Chapter 6. Conflict under the sun.
Part of my novel The Road to Ancona.
Day nine. Back in Cattolica, life continued much as it had done before the trip to Rome. Some of the girls from England had started affairs with the local Italian boys. They were attracted to their Mediterranean charms. But their parents were not happy about this. Kate was seeing Renaldo. Bear in mind that she was 16 and he was 21. Her aunt and uncle were less than pleased with this situation.
‘We are going to have to do something about that Italian fellah that Kate is hanging around with,’ Kate’s uncle said to his wife over breakfast.
‘I’ve heard what those Italians are like. I don’t want her coming back with us pregnant. But you know what she’s going to be like if we say anything to her.’
‘Well, we can’t lock her in the room for the next week. And keeping up with her isn’t going to be easy. She takes off without telling us where she is going.’
‘She seems to be pally with Sandra. Now, Sandra is a nice girl. Very level-headed. Maybe if I had a word with her, she might keep an eye on her,’ the wife said.
‘Good idea. I’ve not seen Sandra fraternising with the locals.’
Later that morning, Kate’s aunt found Sandra sitting outside the Britannia, enjoying a glass of Pepsi.
‘Ah Sandra; I’m glad I’ve found you. I just wanted to have a word with you about Kate.’
Sandra looked at her, surprised that the middle-aged woman had come to talk to her for the first time since they arrived.
‘You’re Kate’s auntie?’, She asked.
‘Yes. I know you’re a friend of Kate. You see, the problem is, I noticed that she is seeing that Italian lad.’
‘You mean Renaldo?’
‘Oh is that his name? Well, I was wondering if you could keep an eye on them for me.’
‘In what way?’, Sandra asked, feeling somewhat surprised at the request.
‘Well, you know. They spend a lot of time together. I was talking to my husband about this earlier. We are a bit worried in case anything should happen. You know what I mean?’
‘What kind of thing?’, Sandra asked, feigning innocence.
‘Well, you know … romantically. I don’t want Kate to get into any kind of trouble while she is over here. You must know what these Italian youths are like and he’s a lot older than Kate.’
Sandra had been dating a boy called Giovanni, who was 20, but she decided not to mention that. She felt uncomfortable with the tone of the conversation. She asked, ‘Well, have you talked to Kate about this?’
‘Not really. The trouble is, if I say anything to her, then she’s just going to fly into a temper. She can be difficult over things like this. I am sure she would respond better if you talked to her.’
‘To be honest,’ Sandra replied, ‘I don’t really know Kate that well and I’m not sure I can just go up to her and start talking about Renaldo like that. I really don’t want to start any rows while I’m on holiday. If you’re worried about her …,’ Sandra took a sip of her drink and continued, ‘then perhaps you should talk to her. I’m not keen to start spying on people I don’t really know that well.’
The aunt realised she was not going to get what she wanted from this conversation. She decided to back out; it clearly was not going to get the result she was hoping for.
‘Well thank you anyway,’ she said, getting up to leave. ‘Sorry to have bothered you. I hoped you might be able to help, and with that, she went back into the hotel to find her husband.
Sandra continued with her drink until Jane arrived and sat down at her table.
‘You won’t believe what just happened,’ Sandra said. ‘Kate’s aunt has just asked me to spy on her.’
‘What! She asked you to spy on Kate! Why?’
‘She knows Kate has been seeing Renaldo and clearly she’s not happy about it. But why ask me? I don’t know Kate that well and anyway it’s not my problem.’
‘Well, quite right too Sandra. Fancy doing that! What a cheek! Anyway, it’s not like they are getting up to anything. Well, not as far as I know. But then, it’s none of my business what they do. Did you tell the old cow to bugger off?’
‘Not in so many words,’ Sandra giggled. ‘But I made it clear I wasn’t going to do what she wanted. She said she couldn’t talk to Kate herself because she would fly off the handle. I don’t blame her. I would too, if it was me.’
‘Too right. Stupid old cow. I bet she’s just jealous because her niece is getting a bit of action and she isn’t.’
