My friend Yoshie is Japanese and has been living in Florence ever since we met at Italian school 7 years ago. Since then she has been here living with her husband, Luigi, and their 5-year old son, Davide. Luigi is from another region of Italy, called Puglia. So between them, they each have a different accent. Yoshie's accent is Japanese, Luigi's is Pugliese and Davide's is Fiorentino.
Yoshie and I have kept in touch through email since I left almost 5 years ago. We have kept each other informed of the big highlights, but we haven't talked about the mundane events of life for a long time.
She invited me for lunch and I brought over 3 tarts from Dolce e dolcezze, which is still a great pastry shop in Piazza Beccaria. She made chicken soup and Japanese ginger chicken with rice. We ate everything happily and washed it all down with hot green tea that Yoshie's mom brought from Japan. "Il vero tè verde," Yoshie informed me.
We talked as if we had always done this. Five years go by and it seems like not a thing has ever separated us.
Luigi came home and ate lunch while we were eating dessert. He somehow caught up to us. We made plans to go to I Gigli, the large indoor mall out in Sesto-Fiorentino, a suburb of Florence. I was happy that he invited us since you need a car to go there.
It's funny how all these years have passed and people who were once in my life are back in it again, almost like before.
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