I crossed the room quickly and came upon a display case like you would find in a jewellery store. Inside it was a selection of smaller horns –cornicelli– pieces in silver and gold to be worn around the neck or on a bracelet.
‘Look, how great is this? Look at these!’
He came up behind me and peered over my shoulder. ‘They’re very pretty.’
At that moment, a man emerged from somewhere out back. He had a jeweller’s loupe on a string around his neck and, seeing he had customers, wiped his hands off with a handkerchief he had stowed in his back pocket.
‘Buona sera.Come posso aiutarvi?’ Good evening, can I help you?
I thought quickly to the rusty Italian I had been struggling with for days. I loved trying new languages, even though it definitely wasn’t my strong suit.
‘Um … Mi piacciono i ciondoli, molto carini, quanto costano?’ Sure it was a broken translation of ‘I like charms, very pretty, how much?’ But the shopkeeper caught my drift. As well as the fact that Italian was not my native language.
‘Grazie, lei è Americana?’
I smiled, feeling as if I had just been rescued. I didn’t know if I could conduct an entire conversation in Italian.
‘Yes, we are,’ I giggled nervously.
‘No problem, I speak English,’ the man said smoothly. ‘I am Giovanni, welcome to my store.’ He raised his hands as if he was summoning the heavens to attention.
‘Thank you. You have such beautiful things.’
‘Ah, yes,’ Giovanni smiled. ‘This I know, all crafted by hand. I do all of this. And someday, when I can no longer, my son will. Do you have children?’ He pointed to us both.
‘No, not yet, but maybe someday, maybe lots of bambinos!’ I laughed. ‘We just got married, we are on our honeymoon.’
‘Ah, beautiful, congratulations to you. Maybe Florence will bless you with a baby while you are here.’
I blushed and tried to change the subject. A honeymoon baby wasn’t necessarily in the plans. A baby someday, just not right now. We had a lot to do together before baby made three.
My lovely husband sensed my discomfort and interjected to redirect the conversation. ‘Signore, this charm, we like it very much.’ He pointed to a tiny Italian horn made of silver within the display case. ‘How much is it?’
‘Ah, for you,venti, ah, twenty lira.’ He opened the display case and removed the tiny charm. ‘For your wife, yes?’
He nodded.
‘See, I have a bracelet.’ I held up my wrist and showed him.
‘Can you add this right now to her bracelet? So she can wear it today?’
Giovanni nodded in agreement and I removed the bracelet from my wrist. Taking the money, Giovanni retreated to what had to be his workroom. My husband wrapped his arms around my waist and placed a kiss on my neck.
‘I’d say that’ll be a pretty good souvenir of this trip,’ he whispered.
It was perfect. Exactly right to commemorate our time here together.
Minutes later, Giovanni returned with my bracelet. Behind him scampered a little boy who couldn’t be more than four or five years old.
‘Here you go now – enjoy,’ Giovanni said. ‘You see, this here is my son, Lupo. He is only little today, but this someday will all be his.’ He once again raised his hands to the store. ‘Lupo sayciao.’
‘Ciao,’ the small boy replied.
‘CiaoLupo,’ I said, leaning down to look at him. ‘You are a very lucky boy to have such a talented father.’
Giovanni threw up his hands. ‘Ah, he no speak any English, not yet. He learn though.Guisto?’ Right? The little boy nodded his head. ‘And now, you have fun in our city. And much luck in your newmatrimonio. May you be blessed. May you remember here always because of this.’
He pointed to the charm and I smiled.
