Carlo rode seconda classe on a train that left Roma Termini and headed south toward what Italians call the Mezzogiorno.
These regions below Rome and Naples are less industrialized, more rural and more sparsely populated. Its cities and villages are ancient, far less modern than those in the north. The Mezzogiorno"s largely agricultural economy and greater poverty have made southern Italians disparaged as uncultured by the more educated and moneyed classes of the north. This prejudice has persisted for hundreds of years, becoming even more marked after the unification of Italy in the 1860s, a political realignment that rested more power in the urban centers of the north.
Carlo was of southern Italian descent and while he admired Rome and Florence, he was still drawn to the regions where h
