Be My Guest!

Be My Guest!

Guests at the Hotel……  since I never really meet a stranger, I’ve met all kinds of people at the hotel.  It has been great watching so many different nationalities represented, trying to decipher which language they are speaking at breakfast.   I watch them with their families – and have come to the conclusion that we are all the same with our families.  The exchanges, the winks, the laughter, the touching, the sibling rivalry, the love for one another…… it’s all the same.  The clothing usually gives away the Germans and Italians.  Other countries are harder to decode:  northern Europeans for example – I can never match the language to the country, really.  Maybe with more practice.    I’ve met people from the United States mostly touring the Amalfi Coast and stopping over in Naples for one night on their way to some  place else….  My coaxing them to experience more of Naples, to walk the streets and talk to the Neoplitans doesn’t usually do much to change their plans….. I do hope it gives them a brighter perspective of this city, though.  The food cannot be touched by any other European city….. and the hidden ambiences and majesty is out there – you just have to look for it!  One family happened to be from Annapolis, MD and lives in the same housing addition as our son’s girlfriend, Jenny!  Amazing….  We also met our new Romanian friends, Laura and Traian, who have lived in San Diego since the early 80’s, when they defected from Communist Romania.  Their story should be a movie.  As Laura told me of their departure, having to leave their two girls behind with her mother, staying 15 months in a refugee camp not knowing where they would go or do….. until they were miraculously reunited with their girls (who are now successful business women in SD) and then citizens of the USA – I was in tears.  It was the most moving and touching story I believe I’ve ever heard, and certainly the only one like this I had heard first hand.  Watching the pain of those years long ago relived in Laura’s eyes and expression, and her own tears as well, gave me such an appreciation for them and what they had gone through to be “free”.  Real live stories sprang out of Laura from when they were married in the mountains by a monk, and then punished 3 months wages for the ceremony.  She told me of their house being bugged by the Communist party because they were suspicious of their loyalties.   Laura’s own mother, told her stories from the bible, but Laura was never told they were from the Bible, but secret stories just “between them” that she could not share with anyone else.  Not until Laura defected and went to church did she realize the wisdom of her mother and that the stories were from the holy word of God.   Our new friends are planning to show us their beautiful Romania next Spring! It will be so fun…..

I’ve also met groups of women – one group in particular was celebrated a 50^th birthday and had invited all her best friends to come along --  what fun they were having together, and had just returned from the Amalfi Coast, the beautiful enchanted city of Positano.

The hotel staff are now our friends as well, holding the door open for me as I walk Lily outside into the hectic city…..  “Buon Guorno”  we both say.  This evening, I said the usual “Buon Guorno” but was corrected by Roberto, the parking garage attendant who turned and said while shaking his finger at me, “Buona Sera Madame” and we both laughed!   His big grin always cheers me up!  The manager, Anna, is getting married in September, and has a glow about her.  She’s always eager and willing to help us out.  Troy is referred to as a “special guest”.  I’m the “special guests’ wife”, as no one seems to be able to remember my name.  I guess “Robin” is not really in the Italian vocabulary……..  so I’ll leave it at that J.