‘Hello brother,’ Gino cried. ‘Are you having a good time? You don’t look it.’

‘We don’t all have to go crazy to enjoy ourselves,’ Rinaldo observed, unruffled, as they joined him at the table. ‘The procession should be starting about now.’

Even as he spoke trumpets sounded in the distance, and a cheer went up from the crowd as the first floats appeared. Alex watched eagerly.

Although it was a religious festival not all the floats had that theme. Some were so bawdy as to be almost obscene, some were cruel.

Alex stared as one went by depicting a huge figure with a goat’s head and flashing eyes. She knew enough symbolism to recognise that the goat represented not only the devil but also human sexuality at its most rampant and uncontrolled.

Yet in the saint’s parade he did not seem out of place. Everything here had a red-blooded gusto that thrilled her.

‘Some of those floats are amazing,’ she mused. ‘That one with the baker and the loaf of bread, is it really as rude as it looks?’

‘Oh, yes,’ Gino said with relish. ‘The ruder the better. That’s how we like it. That’s really why we celebrate St Romauld at all, because he’s a great excuse for rudeness.’

‘I’ve never heard of him,’ Alex said.

‘He’s not one of the better known saints,’ Rinaldo agreed, ‘but he has the advantage of having been thoroughly licentious before he became saintly. He lived about a thousand years ago, and to start with he did a lot of drinking and wenching. Then he reformed and became a monk, founding a monastery not far from here.’

‘But he was constantly plagued by temptation.’ Gino took up the tale. ‘Naturally he resisted it, but it means that his parade can be very colourful. For every one float depicting him as a saint there are about ten showing worldly indulgence. Which is about right,’ he added judiciously.

Looking at the floats Alex saw that this was true. The world and the devil were depicted with great imagination, again and again.

‘But isn’t it supposed to be a religious festival?’ she laughed.

‘Of course,’ Gino said. ‘People go to church and say sorry afterwards. But the pleasures of the flesh must come first, and you must really exert yourself to enjoy them, because otherwise the repentance wouldn’t be real, and that would be sacrilege.’

Alex poked him in the ribs. ‘That sounds a very convenient philosophy.’

‘Poppa taught it to me. He said it was ancient tradition, but I think he invented it.’

Rinaldo nodded. ‘That wouldn’t surprise me.’

Suddenly Alex burst out laughing. ‘What on earth is that meant to be?’ she asked, pointing at a float that had just come into view.

Seated on it was a very beautiful young woman, with flower-wreathed golden hair that streamed down over her throne. Behind that throne stood a man dressed in gorgeous armour, clearly a victorious warrior.

There were two other men, crouching at the woman’s feet. One of them clutched a piglet that squealed and made constant efforts to escape.

As the float rumbled by the piglet managed to free itself, dashed to the edge of the float and took a flying leap. Alex bounded forward just in time to catch it.

‘Come on,’ she laughed. ‘The road’s hard. You don’t want to land on it.’

She handed it back to the men on the float who cheered her, crying, ‘Grazie, Circe!’

‘What did he mean?’ she asked, returning to her seat.

‘He called you Circe,’ Rinaldo told her. ‘That woman on the float is meant to be Circe the witch-goddess. She lured men into her cave and turned them into swine.’

‘Hence the piglet?’ she guessed.

‘Yes, he must have been the best they could manage.’

‘She wasn’t just a witch,’ Gino objected. ‘She was a healer too. The legend says she was an expert in herbs and potions, and a woman of wisdom. The man standing behind her was the hero Odysseus, who overcame her with love.’

‘Did he?’ Rinaldo demanded. ‘He thought he had, but she was an enchantress who could blind men to everything else. He was on an important journey, but he forgot it and stayed with her for a year. So who overcame who?’

‘You don’t like her, do you?’ Alex challenged him, laughing. ‘Fancy a woman getting him to put her first! Shocking! Rinaldo, this is festival. Lighten up for pity’s sake.’

Suddenly there was a cry of, ‘Gino, hey Gino!’ and three scantily clad young women descended on them, laughing, kissing him, then carrying him off by main force.

He looked back at the other two, giving a shrug of comical, helpless dismay.

‘My brother is very popular,’ Rinaldo observed. ‘But he is more pursued than pursuing.’

‘You don’t have to excuse him to me,’ Alex said cheerfully. ‘I’m glad of the chance to sit quietly for a bit.’

‘Let me order you some wine.’

‘Not wine, thank you.’

‘Mineral water?’

‘What I’d really love most of all at this moment,’ she said wistfully, ‘is a nice cup of tea.’

