Dial a Stud: Dante's Story (36 page)

Melbourne to Bangkok, Bangkok to Rome, had us changing planes, and in the air over twenty hours. Yet when we landed, it was like it had never been, since Italy was ten hours behind Australia.

My watch was telling me it was almost nine o’clock at night but it was broad daylight when we stepped off the plane.

“What’s the time?” I asked; no one in particular.

“It’s eleven o’clock. Are you tired? It’s been a long flight I know, and I’m sorry to say, we still have a few hours travelling to do.

I groaned, and half collapsed against Dante. His arms came around me, as he chuckled at my response.

“Aw sugar, you need a coffee, to get your second wind.” Alex grinned, looking way too alert, for someone who had travelled, for just as long as I had.

“I’m with Alex, coffee, I need coffee. Don’t they make great coffee in Italy?” Mel’s voice sounded fatigued.

“Come on; let’s get out of the airport at least. Marco should be here to pick us up. We could have gone by train, but I figured no one would want that, when you’re all jet lagged.” Dante took my hand, and began to lead me from the airport, now we had our bags, after going through customs.

“How come you’re not feeling the effects of all the flying?” I asked him.

“I was here not that long ago cara, remember? I guess I just recover, faster, because I’ve done it recently.” He pulled me outside the terminal, and the icy breeze took me by surprise, making me pull my coat closer to myself.

“It’s cold.” I grumbled.

Dante’s arm came around me. “You are a miserable thing, aren’t you? Come on, there’s Marco.” He pointed, and I turned to see a tall, thin man, probably in his mid to late fifties. He wore a wide brimmed straw hat, jeans, a shirt, and work boots.

His face lit up when he saw Dante, and the two men hugged briefly. It was blatantly obvious, that Marco was fond of him. He must work at the vineyard?

Dante introduced each of us to Marco, who smiled, and nodded, before speaking in broken English.

They both spoke in rapid Italian to one another, before we all followed the older man, out to the carpark. He led us to a large, white four wheel drive, with Bartolone Vigneto, Siena, Tuscany down both sides of it.

Our luggage was placed in the back, of the seven seater vehicle and once, we were all in and ready, Marco drove out of the airport carpark, and headed for Dante’s vineyard.

I looked out the window for as long as I could, taking in the beauty of Rome, before we finally left the city behind, and travelled through some pretty, scenic country. 

I could feel my eyelids growing heavy, as I began to lose my struggle to stay awake. I was just so tired, and finally I gave in to my fatigue and drifting off to sleep, my head resting on Dante’s shoulder.

“Wake up cara, we’re here.” I could hear a familiar male voice calling, disturbing the dream I was having, of us all picking grapes, with Dante cracking a whip over us, yelling, to go faster.

“No, I can’t, no more. My fingers hurt.” I mumbled, and I heard male laughter.

“Grace, come on, we’ve arrived. Why do your fingers hurt?”

“You’re a slave driver, making us pick all those grapes, and hitting us when we slow down.” I grumbled.

Hands shook me a bit harder. “It’s a dream, it’s not real. We’ve arrived at my vineyard. You’re in Italy, remember?”

That was enough, to finally get me to open my eyes. I looked around in surprise, when I saw we were parked outside a huge, no; make that a massive, stone house. This couldn’t be it, surely?

There wasn’t just one huge stone building though, there were several of them. I turned away from them, to climb out of the car, with Dante’s hand, holding mine to help steady me, before slowly looking around, taking in the views.

It was stunning; the house, buildings, whatever
adings, whatever aws.
Dante'eral of them. ise when I saw we were parked outside a huge, no, mak
they all were, set on top of the hill, with a stone fence that ran around the entire perimeter of the yard. It was no standard, suburban yard, this was a gigantic yard. Looking around, it was beginning to look like, nothing, about this place was small.

Beyond the stone fence, I could see, as the land dropped away, down the side of the hill, row upon row of grape vines, dotted the landscape. They seemed to go on as far as the eye could see, but there was another area, with perfectly lined up trees which made me curious.

“What are those trees?” I asked, pointing towards them.

“Olives. We don’t just produce wine here, we produce olive oil.”

“Holy fucking hell D, this place is something else. No wonder you didn’t want to leave it. I don’t know that I could have walked away, and left the fucking country too.” Alex said, as his eyes took in the sheer beauty, and overwhelming magnitude, of the vineyard.

Mel had wandered off from the rest of us, and was staring around, with her mouth hanging open. “My god Dante, how can you leave this?”

“I hate to leave it, but my life is in Australia, the woman I love is there.”

“Does this woman know how lucky she is, that you’re giving up this, to be with her?” I asked, smirking at him, but inside, I wasn’t feeling so good. This was his home. I could see by the look in his eyes, that he loved it. He was at peace here.

“Bloody hell, this is amazing.” Mel’s excited yell, had us all turning in her direction. “Look at the size of this. You like everything big, don’t you Dante?” She grinned at him.

The rest of us walked over, to look at whatever it was that she was staring at, so wide eyed, and when I saw it, I joined her for a bit of gaping, in open mouthed wonder. It was a swimming pool, but not just any pool. This thing was huge, built in such a way, that one end ran almost to the edge of the hill, where the grape vines started. It had a clear end wall, holding the water back, so anyone, up that end of the pool, would have amazing views, from it.

“That’s quite a pool.” I said, still staring at it, seemingly hypnotised by the sparkle off the water in the winter sun.

“Not really the time of year for swimming though.” He pointed out. “Come everyone, I’ll show you inside the house. It’s divided into two sections. One is the private wing, and the rest of the house is for guests. There are also some guest cabins on the property, but I’ll show you more later on. For now, we should go inside and get warm.” Dante took my hand again, and led me towards the house, with Mel and Alex following us.

