Love & Gelato

For an American raised on ice cream, gelato is a revelation for Lina: “Take the deliciousness of a regular ice cream cone, times it by a million, then sprinkle it with crushed unicorn horns” (167). When she gets home, she goes to her bedroom (Howard is watching an old James Bond flick) and returns to her mother’s journal.

Her mother recounts her first visit (with X) to one of Florence’s public statues, The Rape of the Sabine Women. X had explained its backstory to her: How Roman soldiers kidnapped the women of a neighboring tribe called the Sabines, and the Sabine men raided Rome to bring back their kidnapped women only to discover, according to X, that the women did not want to leave Rome. “Rape,” he says, was a poor translation of the Italian word for “kidnapping.” In front of the statue, X impulsively tells Hadley that he loves her.

For her part, Hadley records spending most of her time waiting for X, only to be with him in brief snatches of time. She is at his beck and call. She realizes her six months in Italy are nearing their end. As she reads the journal, Lina blames Howard (whom she believes is X) for being so noncommittal to her mother.