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for a while. 

Then he got tired of having to have a conversation in front of a black device and asked me to send him at least one photograph of me to put in front of the phone. Better not: he would have noticed that my eyes were too close together, my nose too long, my skin too olive and my mouth - when I wasn't smiling - had a bitter downturn.

"A real monster. But I'm a soldier and I'm ready to face this monster. But face to face, like a real soldier."

And so, despite not having solved the problem, I had decided to accept a meeting. From the Clock Tower I had turned under the Procuratie to take a look at the shops that so fascinated me for their gleam of glass and crystal. In front of Missaglia I remembered when Gianna Carnelutti, whose grandfather was the most famous lawyer in Italy, had come to Calle of the Remedy with a gold bracelet on his wrist. We rushed to admire it and Gianna, tired of raising her arm, took it off and put it in Toto's hand.

"Uh, but I want gold!" Toto had exclaimed, passing it to Lodovico. "Solid gold, here's the pirate treasure!" Lodovico exclaimed throwing it to Luigino, who immediately threw it to Carlo Maria.

While Gianna hopped trying to catch it, the bracelet kept flying from one person to another. Until it flew up and never fell again. There was a moment of silence, then: "Do you have it?" "Not me," "Me neither, I swear."

We had searched above and below the sofas and chests, pushed aside the carpets, the curtains, even the heavy tapestries. Then, disheartened and worried, we decided to make a collection to buy back the real gold bracelet from Gianna. But she burst out laughing: she had borrowed the bracelet from Missaglia who belonged to her family. He would have said that...