Gianluca Ginoble and I

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

When I returned from my early morning walk the next day, Gianluca was waiting for me, and he told me that it would be irresponsible for him to take me to Italy and not bring me to Rome.

So we left in the car and drove for a while, singing silly American pop songs as we went and joking around.

When we arrived, I was astounded by all the beauty surrounding me. We traveled all throughout the city, in both the car and on foot, admiring the breathtaking sights in every direction. Gianluca showed me the things that most people can only dream of ever seeing, the Coliseum, the Vatican, the Baths of Caracalla, the aqueducts, the Pantheon. Everything had the most tiny and intricate detailing, and looked as if it must have taken a million years to create.

“Well, you know what they say,” Gianluca said, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

I laughed and kissed him. We held hands and stuck close to one another, enjoying our time together. I took perhaps a thousand pictures to show my mom, and Gianluca asked me to send him some to post for the fans.

We got pizza for lunch, but the real deal; Italian pizza! It was like pizza times a thousand!

While we were there, Gianluca was greeted by many fans, and he introduced me to every single one, though I would have been content to stay in the background.

The fans snapped pictures of Gianluca and I when they were walking away, which seemed to amuse Gianluca.

When we eventually arrived back at the Ginoble house, I felt very gleeful, bouncing around and singing Il Volo songs, and generally acting very silly.

Gianluca laughed and chased me around the living room for a while, and eventually caught me and collapsed on the sofa with me in his arms. He kicked off his shoes and I reached to kiss him, then wiggled out of his grasp.

He put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes.

“Yes, Gianluca, you sleep off that pizza!” I teased, and he laughed and reminded me off all the physical activity he’d done that day. I kissed his cheek and turned to leave for a walk before it got too dark, but he pulled me back to him and held me for a few minutes, kissing me and hugging me.

When I returned, he was still asleep, and I went up to my room to work on the story I had started.

In the story, the two lovers became separated for a long time, and neither knew when they would see the other. But their connection was so strong that whenever they closed their eyes, they were together again, and they interacted simultaneously in a world of their own, that they lived in so much it eventually became a reality. The couple lived there in the place they had created, for all time, together…

It was a strange story, but I loved it, and the idea of a separate world for Gianluca and I brought me to tears. I stapled the stack of pages together and hid them in a desk drawer to return to later.

*********************

The next morning was my last in Abruzzo, and I beat the sunrise in my eagerness to go exploring one last time. I stayed out until past lunch, biking to the mountains, the beach, through forests and fields, to the marketplace, and eventually back to the Ginoble household, where Gianluca ran out to pick me up and hug me and kiss me over and over again.

He took me out to lunch, and then we returned home to sit on the porch together and talk. He asked that I tell him more stories about me, so I did my best to think of good ones to tell him, and then I asked for him to tell me stories, which he obediently did.