Every time one of the exterior iron door grilles at home opens out, the handle crashes into the stucco wall creating a little divit that grows larger with each wide swing. Italians are both clever and practical people. The solution for this common problem is a small ring of clear soft plastic that slips right over the handle (one standard size fits every door in all of Italy) thereby cushioning the blow. For the cost of less than one euro the problem is solved.

It was time for a trip to our favorite old-time ferramenta, literally meaning ironmongery, but we call it a hardware store. We popped in to pick-up a few of the little wall protectors. After standing in line for 15 minutes while the one man behind the counter custom-cut 10 pieces of metal tube with what appeared to be a toy hacksaw, we started inching our way closer to the counter. The clerk then carefully wrapped each piece of tubing in pages torn from an old phonebook, which is their custom.

Finally, when it was our turn, the clerk in the blue jumpsuit said, “Dimmi,” Tell me. I decided to take the lead and proceeded to say “Abbiamo bisogno di un agnello plastico a mettere sul manico della porta.” We have need of a plastic ring to put on the door handle.” What a difference one silly little letter makes. I carelessly slipped a “g” into a key word, so rather than asking for the anello, ring, I had inadvertently asked for a agnello. Anello=ring, agnello=lamb. I had mistakenly requested a plastic lamb to put on the door knob. Oops!

Needless to say, Cheryl immediately eased the moment with a laugh and corrected my silly error. Fortunately, he didn’t give me what I asked for or we would be forced to feed all of our little lamby door protectors each and every day.