your music has most certainly contributed to his recovery!’
whispers Luca with a firm handshake. ‘Our thanks to you. Do let
us know if we may be of any further service.’
Without awaiting an answer, Luca turns and disappears
back into the room, leaving Vivaldi alone in the hall.
That’s great, thinks Antonio, disappointed. What are those
words worth? And suddenly he knows that he has had enough of
Florence, enough of the misery and the hopelessness of having no
future to look forward to. Is he a failure too?
He is obviously getting nowhere like this. He needs to get
home. There’s no point in travelling around with no clear goal in
sight. He needs a plan of action, and the place for planning is
Venice. It doesn’t take long to pack up his few belongings, and the
same day finds him in a carriage on the road out of Florence.
Grand Prince Ferdinando of Tuscany stares out through the small
window without registering anything he sees. In a far corner of his
brain not yet affected by the syphilis there echo some last lingering
notes of Vivaldi’s violin. Then comes a sudden, piercing shaft of
pain in his leg and even these are vanquished.
The return journey does not go to plan. A change has come in the
weather, rain giving way to snow and making the badly maintained
road so slippery that the horses can proceed only at a slow walk
over the icy paving stones. Luckily this coachman is experienced
and cares about his beasts; all too often horses are driven to their
utmost, often resulting in bizarre accidents. One wrong step and a
broken leg may mean not only the end for a horse; passengers also
run a terrible risk of being crushed beneath an overturned carriage
or disappearing fatally into a wayside ditch. There are few travellers
on the road at this time of year, and certainly now that the weather
has taken a turn for the worse most people think twice about
leaving home. Antonio has only one travelling companion; with
him in the carriage is a well-dressed man of middle age who has
introduced himself as Andrea Farsetti from Vicenza and then
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