gomme di natale

A few days ago I noticed the tread of the tires peeling off. Not good. What do you expect from a 10 year-old car? We needed new tires and ASAP. How I discovered where to go was a cultural lesson in and of it’s self. My first stop was at basketball practice. Gus’ basketball coach lives right next to a gommista (tire guy). I said, ‘bad day, tread coming off tires, I need new ones… hey, you live next to a gommista, would you recommend him?’ Her reply, ‘no way! I went there once but my tires fell off, could have been killed, the gommista said it must have been someone else playing a trick on me, but my friend who went the same day her wheels almost fell off too. No, I go to the town the road a ways, seems like a fair man.’ The next morning in the school yard with a fellow mamma I asked her where we should go, she said most people around here go to the town down the road, hears he’s the honest type, but she goes to the town up the road. Then we went for coffee, more moms so I asked once again to break the tie- all the moms there agreed: down the road to the honest guy. 98 euros and a half hour later we had great tires. They make a nice Christmas present, don’t you think?