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Downhill Partying

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Um, yes?

She continues with the stare.

A-ha-ha-ha! Okay, then!

We take a seat a few feet away and try to figure out what sort of shoes she's wearing.

Within minutes, four young Italian men approach Barbara and the Unidentified Female Companion and attempt to chat them up. The young men strike out miserably and retreat to the end of a couch.

We go over to find out what happened and it turns out they have no idea who they just hit on.

"They were alone. We are Italian," one of them explains.

They say they thought the dark-haired girl was just some "snobby" American from Texas. She has what one of them calls puzza sotto il naso, which is to say the look of someone who has smelled something foul.

"We are simple Italians so we try to speak with them," says Simone Piombo, 21.

"I say, 'Where are you from?' " says Umberto Vergano, 22.

"She doesn't speak with us," says Piombo.

Now, the young men re-evaluate Bush's behavior in light of their new newfound knowledge. No wonder she was "posh," one them says; she has a right to be.

Piombo thinks perhaps Barbara would like a tour of the city.

"You think we are in a position to try again?" he asks.

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