowing what I should do next, or what my next step should be.
Hitting me in the face, the sea breeze was agreeing with me, erasing all my worries as if by magic. I noticed that coolness in the air caressing me, and it calmed me. I suddenly felt that I had nothing to fear, that everything was fine, that there was only that moment and that I should enjoy it, no matter what had happened, or what was still to come.
Hitting me in the face, the sea breeze was agreeing with me, erasing all my worries as if by magic. I noticed that coolness in the air caressing me, and it calmed me. I suddenly felt that I had nothing to fear, that everything was fine, that there was only that moment and that I should enjoy it, no matter what had happened, or what was still to come.
I dont know how long I was sitting there like that, looking all around me, gazing at the stones on the ground, when I asked myself, Is it really true that you have to pay to get onto the beach here in Italy? Ive never heard of such a thing in all my days. I still thought it had been a joke, by that man who had told me, even though he didnt have the face of a joker. Who would pay to enter such a place? If the sea belonged to everyone, in my opinion, who would have come up with such a strange notion.
Turning that issue over in my mind, so odd, yet so unimportant to me, I was forgetting all the commotion thatd had to happen that day to reach this point.
Relaxed, sitting there facing the sea, the Mediterranean was so calm. It seemed, as they say, As still as a millpond, so different from the Atlantic to which I was so accustomed to seeing.
There was no chance of ever finding the sea calm along the coasts of Galicia, it always seemed to be wild, like it was angry, as if it wanted to smash the rocks that prevented it from penetrating the land. It was nothing like here, where it gently approached and receded again, almost in silence, as if it didnt want to cause a fuss.
Today at least, the water moved silently. The waves were barely noticeable, although looking around and seeing the debris that was scattered over the stones, it was clear that it wasnt always so peaceful, that it also knew how to get angry. That being said, the important thing was that I was enjoying it now as it rocked gently back and forth in front of me as if it wanted to reassure me, saying, Relax, all the danger has passed.
I was watching it for a while and I began to think about how curious it is that even in nature, there are massive differences. Tiny plants born next to towering trees, long-necked giraffes alongside large-shelled turtles with almost no neck at all, although I do know that in Australia, there is a native species of turtle with a long neck. Thats rare of course, but there are many things there that cant be found anywhere else except for in those distant lands, from what Ive read about them.
Well, this wasnt the time to think about that, although one day I would like to visit that distant country and check out the curiosities of its culture for myself.
We Galicians have always boasted about the antiquity of our land, but I think the aborigines in Australia say that they have lived there for 40,000 years, that the gods had left them there to take care of everything and that one day they would return and hold them accountable for it.
Of course its important to see that different beliefs are held in different places, and I dare say, something really must be hidden behind traditions, because if not, where did they come from? Who was the first to come up with them? And why have they not been lost with the passage of time?
Too many questions always arise as soon as you start to really think about something, but it would be interesting to know all the answers.
I remembered that there is a belief in witches, or the Meigas in my beloved Galicia, and when you ask people, as I had asked my grandmother on several occasions:
Have you ever seen a Meiga? I asked her inquisitively, so she would tell me.
No, child, never, but Im sure they exist, as they say, Just because you havent seen them, it doesnt mean theyre not there, and if you dont believe in them, they come and punish you, my grandmother would answer very seriously.
That subject had scared me for a time, and it made me not want to go to my grandparents house. I was almost sure that because my grandmother believed in them, even though she had never seen one, a Meiga was roaming around her house, and I didnt want it to see me. When it saw that I didnt believe they existed, it would punish me by not letting me play or by taking away my snack, which was worse, because as my brothers say, I have always been a glutton.
My father used to say that I must have Tapeworms, because I was always eating and I was like a toothpick. I didnt understand it, but the truth is that Ive been thin all my life. My mother put it down to soccer, and more than once when she got angry because I had borrowed something, Carmen had called me scrawny, which she knew bothered me a lot.
It seems youre jealous of me, I would say, for not having my slim figure and you cant eat all the bread you want, because you say that bread is fattening. It must be for you because I eat sandwiches and Ive never put on weight. Maybe its that the bread knows whos eating it, and since it knows that you dont like to be chubby, the bread stays inside your body just to annoy you and it sees that such nonsense doesnt matter to me, so it leaves me in peace.
The discussion would have to end, because my mother would get between us and say:
Thats enough, everyone eats their own food, case closed.
Leaving a piece of her snack as soon as my mother left, she would hand it to me and say:
Lets see if thisll make some of your bones less noticeable.
I was delighted that she would give it to me, I dont remember ever saying no.
CHAPTER 5.
A mild ache in my belly reminded me that I hadnt eaten anything for a long time. At that moment, I suddenly heard a noise and I said to myself, Whats that sound? It sounded like someone was raising a metal shutter, the kind they have in some stores. Lets see if Im lucky and its a coffee shop or something. Whatever it is, at this point Ill settle for anything, sweet or savory, its all the same to me, but I cant hold out much longer without getting a bite to eat, I thought, Im going to end up fainting.
Getting up from those stones that Id spent such a long time sitting on, and becoming aware of some pain in my buttocks, caused by the discomfort of my seat, I headed toward the place where I thought that sound had come from.
I was walking slowly, my legs seemed to be half asleep because of the way theyd been positioned, when I suddenly saw a girl walking a dog. She was calling it beautiful and other things that I found amusing.
Why do people imagine that animals are listening to them? I have stopped to think about that at times. I had a neighbor who lived alone, and with the idea of keeping loneliness at bay, or so he told me, he bought a puppy. It was a tiny little thing, a Chihuahua, I think its called. If you werent careful, you could step on it, and when I would meet him on the porch as he was coming in or setting out for a walk, my neighbor would tell me:
Manu, you have no idea how good company he is.
Smiling and doubting his words, I would leave and hear him talking to his dog as I walked away.
Lets go here or there, I know you like it there, he would say to the dog.
How did he know what his dog liked? What an imagination. Well, this girl was so entertained talking to her dog, that when I said, Hi, having not seen me approach, she was startled, so I immediately added:
Dont be afraid, I just wanted to ask you if you knew where there was a coffee shop that would be open at this time.