Topical Guide 471
Mark Dorset
Languages: Italian
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 3
“Would you tell me about the pappardelle Toscana?” Belinda asks.
“Pappardelle alla Toscana,” he says with no hint of reproof, “is a traditional dish. […] He speaks well, beautifully, in fact. […] “Perhaps you would like to know something about the tagliatelle con frutti di mare, signora?” he says as if he were a Venetian gigolo inviting her to enjoy the moonlight with him from a gondola on the Grand Canal.
“Mmm,” says Belinda, “it sounds — very interesting.” She raises a shoulder coyly, and the strap of her dress slips beguilingly off it. She catches it, just in time, it seems to Matthew, bats her lashes, and says, correcting him, “But it’s signorina, not signora.”
He says, “Scusi, signorina,” and from the way he says it, it might be Italian for “Later, when you finally manage to get free of these tedious people, why don’t you drop by my palazzo?” […]
They order, and Gwen orders the tagliatelle con frutti di mare, though she hasn’t the faintest idea what tagliatelle is.
“I don’t really know what I ordered,” she confesses when the waiter has gone. “What is tagliatelle, anyway?”
“I think that’s just the Italian word for linguine,” says Harold. Belinda hesitates for only a moment, to decide whether he’s making a joke, and when she concludes that he isn’t, she laughs heartily.
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