Unmask My Heart Blog Tour!

Title: Unmask My Heart

Author: Ariana Gorgi

Series: The Lions of Venice #1

Pages: N/A

Date Published: September 8th, 2014

Publisher: Amazon

Format: Kindle

Genre: Historical Fiction

Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours
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Synopsis:

When Rome’s loveliest rose and Venice’s fiercest lion team up to win back the love of their respective spouses-to-be, the Serene Republic may expect a hilarious romp – and perhaps the most torrid love story to have ever bedazzled its gilded canals…

Survived a pirate attack on the Isle of Lina, Venice’s sturdiest outpost, Roman Princess Isabella Pamphili and Venetian war hero Brando Loredan escape from the island and arrive in Venice. Isabella discovers her fiancé is a cheat, her bride dream a lie. Her future husband, the man she loves with all her heart is flirting in… Brando’s fiancée’s arms!

Shock. Disappointment. Anguish. Fear for her future. The rascal deserves a lesson he will not forget, because a princess of Rome doesn’t bow out so easily. Brando Loredan will not be that hard to convince for he is jealous, angry and vindictive enough to get some brilliant idea. So she joins forces with him to get back her fiancé and put together the little dream back on track. But while trying and insisting on regaining the dream, she discovers a new path of light and love. It is not a lie, like the first dream, but it may be even harder to win.

~Guest Post!~

Thank you very much for hosting me in your amazing blog. As an Italian, a Venice fan, and the author of a romance set in this amazing city, I would love to talk about masks.

Today I would like to tell you about a famous Venetian mask, the Moretta. It was used as erotic enticement in a city made for sin.

Only women could wear it and not just to hide their identity completely. There were the Bauta and the Volto for this. Women wore the Moretta to play the superb game of erotic attraction.

Venetian women were not at all prudish and made no serious attempt to conceal their bodies. The Venetian décolleté was famous all over Europe. It was square cut and very low so as to strongly emphasize the women’s cleavages, only teasingly veiled by a layer of light fabric.

Women (and not only courtesans) also used to apply carmine red make-up on their nipples to make them more attractive.

Venice was the city of sexual freedom. To make themselves really captivating and mysterious, women concealed what could reveal their feeelings, their eyes and their mouth. This was the purpose for the Moretta.

Small, oval shaped, and covered with black velvet (Moretta means “small and dark”), it didn’t conceal the entire face, only the eyes and the mouth.

So bare cleavage and black Moretta were an irresistible invitation to copulation. Moretta was also very fast to wear off. A woman could hold it to her face by gripping between her teeth a button on the inside. It goes without saying that the lady was totally mute and unexpressive, at least until she decided to respond to the man’s approaches.

I’m waiting for you on my Facebook author page .. so please visit to chat about Venice and Unmask My Heart,  and also for news, contests, giveaways and Italian recipes!

~Try an Excerpt!~

A mighty broadside from a ship ripped through the walls of the fortress. A flood of raging, bloodthirsty, scimitar-wielding men rushed in, bent on devouring the Republic of Venice’s sturdiest outpost. In the name of God, who were they?

Isabella cupped her burning cheeks, dragging the fingers down to her throat as the baroness found shelter behind her chair.

“What… what is going on?” Baroness Orsini asked, her voice trembling, her eyes two wide-open hazel orbs.

Isabella peeped out again. From the ramparts just below her window came shouts and orders. Only a small swarm of soldiers defended the outpost, and they ran back and forth like little ants. Ten men against hundreds, if not thousands enemies. She and the others were doomed to die.

Captain Loredan shouted out orders and incited his men to fight, as he loaded guns and positioned cannons between stony merlons towards the enemy ships. He lifted his gaze to her window and for a moment their eyes locked. His tanned features hardened, his eyes blazed with rage and worry.

“Run to the church, Signora!” he shouted to her.

He waved his sword as if it would offer them safe conduct. She saw the hard set of his face, the need for revenge in his grim expression. So needless to fight against all those enemies. Their every effort and sacrifice to save their lives were doomed to fail. Yet the captain was a warrior and a resolute man, and he would never surrender. Still, this was an island. Where, for Goodness’ sake, could she have hidden or run?

~Meet Ariana!~ 

Arianna Giorgi is a historical romance author and a journalist, a college graduate and an avid reader. She makes her home halfway between the Vatican City and the picturesque old quarter of Trastevere at the heart of the city of Rome in Italy, where Julius Caesar kept an apartment as a young man about town and from where a long list of artists gave the world some of its greatest masterpieces.

She has an intrinsic appreciation of beauty and everything eccentrically romantic, including a strong affiliation to the city of Venice which she visits at least twice a year.

Independent and curious, Arianna has travelled extensively around the globe, from America to Africa and back to Europe. Frankly, she never misses a chance to pack her bags and jump on a plane. Driven by a passion for European history and art, she wanders and investigates every hidden corner of the Old Continent, armed with a camera and a notebook, and looking for intriguing stories and settings for her books.

She loves history, astrology, gourmet cooking, and cats. She lives with her husband, her beautiful daughters and her red cat, surrounded by her own cultivated flowers and the magical grandeur of the Eternal City.

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Ariana will be awarding an original handmade Venetian mask from Venice to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and Venetian gadgets to two randomly drawn hosts.

a Rafflecopter giveaway