Chianti Hills

I rested at the hotel before going out to our "crazy dinner at Chianti Hills." Riccardo opened up the night with a little spiel on the bus about the count who works at the resteraunt and his little problem. He said the count never smiles so anyone who can make him smile will win a bottle of Chianti wine. I am not sure where they hired the performer to play the Count, but they could not have asked for a more entertaining person. He had black suspenders, bright red pants, socks up to shins and a classic expression on his face. He immediately zeroed on the Australian woman from Brisbane and kept checking her out. Although I can only imagine how annoying it must be to the person who would end up entertaining the count, it made the night so memorable. I am not sure whether I would want him to grope me, touch my bum, or dance with me but we could not stop laughing. It truly was the most amusing thing until the music really began. Riccardo orginally compared the night to one from Godfather Part 3 and to some extent I could see why.

We sat at tables with white linen table cloths and the count came along to take our orders. He would write our orders on a pink post it note and stick it in front of us. I ordered the salmon and was so happy to be sitting with Rick and Rosemary who are also from Australia and don't live too far from where I had lived. I really do enjoy their company and it is great fun to talk with them. I also enjoyed talking with Kiery and her daughter who are from Texas and Louis and Olga also from Australia. Like I said before, I have several stories to tell about the others.
But first let me try to explain this whole thing about Riccardo and how it is all intertwined with my memory, life, etc...

I didn't discuss my boyfriend while on the tour, because my mother hates him and cannot even utter his name. We have been dating nearly two years and she has only referred to him name two to five times. It means that I usually need to suppress how I feel about him and deal with it on my own if I want to ensure that our trip together remains peaceful. I had just spent several times yearning for my boyfriend, but at the same time I found a blurry image of myself. I was conflicted between my feelings for my boyfriend and trying to discover more about myself and what this new found identity means. I will tell you more about that later too.

Whenever a romantic song came on, I would wander off and try to call Adrian with my mobile. There were moments when my yearning for him became so overwhelming that I wanted to cry. I would start walking down the stone steps onto the gravel drive way and look through the darkness and trees until I would raise my head and stop short in front of the stars. Somehow I found it comforting that I could be looking at the same moon or stars as Adrian and perhaps there was a connection from afar. I would take a few moments just to imagine him next to me and despits his hatred for dancing, we could be swaying to the beat together.

I remember one time Louis was hanging off the rails and looking at me returning from my usual visits to the parking lot and screamed, "Are you looking for a Latin lover?!" I smiled and looked up at him and shook my head. "Sorry darling, I am taken!" Louis exclaimed with a huge grin on his face and I could not help but burst into laughter for the whole thing was just so sweet and silly. I lifted my skirt above my ankles and watched it flow gracefully up the stairs as I returned to my dinner seat. A few people had noticed these usual disappearances and the solemn expression on my face and enquired why I looked so sad. I had told them of my boyfriend and for a moment they thought of me on the dance floor or just seemed genuinely surprised I had a boyfriend and then proceeded to comfort me by saying that my boyfriend would not want me sulking at the party so why not enjoy myself.

So for this dance floor incident. Keep in mind that we had an unlimited amount of wine and champagne and what I said earlier about how hard it is for me to keep guarded when there is alcohol in my system. I have always been shy of dancing and will usually only go on the floor if I can disappear in the crowd and never be seen. You can imagine how I felt when Riccardo finished dancing with other people and made a bee line towards me. There is no way to fade away when your tour director picks you out of a crowd. I thought if I gave him a compliment, he would smile and then boogie over to someone else. I slid my arm around his waist and leaned in to speak to him over the sound of the music. There was some disco music playing in the background so I said, "You dance like John Travolta" and smiled. Hah! I looked at him, but then realized that I just did another of those international flirting things, which probably means I just drew more attention to myself. Damn.

He smiled and I could sense that this was going to be one of those moments where we are going to get the signals mixed up. I thought I could remedy the situation by slipping my arm around his waist and disappearing behind him. Since he is taller than I am, I can just hide in his shadows. yay!

My plan backfired when he turned around to see me hiding behind him. You would never think it would be so hard to get out of the limelight. *sigh* Now he had a perplexed look on his face, because he must be so confused by the signals. I leaned towards him and just told him I am really shy of dancing and don't like to dance. His eyes washed over me as he grinned and said, "You shouldn't be shy. Your body moves well to the music. very beautiful." I wasn't sure what to do next so I did what I do best - run away.