The chef sets up a stall in the middle of the Campo and the genial Carlo and Davide serve up heaped plates of the dish of the day, which could be a delicious fritto misto, wild mushroom risotto or tasty goulash, priced at €7-10 with a glass of wine included.
Their convenor, Bernie Passingham, a genial, clever communist (played by Bob Hoskins) liked and believed in them and facilitated their militancy.
She opened her home up to us for weekend parties and we got to know Martin, her genial, under-appreciated husband, her friends (eclectic was hardly the word) and her son, Hugo, to whom she was devoted and whose personal life constituted the subject matter of maybe 50% of our conversations.
Your genial hosts give you a map and a guide to identification, and off you go, seeking out chanterelles, pied de moutons and ceps.
You pass a banqueting hall, a mayor's parlour, committee rooms and reception rooms, until you reach a tiny office in which crouches the genial figure of Sir Howard Bernstein, like a spider in a gothic web of corridors, exuding power.
The genial Swede has known Murray for several years and believes he can make that small percentage of difference to bring him more grand slam titles.
As Sutton's genial manager, Barrie Williams, admitted: "They play a different game to us.
Xenophon said despite Najib's "genial and bumbling demeanour", the Malaysian prime minister was "the leader of a repressive and ruthless regime".
At 97, he is obviously not as physically robust as people remember him – as with one of his successors at No 11, Lord Lawson, one sees a slimmer version – but still mentally alert, a genial host, who proudly showed us (I was with Alun Evans, incoming British Academy chief executive) around various studies, and an impressive collection of books, paintings and photographs.
What's more, his genial stiffness and shy self-awareness give him a kind of awkward dignity compared to the preening smugness of Cruz.
Surveying the camp from on high, above the hillsides strung with washing lines and studded with groups of potential refugees, Emanuele Billardello, a genial taxi driver born and bred in Lampedusa, says he feels great sadness.
