To Sophia Loren

The writer in conversation with the owners of a restaurant.

“Just as our conversation – and the spumante – was in danger of drying up, the manager’s wife looked me in the eye and asked me if I had given my Vespa a name.

The thought havd never crossed my mind. I’ve never been one for naming vehicles. My mum is. She names her cars before the registration papers have been transferred. She had Buttercup, the yellow Toyota Corona, stationwagon, and Morrie the Magna, and her current car is Connie the Cresida. But I have never been motivated to give any of my vehicles a name. It was always the Datsun or the Suzuki, mostly with an expletive-riddled prefix added. I had never dignified a vehicle that I owned with a name.

‘You should call her Sophia,’ the manager’s wife said. ‘When I was a gril I called my Vespa Sophia after Sophia Loren. She was my high-spirited friend, making me do things I was otherwise too timid to do’.

I thought about it, and although I was opening myself up to ribbing from mum after all the grief I gave her about naming her vehicles, I agreed. After all, it was the old black and white movies of Sophia Loren that had inspired me to do this trip in the first place.

‘For luck, with your journey,’ the manager’s wife said raising her glass.

We all clinked glasses, and I hesitated befor taking a sip. ‘To Sophia,’ I said.

‘To Sophia’, they replied with gusto. (p.76-77)