Last July Holly wrote her one and only blog post (Magic in Lecce) and she beautifully expressed the magic she felt when she found a place to practice her piano every afternoon in a gallery on one of the busy pedestrian streets in Lecce.
Across the street there was another art gallery with an exhibition of an Italian artist, Leonardo Guarino, from the small town of Avellino (it was the site of a devastating earthquake in 1980) not far from Naples. He was at the gallery every day with his paintings and became Holly’s biggest fan. Due to some lost emails, we were no longer in touch with Leonardo until I was riding my bike down that street a few weeks ago and he was there again with a new exhibit. I stopped and we talked (even though his English is about the same as my Italian, not good). He was glad to know that we had not forgotten him and I promised to bring Holly by to see him. Since then we have stopped by several times to chat and to bring him flowers on his birthday and last night we had him over for dinner.
He had offered several times to give Holly a painting, and last night when he showed up, he made good on his promise. He brought Holly one of his beautiful paintings. She then played the piano for him while I made a dinner of “spaghetti con vongole è cozze” (clams and mussels) thanks to a recipe from my friend Paola. Sometimes evenings just seem enchanted and last night was one of those occasions. Thank you to Leonardo, Holly and Paola for making my life and those around you better!
Wonderful story. Definitely sounds like an enchanted evening.