Antonella Baccaro (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
“Uscythians? ” It is almost evening, in Rome it is hot, but the west is beginning to breathe encouragingly.
A sports car, on board two young men in their thirties, approaches me and my friend V. as we walk in single file along the road, skimming the cars, unable to use the sidewalk due to the cars parked “Roman-style” (as it comes, ed).
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For once we have unlined the long dresses: an elegant evening awaits us, we walk looking at the ground, poised on heels, to avoid holes and scrubs.
“So, are you going out?” is the insistent question of the two over-tanned people looking out the window, accompanied by a whitened smile. My friend and I look at each other with the obvious air of someone who is not understanding but we don’t even have time to reply: “Are you going out in the car? We have to park – the driver gets impatient -. What did you think we were in tow? ».
No, we didn’t think so. So much so we didn’t think that we just couldn’t understand what the question was referring to: we couldn’t think about the parked car, having arrived by taxi, aware of not finding a place in the area and wanting to avoid long walks on heels.
The car with the two on board scurries away, the sound of their laughter comes from afar and we are stunned for a moment. Luckily, a sense of humor assists us, otherwise we wouldn’t have burst out laughing and wouldn’t have repeated the anecdote to friends all evening.
Even to pick it up though, I don’t know who: we have definitively agreed that “cat calling” is not good because it is a form of violence. So feel bad because the two weren’t doing what they shouldn’t have done, you can’t.
Self-censorship because perhaps deep down I think that if I had really received a nice invitation from two young men it would have been at least invigorating, it seems excessive to me.
All that remains is to complain about the parking lots, the cars, the wild boars, the “garbage” and all the reasons why living in the capital has become hell. If it weren’t for the indigenous sense of humor that always makes me smile. Even when I am the “bullied”.
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