When Stars Align

A tour of Florence.

After a light breakfast of omelettes and bread, fette biscottate, Celesté had called it; a cookie-like rusk hard bread that tasted like nothing Amanda had ever eaten before. Italy truly had a lot of cuisines and Celesté never failed to amaze her with them.

They set out on their journey into the town, she enjoyed the lush greenery and cool breeze that apparently blew in from the Arno river. The cobblestone paths Italy was known to have proved to be a problem with her stick and injured leg but she was probably not going to get another chance to tour Florence ever again so she trudged on not minding the discomfort it caused.

First, they went to Duomo di Ferenze, the cathedral of Saint Mary of the flower, a massive dome-like structure that has been the centrepiece of the city for centuries. Though she wasn’t a Catholic, she prayed to the holy father to bless their day and prevent any future mishaps from occuring. She couldn’t go up the flight of stairs to the top of the dome that gave the whole view of the city but settled for taking in the sites from the ground level.

She toured the Uffizi galleries, an absolute treasure trove of renaissance art. Being a lover of all things art, she spent hours admiring the paintings of Botticelli. The square was teeming with tourists at this time of the year, it was summer and a lot of people like her wanted to bask in the sun and enjoy the view of ancient Florence.

They went to the Central market to have a lunch of lasagna and wine. She moaned with every bite she took, all to Luca’s amusement. A lot of people recognized him and they were soon swamped with fans who wanted his autograph. Despite being reclusive, Luca attended to every single one of them, he led them away from her and took all the attention on himself– which she was grateful for.

She watched him from her seat at the food court, he looked at ease in the throng of people, always with a ready smile and a flattering compliment that made the ladies swoon. She wondered why he chooses to spend his time locked away in his secluded villa when he could interact with people so well and attend to a crowd without breaking a sweat.

He came back to her some minutes later and they left the food court. If they had spent another minute in there they’d be overrun with paparazzi. They went the rest of the way paddling on the Arno, it was a more enjoyable way of getting through the city and less painful. The paths were crowded but the river only had a few boats paddling on it.

They got off the boat and Luca turned to her, an excited smile on his face. “Come with me, I want to show you something.” Despite his excited demeanour, he walked calmly and slowly with her.

“You like ice cream, yes?” he asked as they stopped in front of a shop and she nodded affirmatively.

“Then welcome to Vivoli Gelato.” He said with a flourish and she stared at him deadpan.

“An ice cream parlour?” she raised a brow. This was by far the most unexciting site she’d seen today.

“Not just any ice cream parlour, this is one of the oldest and best gelato shop in Florence.” He replied and opened the door with a bow to which she laughed.

On the outside, the place looked like any other old establishment in Italy, but when she stepped in, the place was a modern gelato shop with state of the art machinery and surprisingly a fully functioning air conditioner– most of the shops she’d been to had that old world charm going for them. The air conditioning was the first thing to hit her full blast in the face, contrasting with the hot heat on her back.

She stepped further into the shop and walked over to the massive show glass displaying varieties of the sugary delight. There were so many delicious flavours to pick from, she didn’t know which to choose. She glanced at Luca standing by her side and he nudged her back to the display. She sighed and decided to voice out her dilemma.

“I don’t know which to pick from.”

He smiled at her teasingly, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “I thought this was just another ice cream parlour.”

“Oh shut it!” she rolled her eyes at him.

She decided to go with the one she was facing directly and picked the strawberry delight. All the flavours had Italian names but she didn’t need a translator to know that was strawberry. He made their order in rapid Italian to the attendant who blushed and fluttered her eyelashes at him, to her amusement. He seemed to have that effect on women.

They took their seat on a table not far from the exit, for easy manipulation on her part. She took a spoon of her gelato and the cold, creamy goodness melted on her tongue, exploding in a delightful sensation, she couldn’t help but moan. There were some nuts in it that further complimented the taste as she chewed.

“Oh my God! Luca, this tastes like heaven.” She said and Luca have a hearty laugh at her admittance.

“I knew you’d love it. You’ve never tasted anything like it, si?” He asked and she nodded enthusiastically.

She truly had never tasted anything like it and doubted ice cream will ever taste the same to her after this. She stared at the cup as he took a spoonful of his and shoved it in mouth. He’d ordered a flavour with the name nice written on the placard in front of it. He rolled his tongue around the spoon and she stared at him with her mouth agape. She suddenly wished she was as lucky as that spoon, to have his tongue all over her like that.

He stared at her and she swallowed and looked away, chastising herself at her train of thought. He raised his hand up to her cheek and she stared at him in surprise. His hand was warm against her face and she leaned further into his touch, he wiped something off the corner of her lips and brought his finger to his own lip, taking it into his mouth.

“There was a bit of it on your cheek,” he pointed at the cup in her hand. He touched her cheek again and rubbed at the spot he just left, cleaning the residue that remained.

She heard the click of a camera and her head snapped to the side so fast she almost had whiplash. There, seated a few tables from them was a paparazzi with a camera in hand, clicking away at their pictures. Her face paled, Luca was a married man out on what looked like a date with her and they’d just given the man a perfect shot to spin different stories around.

Luca seemed to follow the same train of thought as hers, he cursed in expletives she didn’t understand a word of and shot out of his seat. He laid a calming hand on her shoulder, helped her out of her seat and handed her her walking stick. She couldn’t walk out of there fast enough and made sure her gaze was firmly stuck to the ground as they walked out of the shop.