Who are the people in your neighborhood?

Lately I have been feeling at a loss as to how to get better acquainted with our neighbors. They love Maylisa, so we walk to the park down the street at least once a day. When they are outside, they smile and talk with her over the fence and even offer her "caramella" (candies). But I do not speak italian and they do not speak English. That poses a problem. The other neighbors, are VERY private.
One does not ask personal questions in Italy (it may be in Europe, but I don't know). Unless the information is volunteered, it goes unknown. It is also very forward to volunteer information about yourself too soon. This all gets very confusing to me. Thankfully, some of the friendly souls here take into account my American- ness and ask me personal questions. (By personal, I mean things like, "Where are you from?" and , "Why are you living in Italy?", etc.)
There are one or two families that speak English in the neighborhood and we have meet them several times without anything more than "Ciao!" in passing. This week, though, we had some good break throughs. One of the neighbors came over to the park (across the street from his house) with his little girl, Alissia. Then the other American family came out with their son Lincoln. Lincoln has a toddler sized ATV (HOLY COW!!) and he let all of the tots take a turn around the park. It was great fun and then we all went inside (INSIDE!) the neighbor's house for a short while.
Then, two days later, at about 9pm (about the time we go to bed lately) our door buzzer went off. I ignored it once thinking it had to be a mistake- no one comes over to our house (another thing about living here is that people do not knock on doors. The gates are all closed and you press the buzzer on the sidewalk. They either talk to you through a speaker or buzz you in.) but it rang again. So I got up to peek out the front window and it was a girl I have not seen since two months ago when she and Laura (an exchange student from America) had Chris and I over for tea. Laura left last month and Francesca is very quiet and shy.Despite this shyness, she came to bring us cherries! She and her family had picked too many for themselves and they wanted to share them with us. She gave us a very big box of them. I thought it was 2 lbs but Chris says 4. At any rate, halved and pitted they fill up a 3qt mixing bowl and a bit more. They are huge and beautiful and SO delicious. Francesca stayed and talked until almost 10. It was lovely.
The elderly couple across the street had me in for coffee and told me all about their relatives(either her sister or her daughter) that married into the military. They are coming for Christmas and we are going to be introduced. :)
I am so excited to be making headway with the people in our neighborhood. And so happy that it is summer time because I can invite them all to May's birthday party in a couple months!