Page 40 of A Place in the Sun
Nonna Lucia joins in: ‘They asked for more of mine. And she’s a widow. I understand how she feels.’
‘We all understand how she feels,’ retorts Nonna Teresa.
‘But I have been widowed the longest!’ Nonna Lucia replies.
‘Mine was the most recent,’ Nonna Teresa bites back.
‘I brought lasagne,’ Nonna Rosa says to me. ‘I heard you had a problem in the house.’
‘I have. The ceiling has collapsed.’
‘I thought so.’ She looks smug. ‘I saw Giuseppe. Very unsettling. You’ll need my lasagne to recover.’
She holds it out to me. I look at the two in my hands. Giovanni takes one, and I smile gratefully, accepting the third.
‘I can show you how I made mine if you like,’ says Nonna Lucia.
‘She won’t show you – she won’t tell you it all!’ argues Nonna Teresa.
‘And you won’t, because you tried to steal my recipe!’ says Nonna Rosa.
‘I did not try to steal your recipe! It was our mother’s,’ says Nonna Teresa. ‘I learnt to make my own, my husband’s mother’s way.’
‘Still not as good as mine.’
‘Mine is better. It comes from outside the family,’ says Nonna Teresa.
‘Mine will always be better than yours. It is our family recipe. I don’t need to be told by someone else how to make Tuscan lasagne. I’ve been here all my life. Not an incomer.’ She looks at Nonna Lucia.
‘I came because I married your brother. He loved my lasagne.’
‘You took him from the family, more like!’
‘And my husband loved mine.’
‘My husband loved mine, because it tasted just like his mother’s,’ says Nonna Teresa.
‘He only married you for the lasagne. I turned him down first.’
‘Wait!’ I try to cut in, to no avail, and wish I could hold up a hand as they carry on arguing. ‘Stop!’ I shout. They are silent. I can hardly believe my ears. ‘This can’t be true. You’ve all fallen out over lasagne recipes?’
No one says anything and I hear Giovanni draw a sharp breath. Clearly this was a much bigger problem than my fallen ceiling.
Finally, Nonna Rosa speaks: ‘It is never,’ she says slowly, ‘just about the lasagne recipe.’ She starts back down the hill.
The other two wait their turn, Nonna Lucia first, then Nonna Teresa. ‘Families. Take it from me, you’re better off out of them,’ she says, as she follows the others, hips swaying as they make their way home.
I stand there, holding the two very heavy lasagne dishes. Giovanni leans against the broom, holding the other. I let out a long breath. Luca and Aimee are staring at me. ‘Well, I think we can agree that that could have gone better,’ I say.
Giovanni laughs. ‘They like you. They’re pleased you’re here. They want to look after you. It was the same when I first arrived.’
‘Really?’
‘It’s their way of welcoming you and telling you they’re here to help.’
‘Well, what are we going to do with all these lasagnes?’
Giovanni smiles. ‘Share them, of course.’
