E che era prima di che l’avesti cambiato?

9:51 pm Genoa 4.3

Avid readers may recall that my first post on the subject of going to Italy began with a quote from The Untouchables. Can you guess what was on the television when I turned it on after dinner tonight? No joke, it was the very scene from The Untouchables in which Sean Connery calls Andy Garcia a ‘thieving wop.’ In the Italian translation, ‘Stone’ claims to be from the South, and ‘thieving wop’ becomes plain ol’ ‘Italiano.’ I was listening pretty closely, and it sounds like they may have changed ‘Irish pig’ to ‘arrogant Hollander.’ But I could be wrong on this one as Irlandese and Hollandese sound a lot alike when mumbled by an Italian Andy Garcia-imitator.

I am prepared to accept that we are in some senses programmed to find a purpose to the universe, or at least in the events that touch our lives and that individuals whose brains produce more dopamine are (to a point) both better adjusted and more likely to engage in the kind of ‘magical thinking’ that renders the world meaningful in this way. In this sense, to fail to engage in this kind of thinking, given the opportunity, would be a failure of humanity.

But that’s not the point, really. The point is that what are the odds that the very movie I was thinking of when I was first starting to write about leaving would come on Italian TV just as I’m packing up my suitcase and cleaning the apartment to leave?

Che è il tuo nome vero, Stone? The writing is on the wall - it’s time to bring it home.