24I returned to Como resuming my work and my habits. The climate was not at all mild and the cold was often even pungent. The snow had made its appearance several times. Fortunately, however, there was occasionally some flashes of good weather and some sunshine.
The walk under the arcades of Via Plinio was always lively: someone speaking, someone laughing and on the face of everyone we read an infinite sense of thoughtlessness, of joy.
Claudia did not appear to me in this way one day when I met her with her friend Ginevra; the rosy colour, without makeup, I had always admired, had completely disappeared from her face. Our eyes met and, at the same time, we sketched a light and melancholy smile.
A few weeks later I saw her again; I was in company of some bank colleagues but she was alone
