A nice bouquet of roses may be pleasant
as also the sound of plastic wrap
but a beer is more tempting
on this day as sticky as rubber
I am sitting on a curbstone
and I am thinking about my stuff
between one motorbike and the other there’s a silence
I wouldn’t know how to describe to you
Oh, how many roads under my sandals
how many roads Bartali must have biked
with that nose sad like going uphill
those happy eyes of an Italian on a trip
and the French they respect us
they still are pissed
and you tell me – we have to go to the movies –
well, go to the movies, on your own
It’s a whole mix of things
which made me stop here
sometimes women are sullen
or maybe want to have a pee
And the day goes down in orange
and it is full of memories you don’t know about
I like to stay here on the dusty road
if you want to go, then go
you can go while I stay here and wait for Bartali
raring to go with my sandals
from behind that curve he will appear
that sad nose of a happy Italian
amidst the French who are getting pissed
and the newspapers which are fluttering
There’s a little wind, the countryside barks
and in the distant blue there is a moon
Amidst the French who are getting pissed
and the newspapers which are fluttering
you tell me – we have to go to the movies –
well, go to the movies, on your own
Paolo Conte (from the album Gelato al limon, 1979)