I’m reading more than ever. I’ve started on the left wall of the Carnegie Library and plan to read my way around the room.

It’s kind of amazing that people will travel because of a book. I admire that.

Finally I caught on that what you buy today is ready – picked or dug this morning at its peak. This also explained another puzzle; I never understood why Italian refrigerators are so minute until I realized that they don’t store food the way we do. The Sub-Zero giant I have at home begins to seem almost institutional compared to the toy fridge I now have here.

What has impressed me the most about the Italians whose tables we’ve sat at is that they are traditional cooks but also outrageously innovative. These people are wild improvisers.

Behind sunglasses we linger over espresso, talking about pizza as an art form, the geekiness of people’s travel clothes...

Instead of winding and skirting, Roman roads tend to go straight to the top. The chariots were light and the shortest distance between two points seemed to have governed their surveyors. I’ve read that some of their roadbeds go down twelve feet.

He’s delighted to read what the mayor of Naples says about driving there. Naples is the most chaotic city for drivers on earth. Ed loved it – he got to drive on the sidewalk while the pedestrians filled the street. “A green light is a green light, avanti, avanti,” the mayor explained. “A red light – just a suggestion.” And yellow? he was asked. “Yellow is for gaiety.

We feel prepared to face the reality of restoration. We walk into town for coffee and telephone Piero Rizzatti, the geometra. The translations “draftsman” or “surveyor” don’t quite explain what a geometra is, a professional without an equivalent in the United States – a liaison among owner, builders, and town planning officials. Ian has assured us that he is the best in the area, meaning also that he has the best connections and can get the permits quickly.

There is so much jasmine and nightshade in the garden that we all wake with lyrical headaches.

Look if you like but you will have to leap. Yes, I’ve always known that; I just didn’t know that I knew.