The Kindness of Strangers

I still had some daylight left when I got back to San Marino, so I decided to look for last night’s sights in daylight. I learned that the big castle was named Castel Sismondo. I also spotted a Fellini museum, and other public works celebrating Rimini’s most famous figure. If I come back to Rimini I will make it a point to watch some Fellini films and learn more about him first.

As the sun set, I set off for Borgo Fritto to get a second fix of fritto misto. Google indicated they would be open, so imagine how gutted I was when I found them closed. Dejected, I wandered around looking at restaurant menus until I found one with fritto misto… at €20 which was more than double last night’s. I decided I had nothing to lose since this restaurant had an English and, oddly, a Russian menu. When I was seated, I was a little taken aback when the waitress spoke even less English than the two women at Borgo Fritto. But, we met each other halfway and we made it work. I ordered the fritto misto and a glass of white wine.

A few minutes later, the waitress put a simple green salad in front of me, and motioned to use the olive oil and balsamic vinegar bottles on the table to fashion a dressing. I assumed the salad came with the meal, and so I shrugged and ate it. Then, she put a meat stuffed bread on the table and motioned to me to try it. After that, came the fritto misto which was good and, to be fair, came in a larger portion than last night’s. All this time, the owner of the restaurant was nattering away with the regular patrons and he didn’t pay much attention to me. When I finished the fritto misto, I motioned to the waitress that I was too full for dessert, and that I would just like an espresso. I was dumbfounded when she put a small piece of cake with chocolate sauce on the table, and when my coffee came, she slipped me a limoncello. I was fretting at this point thinking the bill was piling up, but a little voice inside me told me that this was just a human being showing kindness to a stranger journeying through a strange land by himself. True enough, when the owner rang up the bill, the salad, the meat stuffed bread, the cake, and the limoncello were not listed. I left a big tip. I won’t publicly state the name of this restaurant here because I don’t think the owner knew I got so many things for free.

Throughout my travels and my life abroad, I have encountered so many instances of people extending kindness to me, such as the man in Makassar who hailed a rideshare for me and refused reimbursement, to the street vendors outside my Bangkok apartment who were so kind to me, and too many other instances to list here. I just hope that I put in enough good energy into the world to balance all the kindness I have received.Read more