Chapter 25 #2
In spite of walking past the duomo hundreds and hundreds of times over the past three years, I had never been inside.
I know it must sound crazy, but I had kept telling myself that, because I lived here now, I would find time to do it sooner or later.
In view of the events of this week, something told me I should remedy that straight away.
Leaving Oscar snoozing peacefully, I hurried out into the street and along to Piazza del Duomo where I climbed the four marble steps to the cathedral entrance, just managing to slip inside in front of a large group of German tourists.
I walked in through the door and stared.
The interior of the cathedral was enormous, but at first sight remarkably plain compared to the extravagant external facade.
The vaulted ceiling reaching up from the stone columns had a geometric simplicity that belied the complexity of the structure, and the floor at my feet was one huge kaleidoscope of intricately cut multicoloured pieces of marble.
I walked down towards the altar until I found myself standing directly beneath the monumental dome, hundreds of feet above me.
The underside of this was anything but plain.
It was covered in a dizzying display of amazing paintings, no doubt the work of some of the finest artists ever to have lived.
I knew I would have to come back here with Anna so she could give me the full guided tour but, for now, I just stood and soaked up the atmosphere for a few minutes.
In spite of the hundreds of other visitors around me, it felt remarkably peaceful in here, and it had a calming effect on me – right up until my eyes were drawn towards a pair of wooden confessionals set against the left-hand wall.
There were people standing near them, possibly waiting for a priest to hear their confessions, and it seemed incredible that a man had been murdered here only a matter of days earlier.
Somehow here, in the midst of this stunning beauty, it seemed unthinkable, but it had happened.
Two men, whose business had been death, had died, and now their killer would pay the price.
It’s fair to say that my mood at that moment was far from buoyant.
A few minutes later, a glance at my watch told me it was time to go, so I hurried back out again to collect Oscar before heading to the station.
The sleek, high-speed Freccia train rolled in and Oscar spotted Virginia among the crowd of passengers coming down the platform before I did.
He hadn’t seen her for over a year, but clearly she had made a big impression on him at the time and he hadn’t forgotten.
She crouched down to give him a hug before straightening up and kissing me.
The sight of her smiling face helped to cheer me and start to shake me out of my melancholy.
My dog and I agreed that it was good to see her again.
On the way back home, she told me how she had been in Rome on business for a couple of days but had managed to get away early and come up to see her mum and us.
When we got back home, I was feeling more cheerful and I found Anna and Tricia hard at work in the kitchen, and Shaun busy setting up a long trestle table outside under the pergola.
I was surprised to count at least fifteen chairs around the table, and he was still hunting around for more. I caught his eye and raised an eyebrow.
‘Is there something I should know?’
He grinned. ‘Hasn’t Anna told you? On the way back from Florence, she decided she was going to have a surprise party. She said you needed cheering up.’
I went back into the kitchen where Anna was hugging Virginia warmly. She looked across and gave me a broad smile. ‘I’ve been phoning around, and a surprising number of people say they’ll be able to come, even though it’s such short notice. You feel like a party, don’t you?’
If the truth be told, I wasn’t feeling very party-like, but I appreciated the gesture and managed to smile back at her. ‘Sounds good to me. Now, what can I do to help?’
‘Tricia and I’ll do the food, and now that Virginia’s here, she can help as well.
All I want you to do is to make sure we have enough to drink – wine, water, beer, whatever you like.
And see if you can dig out a few bottles of fizz.
I feel like celebrating. It’s not every day both our daughters are here at the same time.
’ She glanced at her watch. ‘It’s already gone four.
Why don’t you give Oscar his lunch, and then you and Shaun take him for a quick walk.
As long as you’re back by five, that’ll be fine. ’
At the sound of his two favourite words, ‘walk’ and ‘lunch,’ Oscar immediately gave up his attempts to convince Tricia that he was about to die of hunger and headed expectantly for his food bowl.
I filled it for him, and while he hoovered up his food in record time, I went upstairs to change into shorts and trainers, and then Shaun and I took him for a quick walk followed by a cooling swim in the stream.
A combination of the clean country air and the refreshing shade by the stream further helped to improve my mood.
When we got back to the house, I dug out half a dozen bottles of very good Chianti and put another half-dozen bottles of an excellent local Chardonnay in the fridge along with a couple of bottles of champagne, left over from my birthday.
I was just finishing doing this when Anna came out and studied my appearance critically.
‘The guests are all coming at six, and I want you to look presentable.’ She didn’t normally bully me like this, and I gave her an enquiring look.
‘I want you to take a shower, a good long shower, and you’d better shave again.
Then put on some clean clothes and make yourself look smart.
You look a bit hot and sweaty and weary at the moment. You need to look good for your guests.’
‘Who’s coming, King Charles?’
She grinned. ‘I’m sorry, but he had a prior engagement.
Basically, it’s going to be most of our friends, including Virgilio and Lina, Marco and Diana Dini – by the way, I’ve been talking to Lina and she says she has a feeling there might be romance brewing between Marco and Diana.
’ Seeing the surprise on my face, she grinned again.
‘Call yourself a detective? You can’t see what’s right under your nose.
Tonight, I’ve also invited Fausto and his wife from the farm, and a few more locals like Tommaso and Monica from the bar, a couple of my colleagues from the university, and one very special guest.’
‘I thought you said the king of England couldn’t come.’
‘Sorry about that, but do you remember back in the spring when you helped the mayor of Montevolpone after his dog went missing, and you and Oscar managed to find it trapped in an old shed? Well, he’s coming.’
‘The mayor or the dog?’
‘The mayor, of course. He owes us a favour.’
‘Why is coming here to a party doing us a favour?’
Her expression became more serious. ‘Because it’s an official visit as well as a social one.
I was thinking in the car on the way back from Fiesole, and it occurred to me that it’s not often we have both girls here at the same time.
It was your original suggestion, and you said you didn’t mind where or when we got married, so I thought to myself, why don’t we get the mayor to do it tonight? ’
‘Tonight? But isn’t that awfully short notice?’ I must have sounded really gormless, because Oscar wandered over and nudged me with his nose, a concerned expression on his face.
Anna grinned and gave me a knowing look. ‘Yes, but don’t forget we’re in Italy. If you know the right people, the rules can get bent. So are you up for it, or is there something else you’d like to do instead?’
My brain finally managed to process what she had just told me, and a wave of happiness washed over me. I found myself grinning inanely as I took her hands and pulled her towards me.
‘Believe me, carissima, there’s nothing I’d rather do instead.’ I glanced down. ‘And I’m sure my best man agrees.’
There was a movement at my feet, and I saw Oscar staring up at us, tail wagging, a big canine smile on his face. Clearly, he thought this a very good idea – and a party would almost certainly mean lots of lovely titbits to eat, not to mention that steak that Virgilio had promised him…