Lyrics and the dipthong?

[Jared]

I'm trying to enter some Italian text. "va-ga, e" I would like the "ga, e" to be
associated with the same dotted quarter note and have a tie marking on the
lyrics. Is this possible yet? 

\version "2.6.0"
     melody = \relative c'' {
        \clef treble
        \key c \major
        \time 4/4
     
        a4. a8 a4 a8 a | a4 c bes4. a8 | c2 c2 |}

text = \lyricmode {
        Io che d'al -- ti so -- spir va -- ((((((ga, e)))))) di pian -- ti,}
                                                  ?????


Please, help.

-jared