Later, at the Bar Gioia, Giacomo pours three stout goblets of sciacchetrà. The silver ring on the middle phalanx of his right index finger catches the light as he tilts the bottle. They raise their glasses, and swirling the richly amber, slightly viscous wine, they toast: ‘Salute!’ Geraint’s senses fill with curiosity and cocoa, apricot and Mediterranean herbs. Shôn is aroused by his lusty thoughts for Giaco.

‘Is a very good one, no?’ Giacomo enquires, his round, cheery face filled with pride. ‘Is the one my mother makes… much better than the one you buy in the tourist shop.’

‘It is very good,’ Geraint ventures, his gaze drawn and held in the questioning blue-green of Giacomo’s eyes.

‘You want to buy sciacchetrà you come see me before you go back England,’ Giaco says when he’s peered too long into Geraint’s confusion.

‘We will,’ Shôn says stressing the we, jealous that Giaco seems more interested in Geraint.

Giacomo returns to their end of the bar after serving a giggly teenage couple.

‘Can you tell us anything about the carving in the rock above Vernazza?’ Geraint asks.

‘We couldn’t find anything about it in the guide-book,’ Shôn says, competing for attention.

‘I don’t know,’ Giaco says with a shrug. ‘I never walked on this path.’

‘It has three fishboys, like the one on your ring,’ Shôn accuses.

Giacomo holds up his finger and looks, almost seriously, at the silver band.

‘Is a very cheap ring from a shop in Spezia,’ he says, smiling. ‘Is very fashionable to have a ring here,’ he adds, rubbing the middle phalanx with his thumb.

For a while, they watch Giaco’s every move as he serves more customers further along the bar. A larger than life, blonder than blonde girl sweeps into the Bar Gioia with smiles and ciaos for everyone. Shôn observes her carefully and deduces that she’s the local transvestite. She rests her ample breasts on the bar and reaches over to kiss Giaco, ruffling his sandy curls with her crimson nailed fingers. Her skirt rises as she stretches. Geraint and Shôn are distracted by her black lace panties, which are too skimpy to hide her fishy tail.

Just Beyond the Buddleia Bush

Just Beyond the Buddleia Bush