I am to hear the Donatella story later on – thanks largely to Alvaro’s great affection for gossip. At a great speed, and with blithe disregard for both seatbelts and prior intake of alcohol, he has managed to smash not only the car but also a large proportion of the bones from his right shoulder down to his wrist. Gianfranco assures me over the phone, eighteen months after we last spoke, that the car’s condition is terminal, whereas – ‘Grazie a Dio!’ – Ignazio’s is not. He is, however, a one-armed member of the operation for now, requiring intensive physiotherapy and not being of much use to La Cantinetta, which is why I am being asked to step into the breach, as it were. And is also why I am, yet again, boarding the train from Rome to Florence dazed with jet lag after the endless flight. An incident with knives at Fiumicino airport indirectly led to the loss of the bulky fur-lined jacket I arrived in and gratefully shed in the heat of a late European summer.
What do You think about Amore And Amaretti (2011)?
