t by the age of seventeen he was on his own having broken the
             tyrannical bonds of his father.
             During this time Niccolo became addicted to gambling and women. He
             often spent his nights in smoke-filled rooms with a bizarre assortment of new
             friends, only to emerge in the morning half drugged from alcohol and datura
             cigars. Sometimes he would go straight to the concert halls. His violins were
             pawned several times, and by the time he was eighteen he had no
             ...