In Love In Italy

FREE PREVIEW He woke up to find two faces staring at him over the back of the sofa. For a moment even he thought they looked like the faces of angels. Their white, alabaster skin flushed with pink cheeks and long eyelashes through which their blue eyes shone. Giovanni, in his sleepiness, observed them, but remained still. The girls continued to play the game they had been playing while Giovanni was asleep. That was to move a feather over this face from his forehead to his chin. Giovanni annoyed at their fun at his expense, growled at the girls, which sent them running out of the room with screams of laughter. Giovanni got up to check out his new home. He returned to the rooms he had previously looked at this morning, but now he viewed them as a landlord. In the master bedroom, he found a bathtub that he explored for cleanliness. He opened the cupboard to find luxurious bath towel and white linens, which he touched with his fingers. “Good stuff,” he nodded to himself. In the cupboard near the sink, he found a silver face shaver, brush and drinking glass, all which he inspected to his satisfaction. Smelling under his arms, he grimaced at his own stench. Giovanni decided to bathe. Walking to the bathroom, he turned on the faucets and spurts of brown water came out followed, after a moment, by clear water. He found a bottle of bath perfume that he poured into the tub. He poured a little at first, but on second thought he dumped half the bottle in to the bath water. Stripping off his clothes with a smile on his face, he eased into the rose-scented bath water. He closed his eyes and said to himself, “Va bene gli ricci.” “So this is how the rich live.” He stayed in the bath until his finger and toes turned wrinkly. After he got out and dried himself and wrapped the towel around his waist. He went to the sink. Tempted by the silver shaver, he found some shaving soap in the cabinet and lathered up his face and with the silver blade he shaved his face. Afterward, he admired the close shave he was able to give himself with the excellent tool. Seeing the full-length mirror, he sucked in his stomach and began admiring his nearly naked form in the mirror. He made muscles and positioned his body in various poses. He then let out a fart much to his satisfaction. Then he heard laughter. He turned around embarrassed that his own vanity and vulgarness was being observed by the two little girls. Still half-naked he growled at them and chased them to the door of the bedroom. Finding the dead father’s robe, Giovanni put it on. In curiosity he went through the dead man’s wardrobe. He found two dozen shirts of silk and the finest cotton and linen. They were colorful shirts in pink, violet, lime green and royal blue. Unable to resist he pulled one out to feel its softness. He thought he should try it on and doing so he found it fit perfectly. Encouraged by the perfect fit of the shirt, he decided to try on a pair of pants. To his pleasure he found the pants fit very well. They perhaps needed an inch taken off the bottom and they were slightly too big, but with a fine leather belt no none could tell that they were not made to fit him. To finish his outfit, Giovanni took one of the dead man’s ties - a bright lemon yellow tie - and then a hat and jacket. The socks he found were pure cashmere, but the man’s shoes, which were of the finest leather, were too small. Giovanni threw them across the room in disgust. Giovanni in his new outfit had to wear his old shoes. “Well,” he said to himself, “with the money I’m saving perhaps I can buy a good pair of shoes. Surely I could get a good deal on a nice pair now.” In his new attire, he found the girls reading books in their room. “Well, how do I look?” he inquired of the girls expecting approval at his dandy look. “The same,” Lucia said hardly looking at him. “Don’t you notice any difference?” “Well, you don’t smell bad anymore,” Lucia replied. Giovanni grimaced at her truthfulness. “I want you to stay here,” he told them. “I need to buy some food.” “Oh, take us with you,” Lucia pleaded as she jumped up out of the chair. “Yes, I want to go,” Eva said standing up. “I want to go. I want to go.” “But you’ll only get in the way,” Giovanni objected. “I’ll be busy buying food and you’ll wander off and fall into the canal and drown.” “We promise not to fall in the canal,” Lucia said. “Please, we will not drown,” Eva replied. “We’re afraid to stay here alone,” Lucia argued. “You have lived here for months alone during the war,” Giovanni reasoned with them. “But there’s no war now and now we’re afraid,” Lucia said as she lowered her eyes so he could not see her lie. So, Giovanni, dressed in his stylish clothes, walked with the sisters on their first shopping expedition. Giovanni with his pants slightly too long. And with his old shoes. That night he slept in the dead man’s bed. Instead of the small bed he had slept in at Signora Acqualei’s house with the broken spring, he now slept in a large bed with a feather mattress. The bed itself was made of dark mahogany wood and hung with red damask drapes. He sunk into the feather mattress after putting on the dead man’s silk pajamas. He enjoyed a cigarette and a glass of brandy, which he had found in a bookcase in the dead man’s room. To his contentment he fell asleep.