An American in Venice

By Luca Domani

Tom has always been steady and predictable—a formula he’s sure will lead him to success in his career. When his method fails him and he loses his job, he throws caution to the wind for the first time in his life and books a European holiday. 

Maybe Tom shouldn’t be surprised that Cupid’s arrow finds him in one of the most romantic cities in the world: Venice, Italy. When he encounters Giovanni working in the family pizzeria, it’s lust at first sight. Their time together touring the city is so magical it feels like a dream. But Tom is shy while Giovanni is charming and flirtatious. Tom has a newfound freedom with his unemployment, while family burdens weigh heavily on Giovanni. Add culture differences and miscommunication into the mix, and their brief romance might fade as quickly as the beautiful dream it resembles.

World of Love: Stories of romance that span every corner of the globe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
• Release date: Jul 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781635333442

Book preview

An American in Venice

By Luca Domani

Tom has always been steady and predictable—a formula he’s sure will lead him to success in his career. When his method fails him and he loses his job, he throws caution to the wind for the first time in his life and books a European holiday.

Maybe Tom shouldn’t be surprised that Cupid’s arrow finds him in one of the most romantic cities in the world: Venice, Italy. When he encounters Giovanni working in the family pizzeria, it’s lust at first sight. Their time together touring the city is so magical it feels like a dream. But Tom is shy while Giovanni is charming and flirtatious. Tom has a newfound freedom with his unemployment, while family burdens weigh heavily on Giovanni. Add culture differences and miscommunication into the mix, and their brief romance might fade as quickly as the beautiful dream it resembles.

World of Love: Stories of romance that span every corner of the globe.

Table of Contents

Blurb

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

About the Author

By Luca Domani

Visit Dreamspinner Press

Copyright

Per Marco, l’amore della mia vita.

Chapter 1

THE WATER was up to his socks. Tom cursed his lack of preparation. At least the loafers were old and worn, so he didn’t care that they were ruined. But the only other shoes he had brought were a pair of slippers. On the other hand, he was grateful he had packed light and only carried a duffle bag on his shoulder. A rolling suitcase would have been a disaster in this situation.

Acqua alta, the clerk had explained apologetically before handing him the key.

There weren’t any rooms available on the upper floors, so Tom sloshed his way down the hallway, grimacing with each waterlogged step. He could hear a pump churning away somewhere down the hall. He wondered if there was water in the room, doubtful of the clerk’s assurances that it would be dry. When he opened the door, he almost tripped on the little ledge at the threshold. The rooms were a step higher than the hallway so that the water couldn’t seep into them during flood conditions. Still, it felt damp, and the watermarks on the wallpaper told of other acque alte that had overcome the few inches into the room. Tom looked around the small interior. It was cramped, furnished with a full-size bed and a mismatched bureau and nightstand. A dingy mirror hung on one wall. The windows were small and set high, looking out onto a neglected courtyard. At least it had its own bathroom, which was sized for efficiency. The shower stall consisted of a curtain around a drain. Still, it could have been worse. Venice was notoriously expensive, even in the off-season, and Tom had received what he paid for.

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, to come to Venice. It had been fifteen years since he had visited, and that was when he was still in high school and accompanied by his parents and older brother. Despite the teenage embarrassment of having to travel with his family, he had fond memories of the magical city. He had always wanted to return to visit on his own when he was older, but never had a chance until now. That first visit had been in summer, though, when the weather was hot and the streets were crowded with tourists and gondoliers plying their trade. Now he was here in November, and it was cold and wet and quiet. He didn’t mind the quiet, but he hadn’t anticipated the floodwater.

He hadn’t anticipated the circumstances that brought him to Venice either. He had been laid off after working at the same biotech start-up for the past five years. The company had failed to obtain FDA approval for their drug delivery system, and they started letting people go. Tom had naively thought he was immune, as one of the people who had been there since the conception of the company, and he hadn’t bothered with job hunting like the rest of his colleagues. Too late, he realized he had been overconfident. The stock options that had once seemed like such a great benefit of the job were now worthless. The only silver lining was the size of his severance pay—one month for every year of service. Tom had been paid handsomely as one of the senior engineers, so nearly half a year of salary would give him a comfortable buffer as he looked for new employment.

He could have been prudent and saved the money, which was what everyone expected him to do. Instead he did something very un-Tom-like and impulsive: He decided to fulfill that unrealized dream to return to Venice, as well as see other parts of Europe. Unlike some of his friends, he hadn’t seen much of it, having spent a good portion of his twenties as a poor graduate student. After finishing his dissertation, Tom had immediately gone to work for the start-up. Now in his thirties, he saw it as an opportunity to do his version of backpacking across Europe, only with better lodgings. Venice