Italy

Miracle in the Holy City

The Holy City Roma is beautiful and impressive with all its historical sites, churches and cathedrals. But on Sunday around lunch it is as sleepy as a small village in a lost valley. And exactly that time our tourist bus stopped in front of Vatican gates.

“One hour for look-around or shopping,” says our Slovak guide without noticing that there was no place for shopping and nothing too much to look around at. Most members of our tourist group resigned themselves to the fact and tried to find a toilet or had their last home-made sandwich. But my wife and I had an important duty – to buy something, in the worst case anything, for our relatives back home. We were at the end of our tour and it would be really difficult to explain those who were waiting for our return that we did not take time to find some “typical Italian” article when we were in Roma. Well, now we had some time, but almost no hope.

“It is lost,” said my wife, “maybe there will be something on the highway on the way home.”
“Forget it,” I answered, “our drivers will try to reach home so quickly that it will be difficult to stop them even on at borders. “ I knew that there was only one solution to this problem – a miracle. And where else if not in Holy City?!
“Let us go,” I said.
“Where?” asked my wife.
“Let us go, we will see,” I said, and went. My wife followed me as generations of other wives before her followed their foolish husbands – with resignation and reluctance. But she moved, at least.

I chose a direction instinctively, from Saint Peter’s square to the left by a long, deserted street. It was hopeless. Not only was not one shop open; worse than that, there was no shop at all. But I insisted that there would be one, and my wife stopped complaining. We did not talk; in fact there was nothing to talk about. The only sounds we heard in the hot sunny mid-day were our steps and voices of people having lunch and sounds of spoons, knifes and forks used for that celebration of Sunday feast. There can be hardly a less sensible mission than the one we were trying to accomplish that time at that place. But it did not last long – after a few hundred meters we came to the outskirts of the city! It was hard to believe that this giant city ended after a short walk from the city center, but everything looked as though there was nowhere to go. The street changed for a road leading to some woods. There couldn’t be a less promising place for shopping.

My wife start smiling the way that generations of wives before her showed their foolish husbands that this particular idea was another that failed. I wanted to say something to her, but there was no chance to play this game any longer. Yes, my crazy idea had failed. It was time to turn back.

As we turned back – we saw it. Not only a shop and not only an open shop, but a whole shopping center--open! It was on the opposite side of street and somehow hidden from the direction we came. It was not huge but big enough to find all we needed to buy. Our shopping did not last long. We were the only customers in the whole shop, and there was only one cashier. As we were approaching her with shopping-cart full of “important typical Italian gifts” I saw a shelf with razors. You certainly know that paradox – you can buy classic razors cheaply (or even receive some as business gifts), but replacement blades to it are really costly. And here they had blades for a relatively low price, and I desperately needed some new ones. This was a bonus, on top of our shopping! But there was a problem. We had no more money left. For a while I stood with my wife in front of the shelf and tried to calculate and recalculate what we could leave out from the gifts to our relatives to give me chance for this bargain. But we had already made the list as short as possible. Well, miracles have limits. So, I had to forget it. We moved to the cashier and paid for our shopping.

While I was paying, my wife pushed shopping-cart to the exit. Finishing with the cashier, I followed my wife. And I suddenly saw something falling from the shopping-cart. I reached for it and was stunned for a moment. It was the package of blades we were hesitating to buy and found that we could not. I looked at my wife, but she was occupied by packing our goods. I looked at the cashier, but she did not even look in our direction. I reached for the gift fallen from heaven and went to show it to my wife. This was unbelievable. There is no explanation how the package of blades hopped into our shopping-cart. We were too far from the shelf, and we were merely glancing at it. Nothing more. But the blades were here in my hand and my wife put it into plastic bag without hesitation.

“That’s bonus from God, you foolish shopping guide,” said she, and hurried me back to the bus.

Well, this was really a miracle. Only one thing I had to add – I am not an expert on razor blades, and it seems that God isn’t either. Coming home I soon realized that the blades from Roma miracle shopping center were no of the type useful for my razor and me. Well, miracles definitely have limits.