“It’s always like that,” I said to the doorman when he asked me if I was leaving. “It’s the best ones who leave.” He helped me put the cases in the old Alfa Romeo. He didn’t like to see me go because now he would have to buy his own copy of the Corriere dello Sport. I compensated him by giving him all of Arianna’s packages, which I had left in the room. It occurred to me I should phone the paper to say good-bye to Rosario, but I didn’t feel like having to explain myself. I decided not to say anything to anyone. I would write later and ask them to send me the money they owed me. For now, I had enough for the journey and to get by at first in whichever place I ended up. As to what that place would be, I hadn’t the slightest idea. I started to think about it as I drove at random around the city, saying good-bye to her. Basically, I didn’t hate her, but I had no regrets and that made me sad. I looked at the flights of steps, the churches, the open-air café tables, and none of it mattered.

I got onto the highway that orbited the city and drove along it, reading the names on the signs, but one place was as good as another, so I limited the choice to north or south. I chose south, only because that’s where the sun was, and I’d be able to drive alongside the sea, going the same way I’d gone when I went to fetch Arianna.

I drove until the signs with the word Rome on them became increasingly rare, then stopped for gas. The landscape was different. I had seen it burned by the sun and now it was green, gentle, swollen. A fabulous morning for traveling.

The closer I got to the sea, the milder the climate, and after a while I rolled down all the windows. When at last the sea appeared, it occurred to me that I’d like to go for a swim in the bay with the fortress.

After another hour, there it was, magnificent, even bigger and more desolate than I remembered. There must have been a coastal storm, because the beach glittered with wreckage and sun-blackened pieces of tree trunk. On the right, the Saracen fortress towered darkly and the stony mountains stood out against a harshly blue sky.