Mario

Mario had been born in Florence and , as a boy, had marvelled at the beautiful examples off the glass-blower’s art in the gift shops in the Via Tornabuoni. So much so that, when the time came for him to leave school, he persuaded his parents to apprentice him to a glass-blower in Murano.

Here he lived with a fisherman’s family, Giuseppe Abalone, his wife Maria and their daughter Carlotta.

Carlotta was the same age as Mario and was very beautiful, so beautiful in fact that she regularly sat for a local artist who produced, from his studio, portraits of her to sell to the tourists who came each day to the island on the ferry boats from Venice.

Mario so wanted to make a good impression on Carlotta that, in his spare time at the glass factory, he was making for her a beautiful engraved glass casket, in which she could keep her jewellery.

The day of its completion duly arrived and, as he walked triumphantly back from work to the Abalone’s home, he pictured the delight with which he felt sure Carlotta would receive his beautiful gift.

As he entered the house he heard the sound of excited voices and, in the living room found Carlotta displaying to her parents a beautiful red shawl as she explained that the artist had that day proposed marriage to her and given her the shawl as a token of his love for her