After today, something tells me I'm never going to forget the name of one of Italy's most-read broadsheets!
This afternoon I was wandering through Testaccio (sort of clubbing district) and on an impulse decided to buy a newspaper. I saw a sign that said 'Il Messaggero', or 'The Messenger', evidently one of Italy's main newspapers.
So I walked up to the newspaper stand, but under pressure couldn't quite remember the exact name of the newspaper. 'Ah, un mass...agio per favore', I asked. In hindsight, the look on the guy's face was priceless; though at the time, I was only vaguely aware I'd made some kind of mistake. When I saw his response, I said, 'il giornale?' ('The newspaper?').
'Ah, Il Messaggero,' he said, with almost an audible sigh of relief.
It was only when I was walking down the street, trying to figure out what went wrong, repeating the word over and over to myself, that I realised (remembering having seen the word in the dictionary; and confirming it as soon as I got home): instead of asking for 'The Messenger', I'd actually asked for a massage!
In a way, it's kind of fun to be able to provide yourself with the best comic moments of the week... albeit unwittingly.
1 comment:
Jaya,
hilarious, tho' I saw it coming. Shame the newspaper guy wasn't more obliging, you could have got youself a little latin rub down. The raf versus the graf is excellent too. Funny how tag aesthetics seem so similar across the globe. Hope you're doing well. What books do they have in the library?
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