‘Well I’m glad I don’t have my parents breathing down my neck this holiday and watching everything I’m doing. I bet Kate won’t go on holiday with them again. I have got a good mind to tell Kate what has happened.’
‘Umm. Not sure that’s a good idea, Sandra. Best not to upset her. She’s having fun, so why spoil it? Isn’t that just what old auntie wants you to do? If I were you I would say no more about it. Let’s all just get on with what we want to do and enjoy ourselves while we can. After all, we’ve only got a few days left now.’
Sandra agreed with Jane about this and said nothing about the conversation.
Richard thought he had something going with Jane. They spent a lot of time together; they liked each other. They had got to know each other very early on in the holiday. All would have been fine except for one thing. Chico. Jane was infatuated with him. Now, Chico was a pretty street-wise young man. For him, the arrival of large numbers of English girls in Cattolica was a welcome development. For him, they were a crop ready for harvest. He knew he was on to a good thing. Relationships would develop but they would leave at the end of the holiday and he was then free to move on to new conquests. That was good for him and for Maria, his steady girlfriend. Chico knew that one day he would marry Maria. Their parents had pretty much agreed on this. But, before that, Chico was intent on sampling a few of the English girls, while he was young enough and free enough to do so. Jane was careful to avoid letting Richard see her with Chico. In any case, he was the tour rep and she didn’t want him to get into any kind of trouble by dating one of his customers. She was talking to Kate while they were at Mario’s.
‘How are you getting on with Chico?’, Kate asked.
‘Fine. I really like him a lot. He’s such fun to be with when he’s off duty. And you know what those big brown eyes do to me.’
‘I’m sure. But I thought you had a thing going with Richard?’
‘Well, yes, we are good friends and yes, Richard is really nice. We might even see each other when we get home. So I am saving him up for then.’ The girls laughed. ‘But you know I’m not going to get another chance with a gorgeous Italian man. Certainly not when I get home. If I don’t get my chance now, I will have missed out.’
‘So … if you want to carry on with Richard when you get back you really don’t want him finding out about Chico.’
‘Bloody hell no. I have to make sure Richard is out of the way before I start on Chico. You know he has a flat up there?’, Jane pointed to the window over the café‘s servery. ‘Well, he drops me a note when no one is looking saying what time I can come up. There’s even a back way into it, so no one can see me going into the café’s flat.’
Kate looked surprised. She said, ‘Well you’ve got it made then!’
Life for the young holidaymakers fell into a pattern. For Nick and Dave, it was a case of drunken nights and days spent asleep in bed. Back in Manchester, they were hard-working lads. Spending two weeks on holiday was something new for them; it was not an experience their parents ever had. Like the Italian youths, they were chasing girls but somehow they never got anywhere. They were either already too much the worse for wear from the large quantities of lager they consumed or lacked the charm that the local youths could turn on. Dave managed to strike up a brief friendship with Kate; at first, things seemed to be going well. But then the arguments started. Both of them were people given to belligerence. At home, this would have been perfectly acceptable but on holiday it was simply not on, as far as Kate was concerned. In any case, they came from widely separated hometowns, so it was very unlikely they were going to keep anything going when they got back. Dave noticed that Jane was interested in Chico; he could tell what she was up to and decided it wasn’t going to be worth the effort to pursue things any further with her.
Nick really wasn’t bothered about girls that much; he might occasionally play the part for the sake of appearances but did not entertain any serious intentions with regard to the opposite sex. Even back in Manchester, he had not formed any kind of lasting relationship with the opposite sex. Dave was his best mate and he focussed his feelings on him. He felt more secure with Dave; he knew where he stood and didn’t have to bother with the ins and outs of going out, dating, taking people out for the evening, and having to dress up and look good. Dave took him as he was and for what he was and everything was settled and happy, as far as Nick was concerned.
