There followed an emotional discussion about the old couple, that led to Joe opening a bottle of his grandfather’s finest wine from the cellar and Valentina cooking some spaghetti with aubergine, chilli and courgette and all of us sitting down and sharing the food and drink with Ema and her friend, while Ema filled us in on what had become of the Ganzarias. Alberto had, sadly, died of old age five years previously, but Ignazia, now eighty-seven years old, was still alive. She was in good health, although frail and confined to the apartment where she lived with her niece and her husband in the fishing village of Aci Trezza on the other side of Catania.

Ema promised she’d remember Joe to her great-aunt and sometime later we received an invitation for us to go and visit Signora Ganzaria and we’d made our way to the village. The Ganzarias lived on the second floor of a modern block overlooking the sea.

The niece met us at the door and led us up the stairs to the apartment. We’d bought gifts: flowers from the villa gardens, a bottle of wine from the cellar, and photographs of Alberto and Ignazia outside their cottage that we’d had copied and framed. The niece was delighted with the gifts and said she’d show us into her aunt’s room. We could chat while she made coffee.

‘She’s rather deaf,’ the niece explained, ‘and she tires easily, but she still has all her marbles.’

We went into a narrow, pleasant room with sliding doors opening onto a small balcony that overlooked the bay. The first thing that struck me was that the balcony was full of potted plants; their blooms emitting colours and scents that together formed a miniature version of the gardens of the Villa della Madonna del Mare. We could hear the sea and the voices of the fishermen on their boats in the harbour and the sunlight came through the windows, lighting up the room.

Signora Ganzaria was sitting in an armchair. She was small, her face wrinkled and soft as a grape left too long on the vine, her hair white and thin, hidden by a black scarf and all her clothes were black too. She was hunched, but when she saw Joe, her eyes widened and then became glossy with tears and she straightened out a little.