A slow morning. Valentino laid stretched out on the living room sofa. It is where he has spent most of his week, only moving between the kitchen and the bathroom, from the bathroom to their bedroom and vice versa. Everyday without MotoGP felt like this peculiar slow morning.

Only Alessia and Valentino roamed the Rossi household. Luca being at school, Mrs Rossi at work and for some reason, Uccio had decided it was a good day to take Esmeralda tricycle shopping, saying "She's gotta start somewhere."

"Vale, do I look fat?"

Stepping out of the bathroom, Alessia appeared in the doorway to the living room, a towel wrapped around her damped body. Her hands were held above her head, tying her glistering hair into a knot. In an attempt to carve her cheeks she had sucked in all the air in her mouth, that way shaping her jaw.

Valentino looks on as she holds this bizarre pose.

"You look perfect." He grunts.

"You're not even looking." Disappointed, she returns to their bedroom.

Valentino continues flipping through channels in the hopes of finding something entertaining beyond what Alessia had just perpetrated.

A few moments later, Alessia reappears wearing a sundress she hoped would get Valentino to look her way.

"We should do something today, just the two of us." She joins him on the couch.

Valentino mumbles. "There aren't any movies on at this hour."

He failed to notice the dress.

In one last desperate attempt, Alessia falls into his lap. The flowery dress cut just above her kneecaps, revealing a pair of newly shaved legs.

"How about we do something outside of these four walls?"

As expected, Valentino's eyes wandres to her exposed skin and upwards, finally taking notice of the woman in his arms.

"A better idea..." He said, devious. "How about we do something within these four walls." His hands wandered to her waist, the dress having shaped it one size down to what it actually was.

"Vale." Alessia fights back against the grappling arms. "We finally get some time alone together and all you want to do is have sex?"

Valentino looks up from the creases of her neck, where he had begun planting wet kisses.

"What else is there to do?"

Alessia lets her body fall back on the sofa, her eyes wandering to the sealing above. A hopeless sigh leaves her mouth. "Nothing, I guess."

"Oh come on, don't be mad, what do you want me to do? I'll do anything."

"I dunno Vale, take me between these four walls, like you said you would." She is sarcastic, nevertheless, her legs are spread. Acting against his lustful desires, Valentino rises from the couch, pulling Alessia up with him. "How about we go for a ride, how does that sound?"

"A ride, where?"

"I'll make it a surprise?" He winks.

Valentino closes the door behind them. Walking towards the truck parked down the drive way gave him about 30 seconds to decide where they're actually going.

*****

After thirty minutes on the busy freeway, Alessia has to ask. "Vale, where are we going?"

"Thought we decided I'll make it a surprise?"

Alessia isn't sure she wants to be surprised anymore. In a few carlengths the exit to Mugello would appear, a place she was sure never returning to.

"Don't worry babe, you'll love it."

Valentino looks confident, one hand on the steering wheel, the other one stroking his girlfriend's thigh. He had finally come to appreciate her dress.

In an attempt to lighten the mood he goes to fiddle with the radio, sparking through a few channels before settling for some classic Italian tunes.

"Giornata!"

A string in his voice cracks when he sings.

Alessia laughs. "Vale stop it, you sound like a wounded cow."

"Oh yeah, let me hear you sing it then?"

Valentino passes her the microphone by balling up his fist, pointing it in her direction.

"Forget it." She said, shoving his arm away.

"Oh come on, let me hear it."

Alessia is reluctant knowing she doesn't sound better than a wounded cow herself. However, seeing the exit to Mugello pass them on the left hand side of the car, has her give it a shot.

In a joyeuse jolt which had her vocal chords on the edge of bursting, she belts out the words. "Giornata!"

A sing along.

"Giornata!" They shout, not letting the plea of two wounded cows stop them from singing along to every last word of the classic Italian song.

"Vale, I want to buy some new sunglasses."

The surprise was no longer. The city of Florence appeared in the valley below the freeway. Valenitno's original idea of a surprise, saying, "You always wanted me to take you shopping."

Alessia played along, knowing this was far from the truth. During the years they've shared together she had never made such a submissive statement. Nevertheless, it was a day to themselves, this is all that mattered.

The couple entered a neat little shop not far from Piazza del Duomo, a tourist attraction. The owner, a dark haired man with a mustache resembling a garden snail smeared onto his upper lip, no doubtibly believed that the shop's location would attract more customers. Everything about Florence seemed so magical to the virgin eye. A remote little corner shop selling a variety of sunglasses would somehow turn into Tuscan couture in a tourist eyes.

Having lived not too far from the city, Alessia was aware that these glasses were all well overpriced.

"Too expensive." She said, when Valentino asked her if she didn't like any of the glasses she had been putting on and taking off.

"Don't worry about it." He said, grabbing the last pair she had tried on, bringing it forwards to the counter where the dark haired man had been observing the couple upon their arrival into his shop.

"Are you sure you wouldn't prefer the pair you tried on the first time?" The owner looks over his glasses, knocking a finger on the engraved price tag.

Valentino turns to Alessia, "Are these the ones you wanted?"

She nods timidly, afraid to admit that she liked the cheaper pair better.

"We'll take these." Valentino ensures.

The owner gazes him up and down, perhaps recognizing him from somewhere.

"That will be 168 euro, Sir."

Walking down the streets of Florence Alessia soon began noticing how people would stop and stare. Children would point and couples would whisper.

"Valentino Rossi."

Not until she would let her hand slip out of his, did Valrninto notice his crowd. "Don't worry about them." He said, a timid smile hooking his lips. "They won't bother us."

Intertwining their hands again, he leads Alessia through a narrow path overlooking the river bank, now and then throwing a glance over his shoulders. Alessia understood that the paddock life wasn't just in the paddock anymore, but perhaps everywhere they went from now on.

A boy, not older than Alessia's little brother, had them come to a halt. The boy had run out of a shoemaker and onto the street just ahead of them. In his hand he held a ripped piece of paper.

"Can you sign this for my brother?"

Stepping aside, Alessia notices another pair of eyes gazing at them through the windows of the shoemaker shop. The boy's younger brother, with an even greater flame in his eyes, seeing his biggest idol pass the streets of his father's shoemaker shop. As the real life MotoGP rider scribbled down his autograph on a ripped piece of paper, the younger boy thought; No one in school will ever believe him. He just had to bring the piece of paper with him tomorrow.

"We can sit here If you like?"

Their day together seemed to come to an end on a bench overlooking the flowing river Arno, whitch smooth surface glistered with the afternoon sun.

Alessia leans against Valentino, he is quick to wrap his arms around her and for a moment all was well.

"Do you think Uccio is back with Esmeralda yet?" Alessia turns her head.

Valentino's gaze stays fixated on the river surface, his eyes glowing gold with its glistening waters. "I dunno. Let's just enjoy this." He shrugs.

Enjoy they did. At least until Valentino's phone rang somewhere in his pocket. Sophia was on the other end of it. The conversation would turn into a brief meeting, with Valentino wandering off, not to be bothered by the quacking ducks making their way up the riverbank. Alessia was left wondering If tomorrow's problems were already arriving today?