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TRAVELING \ VIAJAR
of Broadway, or watching the Statue of Liberty from the ferry, as the secretaries of Staten Island do when that are heading the financial district of Manhattan. Giving a book by E.E.Cummings acquired in the Pageant Book and Print Shop to an impossible love, or rescuing the cart of a newborn on the steps of Grand Central Station. Seeking a bench overlooking the Queensboro Bridge to watch the new day in true Allen style, or drinking a cappuccino at Caffe Reggio, as Vito drank when he only spoke Sicilian. Dreaming of a "night of the peak" in Soho or a jukebox with a song by Peggy Lee; fleeing the building of the United Nations or taking a blonde with light skirts to the subway grate in the northwest corner of the 52th Street with Lexington Avenue.
Going to buy cigarettes to the Tobacco Company in the 3rd street with the Seventh Avenue in Brooklyn, or opening a fire plug in hot Harlem. Faking an orgasm in Katz's Delicatessen or practicing masochism in Chelsea Hotel. Cross-dressing like Tootsie for a job appointment at The Russian Tea Room, in Midtown, or getting drunk with Dry Martinis with an olive in the Emerald Inn pub, in the heart of the Upper West Side. Inviting her to see La Bohème at the Metropolitan (in the last row), or renting a tremendous flat in the Dakota building, overlooking Central Park. Skating in the Rockefeller Centre or pulling guns at a fair in Coney Island. Once there, whatever your plan is, wherever you go, the shadow of Hollywood
will cheer you up or will be a killjoy. You will travel on the subway where Bruce Willis, Al Pacino and Superman risked their lives. You will enter the FAO Schwartz toy store looking for the piano Tom Hanks played with his feet. You will come across the elegant shade of Gordon Gekko in the corridors of Wall Street. You will see the reflection of Audrey Hepburn in the window of Tiffany's. Yoy will imagine her whispering Moon River in each fire escape. But in the end you will realize that all these references are few, because there is no more fascinating character in New York that the city itself and every image you grasp in it could be the American movie of your own life.