A woman in Rimini

When I traveled to Italy last month, I visited Rimini. You should get a bus near the Rimini station to go to San marino, which is the smallest republic all over the world.

I had to have my suitcase kept in a locker in the station. I found the lockers at the edge of the platform. When I was at a loss how to the locker, a slender young woman came close to me. She also tried to put her bag in the locker. I asked, ‘Do you speak English?’ ‘No’, she said but she told me in Italian how to use the locker, showing by a gesture. So I knew I needed 5 euro coins and went to a kiosk for changing money.

It was very cold and rained on the day. I forgot to take my umbrella from my suitcase…and I bought new one for 6 euro at a tabacco shop in front of the station before I got on the bus.

It took about 50 minutes to San Marino by bus. It was colder there than in Rimini because it locates at the top of a mountain. I saw a temperature indicator show 3°C. I didn’t have any winter clothes. To be worst, It was a foggy day. It was too foggy to see someone who walked in front of me..

All I did there was visit the national museum and a cafe, a post office.. And I wrote two cards and post them there.

So I didn’t enjoy staying the city. I got a bus at 5 ahead of schedule and came back to Rimini.

When I crossed the road after I got off the bus, I felt someone watching me. I turned around and found a woman who stood in front of the tabacco shop where I bought the umbrella look at me. We looked at each other and she smiled. Although I didn’t remember her and didn’t know why she smiled then, I bowed a little and passed.

It was not until I got to the Rimini station and opened the locker that I recalled who she was. I met her that morning, indeed. I felt that seeing again by chance was a kind of luck for my trip.

That day was a washout but not a total.

What I found in Ravenna

I stayed the hotel ‘Argentario’ in Ravenna, Itary ,visiting there last month. I found a Japanese picture in the dining room of the hotel when I ate breakfast. I didn’t have a camera then, so I took a picture with my mobile phone. I asked a staff of the hotel how they got the picture.

‘I don’t know’. she said, ‘It’s very old and I think someone presented it the owner.’

It didn’t seem very expensive but I was surprised a bit. Ravenna is famous for mosaic pictures but the old city is small. You can walk around the city for a day.

The Birth Place of Pinocchio

‘Nani ka O-sagashi desuka (May I help you)?’
I was talked to by a Japanese shopper at a grocery shop ‘La bottega golosa’ in Japanese when I walked around the central market in Florence, Italy. I was surprised because I thought Japanese runs a shop in the local market. But she said, ‘I take a part-time job’. I spoke Japanese for the first time after I started to travel, so I enjoyed talking to her for a while.

I found a big Pinocchio doll in front of the shop.
‘The author of Pinocchio was born here, wasn’t he?’, I asked (I came to know that the day before ).

‘Yes. There is still the house where he was born near the market’, she said.
‘Really?’ It was very interesting information.
‘Maybe on the Taddea street.’

I tried to find the house that morning because I had some time until I would go to the Uffizi museum. Some old houses are on the street but I couldn’t find the house easily.

I walked along the street and asked police and a clerk of a hotel on the street. Finally, I found the old house and the wall relief that said, ‘IN QVESTA CASA NACQVE NEL 1826 CARLO LORENZINI DETTO IL COLLODO PADRE DI PINOCCHIO 29 OTTOBRE XX‘ on the entrance.

The house isn’t a tourist spot and maybe someone lives now.
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I bought a Pinocchio novel (Japanese edition) after I came back to Japan.