Three Things, my Wednesday post series, inspired by my love for bite-sized, tiny but mighty pieces of information.

One. This —

My weekly grocery shop takes place on Wednesday at the market outside of my house. Right outside. I go to a woman that sells little bags of chopped up vegetables for soup and then I cross over to Angelo’s stand and buy the rest from him. Each week. Four market Wednesday’s, all lined up in a row.

Repeat business builds trust and rapport. Angelo is kind and helps me with my Italian. I appreciate this. That’s all it takes to win me over. Treat me like everyone else. Show me which oranges are best for juice, direct me to the best lemons and wah-lah I’m your customer for life.

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Two. I still love the Nonni —

I love little Italian grandfathers. Also grandmothers. Also American ones, Irish, English, Spanish, Swedish. Pretty much all of them. Yesterday I had to go to a hardware store to buy a multi-plug for the kitchen. A nonno (grandfather), had the key, let me in and led me to the counter. Success! Plug in hand. Which is no small feat when you basically have no clue what’s going on. When I asked him take a photo with me (for my Instagram story) he was grinning from ear to ear. He even looked behind himself to make sure I was talking to him. I pull out my phone, and during mid-snap he leans over and tries to kiss me on my face.

I ducked and weaved and then gave him the “basta!” Enough. He didn’t even break stride! I think he must be 40 years older than me, but it didn’t stop him for asking me if I was married. ha! Still love the nonni. But I think I’ll just continue to keep up with my fast reflexes so I can duck out of the way!

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Three. Then and Now. 

Last weekend I had an overlap with a Seattle friend I haven’t seen in what feels like four chapters ago. I was standing in the center of Rome when a message came through, “Robyn, I’m in Rome.” Whoa. I replied back quickly, “Where? Are you in the center? Let’s meet up.”

And we did. We all sat in Santa Lucia wine bar one quiet street behind touristy Piazza Navona having a drink and a rest. His friend from London and my friend who is an American but also half Roman at this point, all of us chatting away. Chapters collide.

And this causes me to think about how often life can surprise us. If 7 years ago someone would have said to me, “you have this time now and then your story will continue half a world away when you’re both different people,” I couldn’t have imagined how or where.

Which then leads me to think about the here and now, what else is in store, the big and the small. It’s all so thrilling when you think about it.