Ok, I admit it... secretly spying on strangers on buses, trams, metros, and around the streets has become my new addiction. I urge to want to write stories about them all. It just amuses me to first study them in every possible detail I can in the few minutes I have to share with them, and them spice up the story with my perception of them.
MR ARTURO AND HIS DOG
Last week I saw one of the most beautiful man I have ever seen. He must have been on his late 70s at least. He was very distinguished and classy. He was tall and slim, wore with elegance a long coat, one of those dark green coats that slightly remind you of Sherlock Holmes. He also wore some sort of black fedora hat. Although he walked with a cane, he still had a very regal and straight up walk. His feature were the ones of a king from a deck of cards, with perfectly trimmed white beard, and white hair picking out of his hat. He was not alone, in fact it looked like he was taking his dog for his morning walk. The dog really looked just like him! He was some sort of hound with medium length hair, that on his face made it resemble to his owner's beard and hair. They both had a very serious look on their faces, walked at the same pace, with the same posture. Those are the times I wish I had my camera with me and jumped out of the bus to steal a picture of them. They were so beautiful, calm, and connected.
TEENS ATTRACTION
Two teenagers, a boy and a girl, just meet at the bus stop. They get in the bus together. They are both mixed. She looks half Italian and half Latin American, she is super cute, with very long hair, her honey hue skin, she is full of life and solar. He is probably half Italian and half North African, he's quite tall and built like a model. He has that nonchalant bored look, and he's very calm. She likes him... a lot! She is trying to find out everything about him, what is his name, where does hi live, where does he go to school... every time she asks him a question she gets closer to him in the cutest flirty way. He loves the attention, and he answers to her with a rogue whisper, maybe he does it on purpose to make her go closer to him. Indeed I can't hear his answers very well. Finally she asks him how old he is.... he replies with pride and trying to impress her "I'm 16 and a half... not, I'm almost 17!". She is in awe! She replies: "I'm almost 16...". Oh My God, how cute are they? They are so cute I ended up missing my freaking bus stop! It was like watching a movie from the 80s... I wanted to spy on them all day!
STRANGERS CHATTING
This is one of my favorite stories. The North of Italy has a bad reputation for being racist. I'm discovering that is not like that at all. People are quite friendly and used to be around other cultures. It's definitely obvious in the younger generations, when in the morning you see kids who are Italian by birth, but have the most diverse backgrounds: from Chinese to Algerian, to Egyptian, Mexican, Vietnamese, Nigerian, etc. Kids have no problem being around each other, and I love that. But I love it even more when I see older people making the effort to be good citizens by accepting and being friendly. On a Sunday, an old Italian man got on the bus. There was one sit available next to a middle aged men who looked foreign. The old Italian man, let's call him Antonio, asked if he could sit next to the younger guy. He then started to ask him where he was from, and the guy replied from Egypt (I will call him Asim). Antonio got really excited! He told him he had studied everything about Egypt but never had the chance to go visit. They had the most fun chat together, they were laughing and telling each other stories. When one of them had to leave, they shook hands, and Antonio promised him he would go see Asim at the restaurant where he worked as a chef.
This little event made me happy, in a day and age where being judgmental is so easy with everything that we are being fed by the media, it's refreshing to see that some of us know that we are all of the same race: HUMAN!