Michael had never had a proper girlfriend back home in the Midlands. He filled his life with reading books, and writing notes and his friendship with Richard gave him all the personal and emotional fulfilment that he needed. As he lay in bed at the Britannia, he thought about Carol and wondered if he should become more intimate with her. After all, he thought to himself, Richard has obviously been up to something with Kate and Jane. Why is he able to do things with them, he asked himself, trying to work out in his mind why Richard could get his way with girls and not him. He knew that Richard had girlfriends at home and he assumed that they might have done things together, though this was not something that he would ever mention. Michael liked Carol a lot but she was different from the other girls. She clearly wasn’t up for experiences in the way they were. But did she have any expectations of him, Michael wondered. The more he thought about this the more he was convinced that sex was not something he should worry about, as far as Carol was concerned. They were getting along just fine and it would be wrong, he thought, to upset the apple cart by trying it on with her.
The two friends were enjoying a coffee together. Michael said, ‘Carol. Have you noticed how the adults are keeping an eye on the girls all the time?’
‘Yes. A lot of them are clearly worried about what some of the girls are getting up to. Especially those who have shacked up with the Italian boys. I heard that Kate’s uncle and aunt have been worried about her and Renaldo. They think that something is going on between them. Kate hasn’t said anything to me about it but it’s fairly plain if you see them together.’
‘You don’t think Kate would take Renaldo up to her room?’
‘No. She wouldn’t take a risk like that. But they have spent some time together on the beach, late at night. They went off, the other night, saying they were going for a walk together but I don’t think they got much further than one of the sun loungers at the end of the beach where it’s fairly dark.’
‘Oh! Really! So you think they might have had a bit of nooky on the sun beds?’
‘It’s not for me to say, Michael. But if they have done, I wouldn’t be surprised.’
Michael said, ‘I’m pretty sure that Richard and Jane have been up to something. I know what Richard is like. He would never say anything to me about what he gets up to at night. We are close but not that close. But then this is a holiday and it gives us all the opportunities we would not get at home.’
The role played by the adults, who were on holiday with the teenage members of the party, was something that fascinated Michael. He listened intently when he overheard arguments between adults and girls about what they were doing and who they were seeing. It appeared to him, that the sexuality of the girls was constantly being held back by the grown-ups, as he noted in his little book:
Girls seem to have a different set of attitudes to us boys. They are much clearer, in their minds, about what they want. Us boys are still somewhat innocent. Here in Cattolica, the young people are desperate for freedom and experience. At 16 we all want to be adults but in fact we are still children. We want to grow up but we haven’t begun to understand what adult life is all about.
The young members of the package holiday were squeezing every drop of life and fun they could from the two weeks in Italy. The adults however took things differently. Some had done this kind of thing before, so for them, it was just another trip to the continent. The newbies, however, were still trying to come to terms with it all.
One couple – Mavis and Betty – had never been on a foreign package holiday before. Although, in their late thirties, the two women behaved much like the youngsters in the group. Both were jolly characters who liked to laugh a lot. Both had the same thing to show: their ignorance. They had learnt nothing about the country they had chosen to holiday in. When they booked the holiday, the tour operator sent a large pack of information. They had not read the leaflets on Italy, its customs and local knowledge. They filed the information packs away in a drawer, thinking they would get around to reading them eventually. They never did.
‘We don’t need to know all that crap,’ Betty said as shoved the papers into her bureau drawer. ‘It’s going to be just the same as Blackpool.’
‘We didn’t get all this stuff when we went to Morecambe for a fortnight,’ Mavis commented.
They did manage to get their passports sorted out before they left. The man at the travel agents had gone to some lengths to explain to them how they should apply for them and that they were needed for the holiday. ‘They won’t let you in without them,’ he said to them in a stern voice. They always booked at the same travel agency and insisted on being served by the same clerk. He knew what they were like. Most of the adults in the party enjoyed the routine of getting up, having breakfast and dinner at set times and spending time browsing through the souvenir shops. They were not interested in any illicit affairs either with the locals or with each other. They drank in moderation and were very concerned about putting on good appearances; they did not want the local people to think they did not know how to behave in a foreign country. Their main aim was to relax, enjoy their time in Italy, and go back with good things to say about the place.
