At the end of the morning I was working in the lobby of Hotel Villa Paradiso in Taormina.
A couple of elderly American tourists and their bearded tour guide (also American) were at the tables next to me discussing the musical "Anatevka" - for whatever reason, shortly before that they had discussed novels that take place in Sicily or Tuscany. They had been on the road for a few days, I guess they had discussed anything that could have been as inoffensive as possible to any of them.
This morning, one of the tourists made a antisemitic remark, probably benign but nevertheless. He had been to Anatveka (Fiddler on the roof), and a woman next to him had said at a certain moment: "Poor offspring, with those noses."
It had cracked him up. He could still laugh about the remark.
But the tour leader was clearly uncomfortable with this anecdote. He answered, "well, yes, funny, enough small talk. Now we are going to enjoy Sicily."