I tilted my head in surprise. “Why not? You like animals. It’s only for a minute. Look—everyone’s doing it.”

“Come on, Nonni. I want you in the pic!” Allegra urged.

Stubbornness radiated from her figure. “No, sorry. I don’t like things crawling on me. I’ll take the picture. Stop bullying me.”

Allegra laughed and I shrugged. “Fine. Oh, let’s get some bird food from that lady over there first. We need a decent amount for a good shot,” Allegra said. I gave her some money, and she returned with a small bag of bird food.

Mom frowned. “Do you think that’s a good idea? I heard you’re not supposed to feed the birds in the square. I read it in an article.”

“Mom, look around. There are no signs, and tourists are doing it everywhere. Come on, here’s my phone and Allegra’s.” I loved the idea of having a fun pic with my daughter to post.

We shook out a decent amount of corn and placed it in our open palms. Then we knelt on the ground, close together, and spread our arms wide to wait. Allegra sprinkled some extra around us in a half circle and the birds began to trickle over.

I laughed at the ticklish feeling of a pigeon pecking gently at my hand, and soon a decent group of birds had been tempted over. They perched on our arms and around our legs.

“Mom, take the pictures,” I called out.

She began snapping with one phone, then traded off to the other. More pigeons joined the flock. I kept my smile, but then one landed on my head, and more on my shoulders, and in a few moments, all hell broke loose.

“Ugh, Mom, there’s too many,” Allegra said, shaking the rest of the corn off her and trying to move. “I think we’re good.”

“Yeah, let’s get up.”

We began to stand, figuring the pigeons would go away, but another small flock joined the first and had us surrounded. I shook my head, trying to get them off, but kernels must’ve been stuck in my shirt because one began to dive into my cleavage for his treat.

“Get away!” I shouted, stumbling and trying to wave them off.

This got them more excited. Birds began flying around me in a frenzy to get more corn, and Allegra let out a shriek and started running away.

“Leave them alone!” Mom yelled, launching toward me and holding the phones up like war weapons. She began making shooing noises and flapping her hands like a crazed bird herself, and then I heard shocked gasps and laughter from around us and began to panic about being photographed again. What if it went viral and I was dubbed the bird lady?

Not going to happen.