September 1703
VeniceBy the early months of summer, my father began talking to me more seriously about the Trapensi shipping business. He described my music studies as a 'dalliance' that 'a future son of business could ill afford.'
I was an obedient son and nodded assent to his decrees. It's true that I harbored a lingering desire to be recognized as a great violinist, but I was now twenty-five and no such accolades were coming my way. I returned to my violin in the velvet-lined case now and then, but less frequently in recent years and, at some point, abandoned it altogether.
My father smiled thankfully at me as he noticed the change in my demeanor. I would be his successor and, although he was not yet old, he wanted me to enter the business full time so that he could be assured that I