Rinaldo made an imperious gesture to a passing waiter, spoke a few words of Tuscan and handed over a note. The waiter nodded and scurried away.

‘I don’t believe it,’ Alex said admiringly. ‘You haven’t managed to summon up tea in the middle of a wine-drenched festival?’

‘We’ll have to wait and see.’

In a few minutes the tea arrived and she sipped it in ecstasy.

‘Nothing ever tasted as good as this,’ she sighed. ‘Thank you.’

Then her eyes widened in horror.

‘Oh, goodness, look! Over there. Montelli. He’s been following me around.’

‘Shall I leave you free to talk to him?’

Rinaldo made to rise but Alex stopped him with a hand on his arm.

‘Don’t you dare. I rely on you to get rid of him for me.’

‘Thus confirming my poor reputation. Do you know that I’m commonly held to have taken you prisoner and kept you apart from the world?’

‘Well, that was the original idea, wasn’t it?’ she teased.

‘I really can’t remember,’ he said self-consciously.

Montelli reached them, beaming in a way that didn’t hide his anxiety. He would have taken Gino’s seat but Alex dumped her bag on it too quickly for him.

‘Signorina, what a pleasure! It’s so hard to reach you these days.’

‘Yes, I’m afraid I keep my phone turned off,’ she said. ‘You must blame this lovely country which is taking all my attention.’

‘Indeed, Italy is ideal for a vacation, but perhaps a fair-skinned northerner shouldn’t live here permanently.’

‘How kind of you to be concerned for my welfare!’ Alex said, with a dazzling smile. ‘Would it really trouble you if I decided to stay?’

At this hint that she might not sell at all, Montelli paled visibly.

‘Well of course we should all be delighted-good heavens, you’re drinking tea. Is this fellow too mean to buy you a proper glass of wine?’

‘Far too mean,’ Rinaldo said in a voice that suggested he might be enjoying himself.

‘How shocking. Signorina, let me take you somewhere and buy you champagne.’

His hand clutched her arm determinedly. The next moment his yell split the air and he was frantically dabbing hot tea from his trousers.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Alex exclaimed unconvincingly. ‘I can’t think how it happened.’

He gave her a look of wild accusation but was too wise to speak, and scuttled away.

‘Why didn’t you come to my rescue?’ she demanded of Rinaldo.

‘I never saw a woman less in need of rescue,’ he said, with a grin. ‘I could hardly have thrown tea over him.’

‘It was an accident.’

‘Of course. I’ve had a few such accidents myself.’

‘I’ll bet you have!’

Now the procession had finished and the streets were full of revellers. Somewhere in the distance they could see Gino, flowers in his hair, dancing with three partners at once.

‘What does he think he’s doing?’ Rinaldo demanded.

Alex chuckled. ‘I think he’s making sure that he won’t commit sacrilege the next time he goes to church.’

‘Shall I fetch him for you?’

‘What for? He’s a free agent.’

‘And you? Are you free? With a fiancé in England?’

‘Yes,’ she said hastily, struggling to remember David’s face. ‘I meant that-Gino-’

‘Gino and you spend a lot of time together.’

‘Only because you put him up to it,’ she retorted with spirit. ‘Leave him alone. Let him enjoy himself.’

A dancing couple nearly crashed into their table.

‘If you’ve finished your tea, perhaps we should move,’ Rinaldo said. ‘It isn’t very safe here.’

She followed him out of the piazza and down side streets until they reached the river, where a blessedly cool breeze was blowing. He took her arm to steer her to the water’s side, and they stood there for a moment enjoying the night air.

Looking down into the waters of the Arno, Alex wondered at the change in herself. Her light tan made her dark blue eyes seem larger. She could see that much in the ghostly figure who looked back at her from the dark water.

No, she thought. Not so much a ghost as an echo of another self that she might have been. Perhaps still might.

‘What are you thinking?’ Rinaldo asked suddenly.

‘About myself,’ she said, still looking down into the water. ‘Wondering who I am.’

‘I too have wondered that. You are not the person I thought at first.’

‘Nobody could be that woman,’ Alex said, looking at him with a faint smile. ‘She came out of a horror story.’

He nodded. ‘I never thanked you.’

‘For what?’

‘Looking after Brutus. Seeing things about him that I ought to have seen. I let him live too long. I should have done it weeks ago, but I blinded myself to the signs because I couldn’t bear to part with him.’

‘Was that why you asked him to forgive you?’

‘Yes,’ he said in a low voice.

‘He was your wife’s dog, wasn’t he?’