On the tenth day of their holiday, Richard and Michael decided to go on a one-day excursion to the tiny independent republic of San Marino, not far from Cattolica. The place was simply a huge rock set in the plains of the Po Valley. Three mediaeval castles perched on top of the outcrop’s peaks and from the topmost turrets of the highest of these, there was a breathtaking view right across to the coast. Richard had chosen to wear white trousers for this trip; he knew they would have to look presentable when they visited museums or ancient attractions. Michael wore his woolly grey trousers and felt uncomfortable in them until they got high enough to enjoy the freshness of a cooler climate. By this time Richard had made friends with a younger boy called Stewart, who followed him around like a puppy and was completely besotted with him. Stewart had arrived with his parents a few days before the San Marino trip; he was a few years younger than most of the others and there were no kids of his own age in the hotel. He had latched on to Richard because the teenager had played pool with him and they got on well together. Richard enjoyed the attention of the younger boy and continually played jokes on him. They played football on the beach and Richard would tell him stories about things he had done at home.
Richard was always the centre of attention and played up to the crowd, while Michael was the fall guy of the double act. Michael was often left alone when Richard went off with someone; in the absence of his friend, he felt awkward and unsure of himself. When Richard was away from him, entertaining Stewart, Michael preoccupied himself with the history and artefacts of the medieval world of San Marino and its castles. He wandered around the museums peering into cabinets and reading the display boards that described the life and times of the Middle Ages. Eventually, he found Richard and began to tell him of the things he had seen. Richard however was too busy talking to Stewart to take much notice of the lecture being given to him by Michael. The visit to San Marino was brief; it was not long before they were back on the coach. Richard sat next to Stewart so Michael found himself sitting alone. He took out his notebook and scribbled away in it, trying to remember the facts he had gathered in the museums. He felt resentful that his best friend was showing more interest in someone other than him. He disliked Richard’s new, younger friend, who he regarded as being silly and puerile.
The coach returned to Cattolica and deposited the tourists at the Britannia Hotel. After dinner, the teenagers made their way to a nightclub Chico had recommended to them; he gave many of them free tickets to get in. It was named after the foremast of a ship and had a vaguely nautical ambience. At the nightclub, they found a spacious dance area covered by a canopy of branches and leaves. The boys were joined by the two northern lads and all the girls. A live band was playing popular Italian dance tunes of the day. Occasionally, local lads would get up and sing with the band in their vibrant Italian tones. The songs were very sentimental and told of unrequited love and emotional upsets with girls. Michael was impressed by the place – its rows of colourful lamps, its leafy ambience, candle-lit tables, the music and the array of wine bottles, many with gold-wrapped necks. He and Richard consumed large amounts of Moscato Frizzante. Its sugary contents boosted their energy levels and the alcohol helped them to feel relaxed.
At one point, Richard tripped and fell against one of the tables, which collapsed and its bottles and glasses smashed on the stone floor. It was a tense moment. The teenagers waited for the manager to come and demand that they all leave. But it was a venue used to such occurrences; a couple of waiters appeared with brooms and simply cleared up the mess and reset the table. A large English man from the next table walked over and said, in his broad Birmingham accent, ‘Oi! You kids behave y’selves. We don’t want the ‘I-ties’ to think we are a load of ‘ooligans.’ The teenagers resumed their seats and continued to drink and chat merrily, making a big joke about the incident with the table. A round of pizza was ordered and they began to tuck into the oily mass of cheese and crusty bread. At one point Michael hurled a slice of pizza at Sandra; it landed on her smart blue dress and left a greasy stain on it. She was not pleased. He apologised profusely to her but she avoided his company for the rest of the evening.
While he was eating his pizza, Michael noticed small green flecks in it, which he took to be herbs. He did not know which herbs they were; at home, such things were rarely used. His mother would serve mint sauce from a jar when cooking lamb and she made stuffing from a packet of dried ingredients which contained sage and thyme. That was the nearest he had ever got to herbs. He decided that, when he got home, he would look for Italian herbs in the supermarket and bring some home for his mother to use in cooking.
