Page 211

We looked for the map of New York, to see which route we would take, but we had forgotten it in the room, never mind, we would have checked the time it took to get to the Waldorf so that we could adjust for the return. 

"Italian?" the taxi driver asked, slowing down at a traffic light. 

"Yes, Italians." 

"My mother's mother was also Italian. So we often eat spaghetti at home. I like amatriciana. But even with garlic and oil and chilli my colleagues do not understand it but you can see that in me the blood is not water. They told me with garlic and oil. I always wanted to go and visit Italy and also the tomb of my mother's mother, she said it was a very beautiful tomb with marble, cross, cypresses, everything in short, but unfortunately I have the passion, indeed you could say the mania for fishing and I noticed that if I don't go fishing at the week-ends then I remain in a bad mood all week and then I said to myself, but look at the traffic at this time!... then I said to myself it is useless to spend so much money to be in a bad mood and so I bought the best book on Italy I could find and when I go fishing I look at it and study it and now I think I know Italy as an Italian, I can tell you that Leaning Tower of Pisa has 293 steps, which in Venice there are 1880 bridges, which... "

"Good boy!" I said with a running enthusiasm.

"My son, on the other hand, was there in Italy, landing in Sicily. Cassino taken, all that stuff there, he says it was not very pleasant even if he found the time to get a girl pregnant but since the poor girl is dead and so is the child, he married a Chinese girl... Have you already been to Chinatown? After all I am a quarter of it too, the trouble of the Irish...