As the chilled aromatic wine washed down the first mouthfuls of food, Issy mentally compared what was on her plate with the food that would normally be served at home as a starter. The ingredients smelt and tasted so very different. There was an earthiness and vibrancy that suggested the bread was freshly baked and the rest of the ingredients just picked from a fertile and sun-drenched terrain.
“Oh my God how is it possible to have such a burst of flavours from such a straightforward plate of food?” enthused Issy as they both hungrily wolfed it down.
Dan smiled widely as he wiped the plate clean with the last bit of his bruschetta. “Wait until you taste the risotto. That will blow your entire sensory system darling” Dan said as he spied Netta hurtling towards them again this time with hand-painted ceramic dishes filled with risotto full of a variety of shell fish.
The salty smell that rose out of the dishes suggested that everything apart from the rice had come straight out of the sea. Before tasting the food, Dan pointed out the different sea fruits to Issy as he prodded his risotto. “Ok in here we have at the very least a combination of shrimps, clams, mussels and squid. Go on I can’t wait for you to taste it.”
As Issy took the first mouthful, a myriad of textures and flavours hit her palette all at once. The rich fresh fish oils mingled with the subtle undertones of roasted garlic, a hint of chilli and the freshest flat parsley leaves.
Her taste buds went into overdrive as they grappled with the distinctive combinations. So different from the meat and two vegetables she’d been brought up on at her childhood home in Harrogate and the stuffy dinners at Balliol College Oxford.
“This is exquisite” said Issy as she took one small break in between eating to guzzle some more Greco del Tufo.
Dan nodded in agreement and fortified by the food and the wine he returned to the subject of the Godfather. “Now we’re eating let’s get back to the topic of the Mafia,” Dan said. “If I were an investigative journalist, which I‘d very much like to be when I finally grow up, I’d have a field day going around interviewing people and getting to the bottom of things. I mean who are these people and why do they choose to live that kind of a life?”
“You wouldn’t mind the danger that would put you in?” Issy said opening a mussel and sucking the flesh straight from a sandy brown shell.
Dan thought for a moment. “I probably would. I hadn’t really thought about the practical side of things like getting killed. I like the intrigue of it all just like in the movies. You know a classic crime film with a lot of gangster glamour.”
“Maybe a lot of it is made up” said Issy. I read somewhere that Puzo admitted he’d written the book mainly for money?”
“I’m not too sure about that,” Dan said. “But what I do think is that all of what you see in the film happens in real life, it’s just those who know the truth around these parts are clearly not going to say anything as the Omerta – or the code of silence as it is known – enables it to go on unfettered” replied Dan.
“So if no-one talks,” Issy replied. “There won’t be anyone you can get more information from?”
Dan thought about Issy’s question for a minute. “The only clue I’ve been able to get my investigative mitts round so far, was from one of my very first students, who had a strange sense of humour at the best of times and was clearly trying to divert me off the scent. He said you could tell if someone is linked to the Mafia if they have a diamond in one of their front teeth. But I suspect he was probably just joking as he joked about most things.”
“What?” said Issy in disbelief as she wiped a piece of rice from the corner of her mouth with a crisp white linen napkin.
“I mean it’s clearly a myth” continued Dan. “But there you have it. It’s all the specific information I’ve ever been able to get hold of.”
They both took a sip of wine before grinning at each other. “Dan that is preposterous,” laughed Issy hugely enjoying Dan’s lunch time chit-chat. “I mean how can you remain incognito with a big sparkling stone in the front of your mouth. I’m not going to know what to do, if I have to talk to a Neapolitan with a diamond in their front teeth.”
“If you ever meet one,” Dan laughed. “I’d run as fast as you can. Unfortunately, much as I would like to be able to tell you that I’ve met a diamond geezer. I haven’t. Not yet anyway.”
“What do the Mafia actually get up to?” asked Issy, “I mean what is their day job?”
“I’m not sure it’s exclusively a day job,” Dan replied. “In terms of what they do it seems to be that they exhort protection money from people as a kind of insurance policy to get rich and exercise even more control over people. Oh and apparently, they also run business cartels. You’ve probably noticed the litter all over the city. That’s because it’s the Mafia who are running the refuse collection schemes and if councils and individuals don’t pay up their protection money they simply don’t collect it.”
“God,” said Issy “I wondered why there was so much rubbish everywhere. That’s terrible.”
“Yes. I guess” said Dan “but intriguing none-the-less. You never know, we may yet find out more while we’re here.”
Issy leant back in her chair and changed the subject momentarily as she savoured the after effects of the food she had just eaten. “Dan, this restaurant and everything about it is amazing. I’m not sure I can eat another thing. How on earth did you find this place?
Dan looked pleased she liked it so much. “You need to get off the beaten track to find the nougats of gold like this” he said proudly. “It’s not really on the tourist trail,” he continued. “I literally just stumbled across it. Not through drink I hasten to add but because I was looking in the butchers window next door and spotted rustic tables of families eating in what looked, at first, like someone’s front room. When I saw Jackie O’s picture on the wall that was it, I was in here demanding a nice little table for one. As soon as I entered the restaurant it was if I belonged. Netta greeted me as if I’d known her in a previous life. It’s the kind of service and food you want to find in a restaurant and when you find it you just keep coming back and you remember it.”
