The new tyres for the Alfa Romeo arrived early one morning, chained to the back of a pick-up truck. Behind the truck, cycling as fast as he could, was Francesco. He dropped the bike just inside the gates and waved to me as he ran over towards the stables. The drive had been cleared now. There was no more need for scrambling through the overgrowth.

By the time I reached the stables, the Alfa Romeo had been jacked up and the wheel arches were being examined. Joe introduced me to Signor Mastrolembo, who ran a tyre and exhaust fitting business, and his mechanic, Antonio. The atmosphere in the stables was crackling with anticipation and it was noisy with laughter, the men shouting instructions to one another. I watched as Francesco came up with the solution to some technical problem.

‘Bravo!’ Signor Mastrolembo cried. ‘Bravo, Francesco!’ He patted Francesco’s back and the boy glowed with pride, grinning broadly, forgetting to be self-conscious about his missing tooth. I could not have been more proud; I only wished Daniel could have been there too; it was a situation he’d have loved.

While the men were occupied with the Alfa Romeo, I took Fiat Two to Eurospin, did the shopping and, on an impulse, decided to buy some flowers for Signora Romano. I’d make a gesture of apology and after that I wouldn’t think of her again.

There was a flower shop close to the farmacia. I left the car where it was and walked through the town until I arrived in the piazza. The posters on the memorial wall had been removed or pasted over with a new batch, different images but the same mixture of the very old and the very young, with a smattering of people killed in road accidents and by untimely illness in between. My Italian had improved sufficiently for me to make out some of the messages, but it was the faces of the dead that drew me in. It would be naïve to say that their eyes carried a foreshadowing of what was to come, but as I looked at them, I was certain I detected a kind of knowingness in their expressions, that even as the shutter clicked on the camera, those people were aware their image would end up on the memorial wall.