Like most Italian towns, Sunday mornings in Altamura have a different routine from the other days of the week. Dressed in their best clothes, Zia Filomena, Cristiano, Gia, and Carlo walked several streets to the broad stone steps of La Chiesa dello Spirito Santo, the Church of the Holy Spirit. They exchanged greetings as they made their way through the crowd entering the church. Carlo spotted Arabella but, to his disappointment, she avoided his gaze.
The interior of the church was cool and calm, with the stillness broken only by an organ"s melodic promenade leading churchgoers to their seats. The Filomena family – plus one – ducked into a pew four rows from the altar.
The Latin mass had been abandoned decades before in favor of services in Italian. But Carlo noticed that here, in Italy,