“I wonder how many times Jackie O and the rest of the famous people hanging from the white washed walls came here?” Issy asked looking at the black and white photos of beautiful famous people immortalised in time in Ravello. “It’s totally camouflaged and doesn’t even resemble a restaurant from the outside. I would have just walked past it.”
Dan leant back in his seat discreetly using a tooth pick to remove bits of fish and rice from between his teeth. “I think this restaurant, from what I can gather, is famous and known to a small group of elite people who want to eat amazing food but go unrecognised whilst doing it, including the Kennedy’s. One of my students in Rome tipped me off about Ravello and told me I should come here and told me about the restaurant. I’ve learnt that if an Italian loves somewhere it is normally amazing. Once I’d spent an afternoon here I was totally sold on it.”
“Makes complete sense” Issy said impressed by his desire to search for new and exciting places.
“When I plan my trips, I go for the places that others don’t seem to go to as much. In fact after lunch, I’ll drive you through Positano but rather than stop there I think we should go to a little sheltered beach I know at a village nearby. We can swim and take the sun on the rocks hopefully undisturbed. Would you like that? It would be a perfect finish to a perfect day. I almost always end up on a beach on one of my special outings.”
“Yes I’d love to,” said Issy enthusiastically as she watched Netta from the corner of her eye bringing over yet more food. “Swimming has always been one of my favourite pastimes and some intense sun on my face and pasty white body is just what I need.”
“Ok, that’s settled then,” Dan said. “All we have to do now is somehow find enough room to eat this second course and then we can hit Priano. By the way you’ll notice how the fish meat just falls off the bone when you sta
rt to eat and that shows just fresh it is. I mean they must have just caught these two,” Dan said triumphantly as he put a piece of fish meat into his mouth.
“The vegetable has an interesting taste. It complements the fish but it is really bitter,” Issy said in a way which suggested she was not yet sure whether she liked it or not.
“It’s an acquired taste and it’s good for you,” Dan replied. “The Italians follow the seasons and what you eat in this type of restaurant is always fresh, because the food they serve is what nature makes available month-on-month. When you get into that kind of eating cycle everything tastes that much better because you know it’s straight from the ground or the field or the sea.”
“That is a wonderful way of looking at it. But however good this is I can’t eat another thing!” said Issy holding her stomach, in case it exploded. “I can honestly say I have never ever eaten like that in my entire life.”
“That sensation will pass in a moment you may even fancy staying for one of their famous desserts or a digestivo?” said Dan optimistically.
“What is a digestivo?” asked Issy laughing “it sounds like some kind of indigestion remedy.”
Dan smiled and explained. “It is. Along the coast, they make drinks to be taken after a meal one is called Limoncello which is a liquor made from lemons due to the abundance of lemon groves, and they also make one from herbs that comes from the mountains. That one is dark in colour. Just to warn you before you try either, that both are hugely high in alcohol content.”
“I definitely can’t eat a dessert, and, if I have anything else to drink I will literally fall asleep which could be dangerous if we’re driving round the coast this afternoon” said Issy. “Shall we just have an espresso and go to the beach you were talking about?”
“Ok good plan” Dan replied whilst making a sign to Netta that they wanted some coffee and the bill. “We can pick up an ice cream and some water before we hit the sunbathing.”
“Sounds good,” said Issy. “I just want to get out into the sea now and cool down.”
Swimming was something Issy did to relax and unwind. But there was always pathos when she swam. She’d never had the swim for her birthday that she’d been looking forward to with her father on the day he’d died.
So whenever she got into a swimming pool or into the sea she thought of Marigold washing up gloves and how things might have been had her father lived. The guilt of not catching him as he fell remained a recurring image and a source of deep guilt and sadness. And just for a moment in the bosom of Netta’s restaurant she thought she caught a glimpse of her father falling from the wall of photos onto the hard stone floor beneath them.
“Why now?” Issy thought as she fought with her memories. “Why here today?”
“Are you ok?” asked Dan concerned at the way her mood had so quickly altered.
“Yes. Yes sorry I’m fine. I was just thinking about the swimming and the sea and got carried away by thoughts from the past that’s all,” Issy said shaking her head to get rid of the black hole which – if she allowed it to appear in her mind – would slowly engulf her.
As they got up to leave the restaurant, Issy knew she couldn’t face telling Dan that bit of her past immediately. The affair maybe but not that, they hardly knew each other.
But even then in that restaurant Issy Mead knew Dan would eventually get to know everything about her past in time. Meeting him was just another of the many strange coincidences in her life that had started so many years ago and which helped her to somehow carry on despite everything.
Telling Dan about the day that changed her whole perspective on life was just a matter of time it was just a case of finding the right moment. Knowing that she had met someone she felt she could trust so instantaneously lightened the darkness that had started to descend and as they made their way out of the restaurant in search of some sea and sun the light shone as she looked up at him and caught his eye as he simply smiled.
