While Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was sipping prosecco at his 55th birthday party, he was pulled aside by an aide and briefed by his populist deputy, Matteo Salvini, vowing to overthrow the government.
Conte smiled and returned for a wine with his crew in his Roman apartment. It was at the height of summer.
In the remainder of August, the soft-throat professor not only defeated his opponent shrewdly and retained his post, but became the closest president to US President Donald Trump, in a way that casts doubt on his reputation.
Later, it will appear that Italy was an important element in Trump's efforts to undermine the credibility of his opponents in Washington, and that Conte was involved in transgressing rules in seeking a strong ally.
As a result, the prime minister faces charges within his government and will appear next week before the Parliament's Intelligence Committee to answer inquiries in this regard, according to Bloomberg.
This session will also be attended by heads of state intelligence services.
But what led Conte to this predicament?
Just a week after the Romanian wine party, the US defense secretary arrived in Rome on a secret visit to meet with the head of intelligence agencies.
According to Corriere della Sera, the secret visit took place with Conte's permission.
Barr was looking for evidence of Russian intervention in the 2016 US presidential election, and was trying to track down a Maltese academic who told the Trump campaign that Russians had e-mails that could damage his presidential rival, Hillary Clinton.
The caller was working at a private university in Rome, but later disappeared mysteriously.
The university is Link Campes, which offers postgraduate degrees in intelligence, and Professor Joseph Mifsud, who has taught in Britain and other countries and has relations with some senior politicians.
The New York Times quoted university officials as saying the justice minister was very interested in finding out the truth about Mesfoud and looked forward to asking him for some information.
According to some officials, the Russians may have used Mesfod to find a foothold at Campus Link University alongside secret agents.
At the last G7 summit in France, Trump met without prior arrangement. If Salvini is the most courting of the US president in public, it is the Italian prime minister who has won the clear support of Trump.
Back to Rome
A month later, the US attorney general returned to Rome and was accompanied by Attorney General John Durham for a second meeting with Italian intelligence officials.
According to officials familiar with such measures, these visits did not respect official standards, and the US investigator had to apply through more than one side in Washington and Rome.
Italian lawmakers want to know: the truth of Conte's mandate to the heads of the intelligence services, and why a foreign official met with the heads of these agencies, and whether the secret services conducted investigations in the interest of the US Secretary of Justice, and Conte briefed any official of his government on this file?
On October 3, Conte's office said he saw no surprise in the conduct of intelligence chiefs, but his spokesman declined to give further details on the case.
Now the consequences of this dossier are unfolding after the prime minister's power has been shattered, with efforts to form a new parliamentary alliance to overthrow the government.