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Living here day by day, you think it's the center of the world.
You believe nothing will ever change. Then you leave: a year, two years. When you come back, everything's changed. The thread's broken. What you came to find isn't there.
From the film 'Nuovo Cinema Paradiso'


Everyone knew he was arriving on that hot, suffocating summer day. The news got around fast in an old little town where most of the inhabitants were either friends, acquaintances, or family. Food, good wine, more food were being prepared to greet the man who after so many years yearned to see where he, his parents and his grandparents were born.

The small elegant cafe in a picturesque alley was decorated for the occasion. Spumante bottles were ready to be popped in honour of what sprang up from memories.

We are so happy to have you here, a drink, we welcome your stay, we knew you when you were a boy, I was there when you were born, a drink, I kept your mother company after you left, I read her some letters you sent home, we are proud of who you are, of who you will become, a drink.

Cheering, clapping hands, in that small cafe in a picturesque alley, a man after so many years was about to partake at the banquet table.