SOME MOTHERS ARE LIKE THAT...

Sabaudia beach. In the background, the promontory “Circeo”.

Weekend at the seaside. Sabaudia. Seventy miles from Rome. On the way back, I call mom while I'm driving my car, with some remorse.

"Hello".

"Hi Mom, It's Marco."

"I was thinking of you right now …”

On the way back. The lowland "Pianura Pontina”.

Here we are! Now she starts the sermon: you never call me, never come to see me,... I thought you were dead…

I interrupt her and I go ahead…"Well, you know, even if the weather was bad I had to go, because I had to meet some companies, craftsmen, suppliers ... Saturday I worked all day ... And you? Is it all right? "... And I imagine her at home, alone, with this bad weather, bored ... II could have taken her with me, last Friday…

Rome. The city where I live.

Without giving her time to reply, I try to change the subject: "Paolo? Giorgio? Stefania? Have you seen them? How are them? How did they spend the week end?". ...My brothers and my sister... Maybe they have gone to see her…

And she, with a similar embarrassment, as if she apologized for not being ...that kind of mother: "I'm not in Rome ... I’m in Genoa, at your aunt's house" (her sister).

Genoa. The harbor.

"... Ahh...". ... Surprised. Once again. "... Aaand ... when did you go?”

"I left on Friday because some friends had arranged to go to Pisa to see Salvador Dali's exhibition on Saturday, you know? ... Yesterday morning we took an early train, before the others, so we had time to go to see the Piazza dei Miracoli: the cathedral, the baptistery, the cemetery, the museum of preparatory drawings... It is perhaps the tenth time that I see them, but ...it is always so beautiful! Then, at five o'clock, we joined the group to see the exhibition and finally we took the train at seven and at nine we were back to Genoa.“

Pisa. Piazza dei Miracoli.

"Well ... it's great, isn't it?". She surprises me every time. Yet. She leaves me speechless. …I never know what to say…

And she, putting ahead her hands... or searching for my approval ... "You know, they organize a lot of things ... For February they've planned to go and see the Savoia Manor, in Turin... Oh God, what's its name... But I'm not sure to go… I’m old and I get tired soon... “

Turin. The Venaria Royal Palace.

"Well ..." I reply, "Why you say that you get tired soon? ..." And I think "It won't be more tiring than going around Piazza dei Miracoli for five hours"…

"Yes, indeed, ... my friends also told me that the bus from Genoa brings us just in front the manor... Let's see..."

She will go.

My mom is like that. Thanks God!

My mom's, grandmother Zoè, is 85 years old. And I can tell it, because ...she put her birthday date on her Facebook profile!

In the photo, taken by my brother Giorgio this summer, she is cycling, in Sardinia.

My mum. 

Foto references:

The photo of Sabaudia beach and the photos of the cities and of the Royal Palace and are taken from Internet.