If you haven't already figured it out, food is very important to us Peasant People, and something that we spend a lot of time talking about. Sometimes, it can be all we talk about. As in: what did you have for dinner; what are you going to have for dinner; did I tell you about that amazing gnocchi I ate this weekend; my God, I wouldn't eat a ham hock from that awful new restaurant!
Non-peasant families, I've noticed, don't talk this way. Which I think means they have other things to do. But not Peasant People. Peasant People can sit around for hours discussing the finer culinary points of the food we've eaten, the food that are just sitting down to eat, the food we one day hope to eat.
Just like we sit around drinking and discussing coffee. Peasant People on vacation love coffee. Which is how you can always tell us apart from non-peasant people in a foreign city: while non-peasant people are scurrying about with open maps and tour books, trying to hit as many museums as possible in a twenty-four hour period, Peasant People spend their time drinking cappuncinos in open-air cafes, visiting.
This, I've come to realize, is one of the main differences between Peasant and non-peasant people: Peasant People don't like to plan, they don't like to hurry, and they especially don't like to be beholden to anyone else's idea of culture. A Peasant Person's idea of culture is comprised of the casual stroll around a new city--always on foot, and always without a map, the quiet exploration an integral part of the equation. Here and there, we'll stop at a new cafe (and have a juice, soda, Turkish coffee or glass of wine), then visit or chat a bit to see what's going on in our friends' lives. Then, when we're feeling rested, we'll amble on again, perhaps window-shopping, perhaps turning down some new cobblestoned street, perhaps pointing out a building or piece of architecture that strikes our fancy. The key, though, is that there's never more than an hour or two between cafes. Peasants need regular and thorough breaks, and it's never long before we've stopped at another open-air cafe, where we can often be spotted, nursing some new drink and watching the world go by.