The Other Love Story

(Day 18 of 30 – story crumbs from the world of Loveandpizza.it 🍕)

We’ve spent an awful lot of time talking about the two men in Carolina’s Napoli year. (Team Luca or Team Fabrizio, I know, I know. 😏)

But if you ask me, the great love story of Loveandpizza.it isn’t only a romance…

It’s Carolina and Lisa.

The person who keeps you standing

Every heroine needs someone who knew her before. Someone who’ll tell her the truth. Someone who turns up when it all goes sideways, with snacks in one hand and zero judgement in the other.

For Carolina, that’s Lisa. She’s not decoration, and she’s not a sidekick. Half of Carolina’s courage is really just Lisa, standing slightly behind her, refusing to let her shrink.

And let’s not forget the small matter of the entire plot: it’s Lisa who spots the job in Napoli, applies for the both of them without so much as a “do you mind,” and then talks Carolina onto the plane. No Lisa, no year in Napoli. No year in Napoli, no story. The whole book happens because one woman decided her friend needed an adventure and didn’t bother asking first. 😄

The love story we forget to celebrate

We write songs and novels and whole genres about falling in romantic love.

But the friendship that carries you through your twenties – that survives distance and heartbreak and a truly spectacular run of terrible decisions – that’s a love story too. Arguably the steadier one. Nobody hands you a bouquet for it. Nobody throws you a party or asks you to make a speech. But it’s the love that quietly holds the whole structure up.

The real one

Here’s the truth: Lisa isn’t made up.

She’s inspired by one of my sweetest friends – nameless here, because some people are just mine 😌 – not inherited from a sister, like Carolina’s Lisa, but with a similar background, the same knack for turning up exactly when you need her (even virtually, because we’ve always lived in different cities), and funny as hell. We’re still friends today, all these years later, though we catch up less than I’d like, as we’re now living in different continents! Some people you just keep.

She makes me smile simply by being in the room. Half the Lisa you’ve been reading about all month is really just her, being her.

So this book is, in part, a love letter to her – and to the others like her. If reading about Carolina and Lisa has made one particular face pop into your mind… hold on to that person. They’re rarer than they should be.

So here’s my question for you today, and I really want to know:

Has a friend ever talked you into something that changed your life?

The trip you’d never have booked. The job you’d never have applied for. The night out that turned into everything. The thing you said “absolutely not” to for three weeks and then did anyway – because she wouldn’t let it go.

Carolina’s entire story exists because Lisa didn’t take no for an answer. So tell me yours. 👇

Dani. x

P.S. Loveandpizza.it is coming back in English, Italian and Portuguese. Save your slice and you’ll be first to know the moment your edition’s ready. 🍕