Hidden Debts
A memoir of Italy
by
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Chapter 3
If that man had worked in the glass industry in Venice during the 16th or 17th centuries and had done to the 'Most Serene Republic' what he did to the city of Arezzo, the Council of Ten would have ordered him to be tracked down to the ends of the earth by the Venetian secret police who, when they inevitably found him, would have gouged out his eyes with their daggers for running off with trade secrets like that.
But that Aretine potter was centuries ahead of the game and he got away with it!
Chapter 6
I'm the guide now. I turn her over onto her itinerary and holding her left hand I lead it willingly down to the base of her spine to the little niche in its lowest bone. This is a spot I discovered exploring her gangly geology a few nights ago and I point it out to her, leading one of her fingers into its concavity. It's a rare, possibly unique example, of an indented coccyx I whisper into her ear and it should be declared a World Heritage Site. She gives a muffled laugh into the pillow when she realises what a treasure she's been sitting on for the last eighteen years, ten months and twentythree and three quarter nights.
Chapter 7.
"Whatever you do don't kill him otherwise we'll all be screwed. Let's go and have a coffee at the bar and get on with it."
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About the Book
Martin Attwood was a lecturer in Italian art and history in Tuscany and Umbria for several years.
In this memoir, the author not only writes about phenomena from the past but describes emotional, sometimes violent scenes set in the modern day back streets amid the low life in the ancient city of Perugia. A precocious and nubile American teenager, a former student of his, returns to Italy and that's when the serious trouble begins. It all ends up in a medieval courthouse.
About the Author
Martin Attwood was born in Britain, grew up in Kenya and lived for over thirty years in Italy. He is author of three exhibition catalogues, 'Artists' Bokworks' 1975, 'Artists' Books' 1976 and ' Il Carbonaio' 1981. In 1999 he had published a memoir 'Before the Palio' which was re-published in 2003 as 'Fishing with Amedeo and other histories'. He now lives in France and recently became a grandfather.