34 Act I / Poggio al Tesoro in the Spotlight 35 Act I / Poggio al Tesoro in the Spotlight of wine shops, wine bars, small restaurants. There are many people seated at their tables, many look at the bottles, others walk about in the small streets of the village. The bottles carry prestigious names, those which everyone has in mind, dreams of tasting, wishes to take home as do their wooden shipping cases, with the same names branded in fire. Logical to think that by now sparks have begun to be set off and Marilisa and Walter are not yet completely aware of it. They turn back onto the boulevard towards the sea and, on the left, the bolgherese road begins, the road which doubles back towards Castagneto Carducci and cuts through the vineyards of Bolgheri, the loveliest of all from Sassicaia to Ornellaia and then onwards up to the crossroads with the road which rises towards Castagneto Carducci and, to the left, goes all the way to the Hotel Bambolo. They have made the complete tour without realizing it. They now turn back to observe more carefully. The automobile slows down to read the signs, the names, the vineyards, the houses, the gates. They are all there, all the important names, those praised by the wine magazines of the entire world, those in a prominent place in the auctions of Rome, London, New York, and Los Angeles. By now there is a certain breathlessness, emotion has begun to take over, faces have become slightly red, the palms of the hands are slightly sweaty, hearts are beating fast. The car passes through that green tunnel on the Bolgherese road, a tunnel made up of boughs and leaves of the cork oaks, of ilex, of durmast, another European oak. They return to Bolgheri to taste some wines. ‘”Walter, taste this, take a look at that, let’s try that one over there”. By now the sparks have truly been set off. There are no more doubts. The choice has been made, the decision taken. They will race back to Verona to talk things over with Franco. This is the most difficult moment, they must talk to their accountant, the banks, their attorney, and to the notary. Everyone has something to say, some counsel to offer: “be careful of that ….”; “check things out …”; “don’t trust …”; “keep in mind that ….”; “you can expect that ….”; “make sure that ….”; “they told me that ….”; “a friend heard that ….”. Doubts begin to appear, as do the problems, the difficulties, the perplexities, the uncertainties. On the right: The arch of holm-oaks on Via Bolgherese
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