I’m sure you’ve heard the story of the two stonemasons laying stone when they are asked what they’re doing. The first one says, “I’m laying stone,” but the other one says, “I am building a cathedral.”

The story was first told to me as a joke, and maybe that’s why it still makes me laugh. But since I recognize the wisdom of the story, I have kept telling it to Son and Daughter – as a joke.

Today, I was sitting at Van Bol & Feste (est. 1890) in downtown Milan, with a book and two cups – four fdifferent lavors – of gelato, due to a simple misunderstanding that led to me just flashing a peace sign and nodding yes to double everything.

Including the price.

The lady at the cash register gestured for me to move to the gelato line and then ordered a colleague to make me a gelato. He looked at the receipt that I had pushed across the glass counter.

“So, two?” he said.

“Yes, two,” I said with a big smile, still unaware of my little mishap at the cash register.

He picked up a cone. I told him I wanted cherry and strawberry – the king of berries – and tapped on the glass to make sure he got it right. Then he scooped up some cherry and wiped the ice cream against the container’s side to make it softer and smoother, and when he was happy with the consistency, he put it on the cone, then cut a sharp edge into it so it looked like a comic-strip cartoon, as perfectly round as the bun on his head.

Then he scooped up the strawberry gelato and did the same procedure, making the ice cream softer and smoother. He lifted the scoop up, hoisted it high, and swirled it around and around to create another dome on top of the first one – the second as loopy, yet precise, as his mustache.

Then he asked me for two more flavours and I realized my mistake but said nothing. Well, I did say three words: “Pineapple” and “white chocolate.”

He was building cathedrals.

I was eating ice cream.

Lots of ice cream.