Priano – 4pm local time August 30th 1986
Issy and Dan stretched themselves out over lichen covered rocks protruding from the crystal clear blue waters in the recesses of a small cove, their bodies moulded into the peaks and troughs of the rock formation.
Dan wore a tiny pair of light blue swimming trunks, and Issy an old dark blue lycra costume that she’d had since she was in her teens.
A perfectly round hot yellow sun beat down on both of them. The only relief was their proximity to water, and the gentle breeze which ebbed and flowed with the undulating waves that lapped every few seconds against the elevated jagged shoreline where they lay.
Issy dangled one of her feet in the water lazily and listened. Apart from the sound of the sea, the only other audible noise was the low and constant screech of crickets camouflaged from view in the undergrowth.
To get to this secluded cove they’d had to climb down 100 steep steps hewn out of the coastline. The effort, the heat and the heavy lunch together with the Avellino wine had made their arrival all the sweeter.
After a few minutes of allowing the sun to soothe them and lightly toast their sacrificial bodies Dan stirred from his slumber with a question.
“Now no-one’s listening you’ll HAVE to tell me all about this married man you were involved with at university,” Dan said in a way which sounded like he really wanted to know everything immediately.
Issy opened her eyes and smiled sleepily before replying. “Why do you want to know? Maybe it’s best if I never ever mention him again and pretend it didn’t happen. Coming here is making it start to feel like it never really happened in the first place.”
“Well it did,” Dan said softly. “And it sounds like he made you very unhappy otherwise you’d not be running away from everything.”
“Yes you’re right about that,” Issy said slowly. “He and everything that happened at the end of our relationship made me very unhappy. And without doubt I am running away. I can honestly say the affair, as that is what it was, possessed me for almost three years. Even though I found out Jeremy was married early on, it didn’t stop me getting involved. I was powerless to do anything about it. He had such an unbelievably strong hold over me. Almost like an addiction.”
“Were you the only other person he’d had an affair with or do you think there were others?” asked Dan.
Issy turned her head to look at him surprised by the question. “I really don’t know. I never thought about it. When I was with Jeremy it was like there was no-one else in the world that mattered apart from me and him. It felt like that from the moment our eyes first met. I’m not sure if you can ever repeat what we had. We had what the Ancient Greeks would have called Agape. But who knows who else there was in his life apart from his wife it never crossed my mind.”
“Forgive my ignorance,” Dan said. “But what in heaven’s name is Agape?”
Issy smiled at Dan’s theatrical way of asking questions, and the way he needed to ask so many of them. She sometimes forgot that others weren’t as obsessed as she’d been by the ancient Greeks and to a lesser extent the Ancient Romans.
“Agape,” Issy answered trying to find a succinct way of describing it. “Is when you find love with a soul connection. That’s where the word ‘soulmate’ comes from. Agape is when you love someone with all your heart and all your soul.”
“Ah,” said Dan. “I get it. But where does the word itself come from?”
“It’s Greek,” Issy replied. “The Greeks believed there were four types of love. “The two main ones that describe the love within relationships are Eros which is sexual love or lust and Agape which is when you connect with someone’s soul. It’s the purest form of love there is.”
“How beautiful,” said Dan. “You’ve just explained in one sentence why I’ve never been in a relationship that’s lasted more than a few months. As my relationships have ALL been about Eros, I’ve never experienced Agape. Or if I have, I’ve not been able to open myself up to it.”
“Oh but if you had experie
nced it you would have been aware of it. That’s my precise point. Agape is something you feel for someone that is undeniable. It’s when you know you can’t live without the other person. I had it with Jeremy it’s just that I couldn’t have him as he belonged to someone else.”
“But none of us in my view belong to anyone” Dan said emphatically sitting up and facing her to stress his point.
“That’s what I believed but not anymore. I truly felt that I did belong to him and that’s why my heart feels like it’s been pulled out of my body and my soul is dead,” replied Issy.
“Ok, so if the relationship was THAT passionate and felt so right and Jeremy loved you as much as you did him, which I’m sure he did, why exactly couldn’t he leave his wife? Not all affairs have to end,” said Dan beginning to raise his voice in disbelief.
Issy looked at Dan again, the blistering rays of sun blinding her as she tried to explain.
“All I know is what he told me. Unless he lied, the reason he gave me for not continuing our relationship was that despite being stuck in a loveless marriagehe could not and never would leave it. He was staunchly religious and came from a long-line of almost aristocratic Anglo-Catholic families.”
“So he was from Brideshead Revisited?” Dan said beginning to chuckle despite the tragedy.
Issy smiled briefly too. “Yes pretty much. That’s why when I saw you reading THE book at school I couldn’t believe the coincidence. If you want to imagine Jeremy then all you have to do is think of Charles Ryder. The angst, the inner loneliness, the way he looked, the way he spoke, the way he dressed and the way he held himself.”
“Dark, brooding and unfathomable, he sounds just like the sort of men I fall for. And I’m sorry for laughing just then,” Dan said sheepishly. “I didn’t mean it. But what I want to know is where is this man’s courage? Why stay in a joyless union when life is short and love runs so deep and pure?”
The Italian Affair Page 5
