Gino said that the English never produced any truly great painters because they didn’t have good light. Italy had the best light, he said, and that was why they had the greatest painters. I had asked Gino, “What about Holland and Rembrandt and all?” and Gino said, “Eet ees all tooa small! All too interior! Portraits yes, families seetting at table, yes, but Botticelli? Never! ‘Ow could Venus be born out of the gray Northa Sea een a rainstorm on a colda day?!” And he would turn back to his easel and say, “No, no, Italia ees where you musta paint! Painta Life! Germany for cars and beer, America for preetty girls and beesineess, but Italia ees where you paint!”

It was true. The light was different in Italy. It made things glow.

Janet said that was just my imagination and light was light wherever it was but she was wrong. When I told Gino what she had said, he said, “That’sa why ‘alf the world cannot understanda art, they don’ta know ‘ow to look! Your seester would make a good German!”

When I reached the beach I got out of the water as slowly as I could because this was my last swim of the year in the Mediterranean. Every step I took out of the water I felt more like crying. I went up to the Pensione Biea and asked Lucrezia if I could shower off since I was going to be riding trains for the rest of the day. Lucrezia acted like I was still a guest in the Pensione and handed me the key to one of the unoccupied rooms that had a shower. She even got a towel out of the hall cupboard for me. I asked her how her parents were and she started to cry because her mother had some kind of cancer and was at a clinic somewhere near Milano. Then Lucrezia said that we can only hope and pray about such things and she crossed herself. If I had been my mom I would have taken this as a sign from the Lord that Lucrezia’s heart was open to God’s Word and witnessed to her about how only Jesus could help her and how she must believe in Him and not the Pope and how she should lead her mother to the Lord before it was too late. But I was not Mom so Lucrezia never did hear the Good News from me because all I did was to cross myself too and say, “I hope she gets better.” Then I went to take my shower and the water was like it had always been, lukewarm, but at least the sea salt wouldn’t make me itch for the whole train trip.