Life’s not always easy…

Adalberto Vanghese, the 6th Viscount of Lucca

Last week, the Baron of Montbrun received a call from his old friend and associate Adalberto Vanghese, the 6th Viscount of Lucca (whose family roots go back to the grandson of Boniface in the 9th century). 

Although Adalberto (or Tino, for his friends) has often been involved in unusual and intriguing situations during his eventful life, which he usually handled with great verve in his own typical way… he was now, at the age of 77, near desperation.

During this conversation, he revealed to the baron that he did barely sleep anymore and kept walking around during the long hours of the night wandering through the labyrinth of corridors and halls in his palazzo in Lombardy without being capable of resting his mind.

In 1991, kept secret from his family and the community of the Italian noblesse, he entered into a love affair with a young woman: his then secretary Isabella di Maggio.

In his position, being an energetic and ambitious 48-year-old aristocrat with an unwavering family capital at his disposal, he still had everything needed to start a happy family with enough children to populate a football team ...

Yes, that was that year the situation that arose, were it not for his philosophy of life: FREEDOM.

The idea of marriage and the bonding to a life with 1 steady wife and the care of an army of children squared him so much that he immediately terminated his promising and romantic escapade.

At no time did he consider to let his relationship getting serious and long, let alone ever, lasting.

If only he could have contemplated what life would bring him 20 years later… 

In 1992, Isabella bore a daughter… His daughter.

Even though they were alienated at the time, he took full responsibility for the care and education of Marguerita: their daughter.

In the years that followed he kept in touch with Isabella and Marguerita visited her father countless times.

However:

Despite the fact that she was admitted to the most prominent schools and through the contacts of her father was a seen guest at the various aristocratic meetings, she had inherited the somewhat rebellious streak from her mother.

Several times, in the years following her final exams of “la Scuola di Santo Stefano” in Rome, Tino had to rescue her from threatening and hopeless situations.

It turned out that Marguerita had a bad judgement regarding the young men she hung out with.

Now, after all these years, Isabella had called him and shared her recent concerns about their daughter.

Without asking them for permission (which, in their circles was conventional if not obligatory), or even warning them, Marguerita had engaged herself to Michele Franzese junior, the son of the most wanted mafioso in Calabria: Juliano Franzese !

They had run off and were now cuddling up in a villa that was owned by Michele’s father in the US-Virgin Islands.

She had told her mother that, regardless of any respect and consideration for the position of her parents, they were organizing a grand Italian style marriage celebration in Panama later this year in the presence of all the hoodlums that were connected to her boyfriends family.

Albi, as was his former girlfriend the mother of Marguerita, was shattered.

How could he, after that, show up in any of the nobility circles… or even represent the many tasks that came with his office as the Count of Lucca… not even to speak about what could happen when, in years to come, Marguerita would be inheriting the title together with the family possessions?

The Baron told him, regardless of the Corona Virus situation and the coherent interdiction to travel, to immediately come down and visit him in Montbrun Castle.

When Tino arrived there 2 days later, still weary and exhausted from the weeks of insomnia and worries… he was taken by surprise to find that his love of yesteryear was also there.

The baron had plotted to bring them together, after all this time, to rather reflect and face their anguish together than just worrying in solitude.

He had also managed to reach Marguerita through facebook and had her agree to see her parents in the week following, without her boyfriend, in Puoto Rico.

After a good night sleep and a long awaited reunion together… during a candlelight dinner in the main dining room, in the company of just the baron and his wife, they started remembering how they had felt together (and for each other) during the 20 years gone by.

After the desert when the Baron and his wife had tactfully retreated, they found each other again and finished the night in each other's arms.

As two lovebirds, even at his age, they are now (with an exception for the entry of the United States from Europe ... that the Baron had previously secured through his extensive relations in Washington) on their way to Puorto Rico… 

We will, without hesitation, keep you all informed of the developments in the hope that there will be a good outcome for Tino and his girlfriend... but also, above all, for Marguerita.