Giancarlo’s growing achievements at the piano were a source of pride and joy to his mother, but one of annoyance to Giorgio, who naturally resented the fawning attention she showered on his little brother. Sometimes, when Giancarlo was playing, Giorgio would purposely go crashing about the house, making a ruckus to distract his brother from his lessons. Inevitably, Paola would have no choice but to give her rambunctious son a stern talking-to and banish him to the outdoors, reinforcing in his mind the firmly held conviction that Giancarlo was his mother’s favorite.

The situation of course was reversed with their father, Roberto Rosa. Though he had fallen in love with and married a music teacher, Roberto himself had never been musically inclined.While he was truly impressed by Giancarlo’s skill at the piano and enjoyed hearing him play, his son’s gift was one he could not fully comprehend, and he admired it from a certain distance. This puzzled and troubled the quiet young boy, for he longed to earn his father’s approbation as well as his mother’s.Though his father had never said as much, it had always been obvious to Giancarlo that he was more at ease around his garrulous older son, who liked to talk about sports and was good at soccer. Anyone with eyes could see that the two were cut from the same cloth. Roberto worked for the telephone company, maintaining the telephone lines throughout the valley. Sometimes, while Giancarlo would sit at home playing the piano, he would invite Giorgio to accompany him on a job, and the two would ride off together for the day in his truck. Giancarlo had no interest in trucks or tools or telephone lines. Just the same, he resented the time his father and brother spent together without him, and it reinforced in his mind that Giorgio was his father’s favorite.

The truth of the matter was that Paola and Roberto were typical parents. They loved both their sons with all their hearts and would have gladly given their lives for either. But as often happens in families, the natural bonds of affection the two adults formed with each of their children were simply different from one another. Though this was difficult for the two siblings to understand, and even harder to accept, it had the effect of creating a sense of balance between them.