Many acts of bad behaviour took place that night. At one point Richard was lying on the floor and Kate was pouring wine into his mouth. A photographer appeared and walked around the table taking snaps of the holidaymakers. He stopped at the table at which the teenagers were sitting and invited them to move together so he could get them all into his view-finder. Michael was sitting next to Carol and put his arm around her shoulders; she put on an expression of amused embarrassment. He paid the photographer and gave him his address at the hotel and a couple of days later the photo arrived. It was a good one and the pair giggled as they looked at it and showed it to the others.
Michael danced with the girls; not the formal moves of hands-on ballroom but the modern, disconnected motions of the disco. At the end of the evening, the band broke into a slow number; couples gasped each other for ‘the slow one’ and several mouths were entwined in what they called ‘tongues.’ Richard was hard at it with Kate but Michael had been dancing with Carol and neither of them was ready for anything too intimate; so they went back to their table and emptied the last of the bottles. By the time they left, Michael was well and truly plastered. All the way back he kept singing at the top of his voice, making up the lyrics in a form of faux Italian. On the way up to their rooms, he grabbed Sandra and kissed her. It was partly because he was attracted to her but mainly because he was sorry about the incident with the slice of pizza. She accepted the kiss in good humour and they went off to their rooms.
After the nightclub, Michael’s dreams were full of images of people dancing, singing and having fun. In his sleep, he would relive the things that had happened to him and what he and his friends had done. He saw himself singing with a band; his fine voice giving out beautiful melodies with songs of love and romance. He might have dreamt this but in reality, he was not that good a singer, however much he could feel the song and find its emotions appealing. In his sleep, Michael could be a lot of the things that he could not be in real life; he could do things in his dreams that his waking life denied him. As a writer, his mind had an aptitude for fiction, as though digesting the food of life and finding nutrients in its colourful experiences. It was what fed his imagination and gave zest to his creativity. Michael’s dreams surfaced in his mind during the hours of daylight and he found he was easily able to remember what had taken place in his brain whilst in bed. For him, nocturnal reality flowed into the river of his waking life, enriching and nurturing it. He was well aware that this happened and valued it as a process that gave him inspiration and fed his scribblings. Michael found that his dreams lifted the veil that hid the inner meaning of real events and shed light on his daily experiences in a way that rational thought could not.
The English girls were interested in only one thing – the Italian youths. The other males from their homeland were good for a laugh, they would say to each other. But the romantic aspirations of the girls from the Midlands were for the local Latin boys. They loved their dark, sun-tanned looks and were easily charmed by the flattering remarks they would come out with in their broken English accents. To the English girls, the Italian lads represented romantic aspirations that were absent back home; they behaved in a way that was suave and sophisticated, so the girls believed, although, in fact, they were just doing what all Italian youths did and behaved no differently with the foreigners than they did with their own female compatriots. They did however view the English females as being available in a way that their girlfriends and finances were not. Throttled back by the power of the Catholic church and curbed by the values of the family, Italian youths viewed foreign females in a way that was different to how they regarded their own countrywomen. English girls understood none of this; they knew only that they were anxious not to go home without something to talk about with their friends and some memories that they could cherish.
Richard was interested in Kate and often monkeyed around to impress her. He frequently toppled over backwards on his chair in an effort to amuse her and her entourage. Michael had found his soulmate in Carol. She was, for him, the saving grace of the holiday. His friendship with her made up for the arguments with Richard and the way that Richard continually took the mickey out of him. Dave and Nick spent most of their time in each other’s company. The girls thought them rather peculiar, with their awkward northern manners and strange Mancunian accents. Some of the girls suggested, to each other, that they were an item and Nick was not interested in the opposite sex. Michael spent a lot of time writing and exploring the town. He joined in with the frivolities of the teenage group activity when it suited him, but that was far from always. As the days wore on, he became increasingly affected by the heat, and the irritation of the sunshine on his fair skin and was invariably moody. Richard was spending less time with him and more time with Kate, Stewart and the other girls. Michael spent his time walking around Cattolica when Richard was occupied elsewhere and Carol was away with her parents. It was only in the evenings, when they were all together, that he came out of himself and enjoyed the conviviality of the circle of friends and their frivolous activities.