Chapter Twenty Four

Dante led us all up, a series of stone stairs, which rose to the front of the house. Stone was a major feature of the house, and yard, I could see. Either side were beautiful gardens, surrounded by more of the stonework, which formed borders around them all.

Dotted around were large concrete pots, made to look like Grecian urns, filled with many varieties of plants.

The front entrance was all undercover, but with four large archways that allowed a person to sit out the front of the house if they wished and take in the views.

From what I could see of the upper level, there were windows that matched the size and shape of the archways; we walked past, on our way to the front door.

There was a beautiful paved courtyard with a gazebo, and just about every surface of the house, surrounding buildings, and the gazebo had vines growing over them, which just added to the overall beauty of the home.

Before Dante could open the door, it swung open first, and a tiny grey haired woman stood there, a huge smile, lighting up her face, when she saw him. She was accompanied by two small children, a boy and a girl, about four or five years of age, I guessed. They were both dark haired, brown eyed, and with such solemn faces as they gazed up at us, until they saw Dante, and their expressions transformed.

He bent down to take the woman in his arms, nearly dwarfing her, with his sheer height and size. The rest of us stood around, bemused expressions on our faces, as he chatted to her in Italian.

It was funny to hear them talk. What was it about the Italian language; that made it seem like they were always yelling at one another?

The two children must have realised, it was their turn to get his attention, because they launched themselves at him, wrapping their thin little arms around his legs.

Laughing, he hauled them up into his arms, hugging them both, as they began to chatter excitedly to him in Italian. I watched him with them, how sweet he was, how much they obviously adored him, and I felt a flash of deep seated pain, as I shifted my gaze back and forth, between them. He was going to make a wonderful father one day.

After conversing with them for a few moments, he lowered them to the floor, where they tucked themselves up alongside of the woman again.

Finally he turned to where we all waited, introducing the children as Antonio and Isabella. They were the grand children, of the woman, whose name was Maria. When we all mumbled some kind of greeting, she in turn nodded, and smiled at us all. 

“Maria is married to Marco. They caretake the property, and oversee the other staff. Marco takes care of everything outside of the house, including the harvesting of the grapes, etc. Maria runs the house, and all that goes on in here. This place is also open to tourists, and has five cabins on the land, for those who wish to have a more self-contained place to stay, and one wing of the house is set up similar, to what you would know, as a Bed and Breakfast.”

We all smiled and said hello to Maria, who responded in broken English. Did any of the staff speak English, if they had tourists stay here?

“Come inside, I will show you around.” Dante waved us all in, and kissed Maria’s cheek, when she said something to him. She smiled at us again, and quietly slipped away, to do whatever it was, she was going to do, taking the children with her. 

Surprisingly, there was little on the ground floor level of the house. There were areas for people to sit and take in the views, a more industrial styled kitchen, with barbecue facilities too, numerous tables and chairs, benches with bar stools, and at one end, a huge grand piano.

It was pretty obvious looking around, that it was not part of the private quarters, but more for the tourists to perhaps prepare themselves a meal, if they so wished.

That was pretty well confirmed when we saw people wandering around, some others in groups talking, some sitting relaxing. Dante smiled at everyone, spoke a few words in passing to some.

It was like most people seemed to know who he was, or maybe it was just, that he had that kind of presence about him. He was not an easy man to ignore, and I noticed he was drawing the attention of more than one woman, as we passed through.

I started glaring at them, my hand curling around his arm, in an attempt to stake ownership on him. I wanted people to know, he was mine, and to get their eyes off him.

Dante gave me a questioning look. “What has given you such a fierce expression cara?”

“All those women are staring at you.” I hissed.

His hand wrapped around mine, where it lay on his arm. “I only have eyes for one woman in this room. My heart is hers, fully, completely, eternally. Let them look Grace. It makes no difference to me. I am yours as much as you are mine.” He raised my hand to his lips, kissing me softly.

“Bloody hell Gracie girl, he’s a keeper.” Mel piped up from behind us, and when I turned my head, she was grinning at us. “Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have a man say that to me.” I could hear the wistful tone in her voice, and I gave Alex a pointed look.

He wouldn’t look at me though, but I did have to wonder, what was going on with him, when I saw colour flood his cheeks. Even under his tan, he was blushing.

I knew he cared about Mel. I think he loved her, but I didn’t know for sure, plus he couldn’t have said anything to her, or she wouldn’t be wishing for a man, to be with her, the way Dante was with me. I could only hope my friend got her fairy tale ending.

“So how many bedrooms does the house have?” I asked, as we started climbing some stairs to the upper level.

“There are ten guest rooms, and in the private wing, there are eight bedrooms.”

I gaped at him in shock, and nearly stumbled on the stairs. “Did I hear that right, eight bedrooms? What the hell kind of house has eight bedrooms?”

“This house cara. As I said, one half of the house is guest accommodation.”

We rounded the top of the stairs, and I just stared when I saw the room before us. It was huge, with four large arched windows, through which, brilliant sunshine, was streaming in.

The room was filled with lounges, positioned at various points around the huge area. There were low coffee tables, padded benches, which sat before each window, and up the far end, several dining tables. Overall, it was a massive area.

Again, there were people getting around, talking, sitting, some of them eating. We didn’t stop though, in fact, Dante passed by them all, finally taking us up a few more stairs, before turning down a long hallway.

The hallway was amazing. It wasn’t like any hallway I’d ever seen before. It didn’t have walls that ran to the ceiling, on either side, instead it had what looked like half walls with handrails along the top. When I stopped to look over the edge, I could see the long length of the room we’d just left, below us.