"They're both pretty foody languages. That was one of the first things I learned in Rome, how to bang your hand on the counter and yell subito to make them bring you your pizza faster." He thumped the heel of his palm on the table in demonstration. "Subito, subito! There's your first lesson, very useful word in Italy."
He got up to pick up the plates and bring them over to the sink. "Well, fiction and history too. Solzhenitsyn talks about camp marriages in the Gulag, prisoners who spoke to each other through the wall that divided the men from the women. They'd have whole relationships without even seeing each other, without touching. And they got married, because guys like me were stuck there too. Anyone in this house wants to get hitched, they're in luck. Of course," he added as he rinsed off the plates and opened the dishwasher. "There were also a whole lot of cases of rape and widespread prostitution. Prisoners informing on each other, violence, theft, general awful behaviour. So the moments of kindness really stuck out like a sore thumb. Hopefully this place doesn't get that intense."