But one of several pastimes, our Italian lessons catch the accomplished ear of the young guy at the table beside us.

He’s been typing feverishly (writing what I wonder?), when suddenly he breaks off to ask, “Going or coming?”

Huh, is the first sound thing that trips through an addled brain. Next, the voice of Father Guido Sarducci on Saturday Night Live.

Luckily, I manage to refrain from speaking either of these non sequiturs. Instead, “Just arriving” sends us off on a quick set of Italian vocabulary lessons, some hesitant geography, and a few tasty morsels of his biography.

Dual-citizen. Exeter year abroad. Now grinding away in Med School. With summer breaks in a little Italian town, whose name on his tongue our ears muffle. (With a little help from a map, we trust, triangulation will find it.)

A flurry of good feelings, with well wishes at the close. He, back to his keyboard. We, back to our bored games. Happy campers one and all.

<Later on, Sunday night>